Rapid Vent of Nuon AA aka Minimag Firecracker

I just breathed new life into my minimag 2AA a couple of weeks ago with a SMJ LED. I was using it as a dog walk light and was relatively happy with it until a couple of days ago when it started being irratic and flickering. Tonight I could barely get it to work so when I got inside I took the head off to look at it. I took the head off and looked at the led and then my wife asked me something, about 3 seconds later it felt like a bottle rocket went off in my hand. The led shot right out of the light and it smelled like fireworks just went off. I knew right away what happened but just couldn't believe it. I took the tailcap off and the batteries did not want to come out. I pounded them out and shot a few pictures before getting those batteries out of my house. The smell was horrible and filled the entire room so I just shot some quick pictures. Some are blurry but I was in a hurry. Three seconds earlier and that led would have shot right in my eye so I consider myself to be very lucky.

Energizer E2s from now on.

Wow
You got lucky avoiding the bang! Wonder what happened?

Wow! I'm glad your ok.

Note that for close-up pictures you should either use the macro feature, or if your digicam doesn't have it just get farther away. Close-in pictures such as the ones in your first post are useless - you can see much more detail if the subject is smaller but in focus.

Other than that, well, glad you didn't have the thing pointing at your head when it went off...

Are those Nuon AA cells Alkalines ?

Or are they Lithium cells ?



Is your SMJLED module the one by ArcMania (Michael Jordan) ?

That is, did you buy it from Sandwich Shoppe or LightHound ?


Can't quite tell for sure, cuz' yer' pics are kinda' blurry/outta' focus.


But be advised that Lithium cells (like Energizer L91's)
are NOT recommended with that module.


According to a knowledgeable poster in another forum,
their higher voltage will fry the module's sensitive components.


Just wanted to give you (and everyone else) that heads-up.


BTW, very glad to hear that you "dodged the bullet" this time.


Don't let there be a next time ! :twothumbs


Good Luck (and good health) to you, cfromc.

:wave:
_

Burgess said:

Are those Nuon AA cells Alkalines ?

Or are they Lithium cells ?



Is your SMJLED module the one by ArcMania (Michael Jordan) ?

That is, did you buy it from Sandwich Shoppe or LightHound ?


Can't quite tell for sure, cuz' yer' pics are kinda' blurry/outta' focus.


But be advised that Lithium cells (like Energizer L91's)
are NOT recommended with that module.


According to a knowledgeable poster in another forum,
their higher voltage will fry the module's sensitive components.


Just wanted to give you (and everyone else) that heads-up.


BTW, very glad to hear that you "dodged the bullet" this time.


Don't let there be a next time ! :twothumbs


Good Luck (and good health) to you, cfromc.

:wave:
_

Click to expand...

Those were Lithiums and I got the LED from the Sandwich Shoppe. The batteries were "conditioned" in another device before I used them in the MM. I've noticed some quirks with these batteries in other devices. It seems like sometimes they work great and other times they won't work at all.

I know my pictures suck, I just wanted to grab a few before I threw the batteries in the garbage. It is snowing and below freezing here so I had no plans of taking any pictures once I got the batteries outside.

Thanks for the kind words everyone. Sometimes it is a good thing to have a wife. She saved me a lot of pain at best. An eye at worst. I swear I had that LED about a foot from my eye, looking right at it, a couple of seconds before it happened.

well, no more of those for me I guess...

I thought one of the selling point of AA lithium chemistry is it's safe?

jzmtl said:

I thought one of the selling point of AA lithium chemistry is it's safe?

Click to expand...

I don't know that its safer that a regular alkyline battery. I'm guessing its less safe due to the ability of lithium to deliver more power (work/time). I won't condemn all lithium AAs just yet though as I've never had a problem with Enegizers. I bought 30 of these Nuons and then heard there may be problems with them. Now I am worried about where I put all of these. I have to check my remotes and kids' toys. The battery in front actually expanded on both ends and I believe the outward motion was only stopped by the tailcap and the plastic piece inside the MM. The expanding gas force shot the "do not remove" piece and the led across the room. The piece remaining is not in that good of condition either.

Something strange happened before I put the LED in also. The incan bulb would not run on the Nuons for some reason. It would light up for a few minutes and then go dead. The battery voltage was fine, but no light. Very strange I thought. I threw some alky batteries in and it was fine. I tried some NiMHs and also fine. Back to the Nuons and nothing? Like they couldn't deliver the voltage. I don't remember if the one that "vented rapidly" was one of the ones that wouldn't light the bulb since I have so many of these but I do know that I checked the voltage of both batteries before using them and they both were within .05 volt of each other.

I paid $1.25 each for these when E2s were about $2 or more each. A couple of weeks ago I found E2s on Ebay for about $1.50 each if I buy 16 at a time, I think I'll go that route from now on. Lesson Learned.

A couple important things here - you said the Nuons had been 'conditioned' ? I assume you know that although these are Lithium they are NOT rechargeable and contrary to some of the crazy things I've done with Lithiums it is a very bad idea to recharge them or do any conditioning like you would with NiMH.
Also I found an unusual situation with a Lithium AA I had one time in that it read good on a voltmeter - that is well over 1.6 volts but had no current or enough power to light most single cell lights. In one light it managed to put out a very dim amount of light but despite the voltage reading it obviously was bad - probably had extremely high internal resistance.

By conditioned I mean that I used them for a while to bring the voltage down. I read in one of the threads to "condition" them that way before using them with that particular LED. I would never charge a primary battery.

I think you are on to something regarding the voltage vs. power/output. That is probably why I am having mixed results with these and would explain why they both read over 1.6V yet couldn't power the incan bulb. I normally check batteries for voltage and occasionally check the amperage while the bulb/emitter is on. In the case of the incan not lighting up I only checked voltage although I should have investigated further.

Burgess said:

Are those Nuon AA cells Alkalines ?
Or are they Lithium cells ?

Click to expand...

I'm guessing its this
http://batteryjunction.com/4liphba.html

Energizer e2 L91 have a temperature switch inside to prevent the battery from going haywire. Because Energizer holds the patent the copycat 1AA lithium batteries do not necessarily have this protection. This is the 2nd time non L91 AA lithium blew up in the last 3 months.

When lithium battery lights START to dim or act up it is time to take them out and toss them.
In this case the batteries should be taken out of the light 2 days before when the flickering 1st started.
In the other case when the light dims the OP decided to see how long the light will continue to run. The battery blew up.
Lithium batteries are dangerous things. Treat them with respect. Trying to run them into the ground is asking for trouble.

Burgess said:

Are those Nuon AA cells Alkalines ?

Or are they Lithium cells ?



Is your SMJLED module the one by ArcMania (Michael Jordan) ?

That is, did you buy it from Sandwich Shoppe or LightHound ?


Can't quite tell for sure, cuz' yer' pics are kinda' blurry/outta' focus.


But be advised that Lithium cells (like Energizer L91's)
are NOT recommended with that module.


According to a knowledgeable poster in another forum,
their higher voltage will fry the module's sensitive components.


Just wanted to give you (and everyone else) that heads-up.


BTW, very glad to hear that you "dodged the bullet" this time.


Don't let there be a next time ! :twothumbs


Good Luck (and good health) to you, cfromc.

:wave:
_

Click to expand...

Burgess; Can you tell us which of the three modules you mentioned are the best, I use eneloops or alkyline cells

jzmtl said:

I thought one of the selling point of AA lithium chemistry is it's safe?

Click to expand...

Where did you get that idea?
Carbon zinc cells can leak.
Alkalines can leak, and they may be able to cause some smoke in rare cases.
Lithium cells can blow up.
Lithium-ion too, but so far there have been many more threads of people having trouble of the BOOM kind with primaries than with rechargeables.

Fallingwater said:

Where did you get that idea?
Carbon zinc cells can leak.
Alkalines can leak, and they may be able to cause some smoke in rare cases.
Lithium cells can blow up.
Lithium-ion too, but so far there have been many more threads of people having trouble of the BOOM kind with primaries than with rechargeables.

Click to expand...

As it no oxygen is produced in process compare to 123a so nothing should go bang.

...huh?

The thought of using another flashlight to bring down the battery voltage is somewhat dubious, but I'm definitely glad you're ok.

By the way, what does O2 production have to do with danger? Sure, O2 explodes violently, but you really need to up the concentration significantly. Each chemistry has it's own little quirk.

Well without oxygen there's not enough fuel for explosion, so chemistry that doesn't produce it under heavy load is suppose to ge inherently safer than those do. I must've read about it somewhere about why one chemistry is safer than other.

ALL batteries explode if abused enough. Lithiums are just more sensitive.

Alkalines have a do not dispose of in fire warning. A kid tossed one in a trash can fire . He ended up in a hospital. Showed up on Canada AM the next day rether sheepish.

NiMH was considered very safe. There was a thread about the Norwegian RC association having to ban them as the RC crowd was overcharging and overdischarging them to the point of exploding.

As all the lithium chemistries are more sensitive to improper use than the other types extra care should be taken.
Energizer e2 L91/L92 have a temperature switch built into them so they may be considered relatively safe. As Energizer holds the patent copycat AA lithiums may not have that protection and as a result be more dangerous.