Cheap chinese light batteries

lbalony

Got told today when complaining about my new lights battery, that it probably an old laptop battery. Bit of digging on the good old internet and it seems very true. Also they are made with no protection and should be charged in a lipo bag or advisable I should say.

Has any one had an exploding or one setting on fire?

Looking at an Open Light one now with 4 panasonic cells and 2 years warranty. Was thinking about Magic Shine battery but only got a 6 month warranty.

cooldad

I only buy batteries from known legit UK sellers. Try Torchy on Ebay.
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/big_f_d_d&ssP ... 1543.l2533

Giraffoto

Do a Google search with "18650 exploding" and see what comes up - I've seen a few stories on the Internet, but never experienced it myself. What you need to find are batteries with built-in protection circuitry, and a charger that knows when to stop - both cost more than the cheap ex-laptop batteries, but then you can just plug them in to charge while you go to work.

Without the protective circuitry the cells will charge to capacity and then get hotter and hotter - eventually they can burst, which can be messy and probably dangerous. If there are any cases where something has caught fire, it's probably the charger that does.

bartimaeus

Giraffoto wrote:

Without the protective circuitry the cells will charge to capacity and then get hotter and hotter - eventually they can burst, which can be messy and probably dangerous.

...if the charger fails.

I run mine with a cheap mechanical timer so it always switches off, and I do now have one of those LIPO bags 'just in case'. But in the last three years my cells have never got even remotely hot.

nicklouse

also be aware that the sending of LiPo batteries by post is not permitted.

so there is good chance they will be sent back.

Giraffoto

Lithium ion (Li-ion) and Lithium polymer (LiPo) are two different types of battery - the former is more common in bike lights, the latter is more temperamental and can't be sent by post in one or two countries (the UK allows them, though). Either can burst when they get overheated, and the insides of both types are flammable.

18650s and ex-laptop batteries are generally Li-ion. The difference in price between a pair of cheap 18650s and a pair of Xtar or Panasonic ones is about £15, which really isn't too much compared with the effort of cleaning bits of burned battery off the ceiling