explosion when charging li-ion cell, Universal Smart charger set on wrong voltage

[Norm]

This morning without thinking I put a 14500 on to charge (universal smart charger), I didn't check the switch setting, I was going about my business in the office when there was a very loud explosion, about as loud as a large fire cracker, I smelt carpet burning and my wife came into see if I was still alive. I had without thinking put the battery on to charge with the charger set to the two cell setting. Right now I'm about halfway through cleaning up the mess, the batteries internals were spread all over the room. The battery must have ruptured at the positive end as the wall in that direction is just covered with black crap, the battery casing took off in the negative facing direction leaving quite a dent in the wall..


Burnt carpet


The battery was sitting on another charger


Some of the black crap


Dent in the wall

[ynggrsshppr]

Thankfully nothing will have any irreversible damage, cept the carpet and maybe the charger. The battery looks kinda like a bullet cartridge and I could only imagine how much force it must've had going into that wall!

[Illum]

glad no one got hurt

watch what you breath in.....

mmm, i dont remember 14500s to be copper colored

[Norm]

Might be the lighting the battery is silver.
Norm

[DaFABRICATA]

DAMN......thats a nice dent! Would have been interesting to actually see though. Set up a video camera and finish what you have left! but do it in the garage.
Blowing stuff up is fun as long as it not something you like or need.
Glad to hear you're OK

[viorel00]

I am not sure, but isn't this a LITHIUM cell? be careful, I think Lithium is toxic. Search this forum for similar messages. Good luck!

[NewBie]

Norm,

I am extremely glad to hear you are okay, and there was no major damage to life/limb/or property.

Thank goodness.

Occasionally Li-Ion events can make Lithium CR123 problems folks have had look minor. Thanks a bunch for letting us know what actually caused the issue.

I hope nothing that is very important to you was damaged in this event.

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only human in this world...

[Norm]

NewBie nothing damaged except the carpet and that's being fixed on Monday, still cleaning up.
Norm

[fishx65]

Sounds like a mistake that's very easy to make. I know that, if handled properly, lithium ions work great but I think I'm gonna stick with Alks and NiMi batteries in my flashlights for now!! I think a lot of cell phones use Lithium ion cells and I thought I saw something on the news about a cell phone blowing up. Not very common but it happens. And I thought rifle season was bad!!!

[paulr]

Wow.... glad there were no injuries.

[65535]

Only a couple way lithium cells go wrong overly high discharge rate orverly high charge rates over charging and underdischargign and heavy physical damage, so get portected batteries ora smarter charger and smart light, and all but 1 problem goes away.

[coppertrail]

What kind of charger was it?

[bridgman]

At least one of the "lithium incident" threads talked about hydrofluoric acid in the residue, and HF acid can cause some *really* scary medical problems. I know it's too late to say "wear gloves during the cleanup" but (a) watch out for any unexplained pains or skin problems and (b) keep kids, pets etc. away from the spot until you're *really* sure that nothing remains.

It may be that HF acid is only a concern with primary lithium batteries, hope this is a false alarm,. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can jump in.

[Norm]

What kind of charger was it?

universal smart charger as sold on CPF
This was my mistake, no fault of the charger. The charger was set to charge two cells not one as I was doing.
Norm

[BPH]

Norm,
I'm glad you are ok, and thanks for sharing. I'm not sure how this happened.
If one can cause serious bodily harm from forgetting to flip a switch, I would not call that a "safe" charger, not by a long shot.

I can't see how a switch for 1 or 2 cells would make a difference? There should never be more than 4.25 Volts between the terminals? Unless the charger charges in series, and if so, it would not work with only one cell??
-BH

[SilverFox]

Hello BPH,

Welcome to CPF.

That charger charges to 4.2 volts when you select 1 cell, and 8.4 volts when you select 2 cells and are charging in series.

Norm was trying to charge 1 cell to 8.4 volts. As Norm found out, Li-Ion cells are unsafe under these conditions.

Tom

[LightBright]

I'm glad you and your property are OK !

So much for the "smart charger" part. If it really was a smart charger, it wouldn't be relying on YOU to flick a switch.

It seems "convinent" that Li-Ion manufacturers are making AA, cr123 and other sized batteries, but I can see how maybe it's not such a good thing.

[lrp]

Glad you weren't hurt! A mistake anyone could make....

[cy]

YIKES!!!

[David_Campen]

That charger charges to 4.2 volts when you select 1 cell, and 8.4 volts when you select 2 cells and are charging in series.

If the charger was configured for charging 2 cells in series then with only one cell shouldn't there then have been an open circuit with the single cell seeing zero volts?

[SilverFox]

Hello David,

There is no feed back loop that tells the charger how many cells it is hooked up to.

Tom

[Kevin Tan]

I'm glad you and your property are OK !

So much for the "smart charger" part. If it really was a smart charger, it wouldn't be relying on YOU to flick a switch.

It seems "convinent" that Li-Ion manufacturers are making AA, cr123 and other sized batteries, but I can see how maybe it's not such a good thing.

LB, I beg to differ here, I prefer to think that blame should fall where blame is.

In this case, the fault of the operator ( whom has stated that its a lesson learnt )
- for not checking the charger is charging the proper cell or cells,
- for buying an unprotected lion battery and ignoring the safety issues
- for not buying a protected lion which wud have avoided the problem.

So learnt as much as possible about whatever batts you play with and understand the limits of the beast. The beast bites back!!!!

[jusko]

Isn't it more safe if the charger charges cells in parellel ? No switch is needed.

[SilverFox]

Hello Jusko,

Yes.

However, it may take longer if your charger only has one charge rate.

Tom

[David_Campen]

Hello David,

There is no feed back loop that tells the charger how many cells it is hooked up to.

Tom

I am not assuming any feedback loop. If the charger is going to charge batteries in series and one of the batteries in the series is removed then you have an open circuit and none of the remaining batteries will see any voltage. This is just like Christmas Tree lights that are wired in series; if you remove any light in the string then none of the others will light.

[paulr]

Pairs of li ion cells should normally be charged in parallel, not series.

[VidPro]

why didnt the anode disconnect function? the one that is supposed to be on the battery when they are sold in the US.

why didnt the charger know there was that battery in it? heck a ni-cd charger knows when a alkaline battery is in it. 2x charging series li-ions at 8.4 alone isnt fully safe without seperate battery protection.

dont seem like the user is to blame to me, both of the above items should prevent that from happening, seems like a really flipping dumb charger, and a battery not to spec.
what kinda cheap junk are they selling us, when it takes a 2$ chip to keep this from happening.

i could see it from a triton, or some expencive battery charger accepting expert user parameters for charging, but it looks like a drop in charger for normal humans.

[matrixshaman]

Glad you are okay Norm. My Opinion : A charger should not be able to blow up a battery simply because of operator error - to err is human and things like chargers should not so readily be able to cause exploding batteries by a simple mistake of the switch setting. Just my opinion - a different design for these chargers COULD save serious injury. Just caught the above post while I was writing - AGREE - it's not a 'smart' charger - and a sensing circuit could prevent the problem...... charger

[65535]

Although cheaper I find series chargers to be less reasuring.

[eebowler]