Have you ever had a cell(s) explode or vent in an undesirable and unexpected way?

Have you ever had a cell(s) explode or vent in an undesirable and unexpected way?


  • Total voters
    123

sir_guy123

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Oct 27, 2011
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I'm new to this forum, I joined for help in buying a new torch (flashlight - I'm a Brit) and have been very grateful for all the help I've got so far, but the discussions regarding exotic chemistry battery's exploding has got me very wary, and I'm interested in how worried I should really be and how much of it is actually paranoia, so…

Have you ever had a cell(s) explode or vent in an undesirable and unexpected way (it doesn't count if you were trying to make the cell explode or vent)

please state; what chemistry was the cell (regardless of outcome)? What were the circumstances?
 

sir_guy123

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Oct 27, 2011
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No problems with standard (lead acid, Ni-mh, Alkaline) battery's. Some I got from Lidl (AAA Ni-mh) got unusually hot by the end of a charge on a Lidl 'smart' charger.
 

Morelite

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Nov 29, 2005
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Central PA
No problems at all, I have about 30 Lithium cells in sizes ranging from 15270 up to 32650.
 

JacobJones

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England
My cordless power tools use lithium-Ion battery packs and I've never had anything bad happen, also have a 12 volt lithium polymer pack for my lightforce blitz and that's always fine.

I have experienced some odd odours coming from SLA batteries during charging, I assume that the charging voltage was little too high.
 

RCM

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Sep 24, 2011
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Somewhere in Hastings florida.
I've had a Duracell labelled Sanyo 2450 vent and get hot enough to melt the wrapper, but my charger was at fault failed to sense the -ve DV was only that particular cell that did it. All my other cells are fine with the charger. I've had a few cell phone LiIon cells bulge up from extreme over discharge, but never vent with flame!
 

azzid

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Sep 18, 2010
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Manila, PH/ N.Y. Conus address
I've got close to 5 dozen li-ion cells with sizes ranging from 14500 to 26500 and never had a problem with them. No overheating while charging, the only time I had a battery overheat was when, I charged a sanyo 18650 cell that came from a laptop battery pack. Recycled it immediately and never used cells from old battery packs again.

It really pays to get higher quality batteries(AW, Redilast and callies kustoms) and to properly maintain/watch It. A nice charger like the Pila IBC would be a big help too and don't get too cheap with your li-ion cell purchases.
 

Shadowww

Banned
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Dec 26, 2011
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Northern Europe
Lead-acid:
12V 7Ah SLA battery - heated quite a bit when I charged it with 5A (was in hurry so couldn't do normal 1A charge), but worked fine afterwards till this day (the heating occured over a year ago)
Charger used: Turnigy Accucel-6

Lithium Ion:
six 18650's from ASUS laptop battery pack - no problems at all, using in cheap DX single-cell lights
4x Xtar 2600mAh, 12x HiMax 2600mAh, 2x RediLast 3100mAh, 5x SolarForce 2400mAh, 4x AW 2200mAh, 4x IOS 3100mAh - no problems at all, using in various multi-cell lights (and not only lights)
Charger used: Turnigy Accucel-6

NiMH:
40 eneloops (both AA and AAA) - no problems at all
8 eneloop XX'es - no problems at all
4 GP 2500 mAh's: they heat quite noticeably during charge, but I'm not very worried
Charger used: LaCrosse BC-700, Sanyo MQR06

LiFePO4:
8x A123 Systems 18650: no problems at all (obviously)
6x A123 Systems 26650: no problems at all, either
Charger used: four UltraFire WF-188's for 18650's, Turnigy Accucel-6 (also using balancing plug, cause those 6x are in custom battery pack) for 26650's.
 
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AnAppleSnail

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Aug 21, 2009
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South Hill, VA
I had a button NiMH scatter itself during charging once. I was trickle charging 2 in series. The plan was to charge at 8 mA 80 mA capacity), but it objected to that. I am investigating why.
 

MDJAK

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Jan 2, 2012
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I was also interested in what now seems a nonissue and I am glad that is the case as I embark on this fun hobby
 

Norm

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Jun 13, 2006
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Australia
I voted yes, but the cell failure was totally my fault, before we had all the choices in Li-ion chargers we have today the charger I was using was switched for 1, 2, 3 or 4 cells, unfortunately the switch was set to two cells when charging a single 14500.

Norm
 

hank

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Apr 12, 2001
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Berkeley CA
> what now seems a nonissue and I am glad that is the case

You are happy because you are wrong. Collecting a few anecdotes doesn't change the chemistry.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/the-lady-and-the-liion/0

I doubt any CPFer familiar with Li-ions thinks this a nonissue -- particularly for you as a brand new user.

I just took a RCR123 off a Nano charger an hour or two after I should've looked at it.
4.24 volts.

That's only the second time in several years that I've let one overcharge.

I've had one out of eight Li-ion cells vent -- I don't know when it happened, I found it had a brown stain around the positive nub when I took it out of the battery storage box intending to put it into one of my lights.

I checked it, it had zero charge showing. It may have vented in the light and I didn't notice when I took it out, or it may have vented in the metal storage box alongside half a dozen other Li-ion cells, some considerably larger.

I won't make that mistake again.

The energy density of these cells is high; they can spontaneously ignite if mistreated; they evolve oxygen when they burn; they can't be put out by an ABC fire extinguisher; you may go your whole lifetime without ever having this happen to you.

Are you feeling lucky?

Do you put a family at risk if you're wrong?
 
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CampingMaster

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Dec 9, 2009
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Montréal, Québec, Canada
I am using for nearly a year now four chargers SINCE: SE-H001 ; I have a total of 16 RCR123A (16340) because each charger comes with 4 batteries.

Each kit is only a little bit more than 10$USD including transport from China to Canada.

I am very surprise that a so cheap charger do a very good job, I use these batteries with 4 flashlights (Quark X 123² and Quark Turbo X).

I had no problem at all charging or using these batteries and many of my friends are using them with no problems. Note that these friends are using these batteries (and the same charger) for much longer than me.

Include here a picture of three of my chargers at work.



Ultimate CampingMaster

http://i741.photobucket.com/albums/xx55/CampingMaster/IMG_0045.jpg


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See Rule #3 If you post an image in your post, please downsize the image to no larger than 800 x 800 pixels. - Norm
 
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Changchung

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Oct 2, 2005
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Where the night is too short...
Almost 20 18650, protected ultrafire blue and grey no problem, unprotected 18650 brands, lg, sanyo and panasonic, no problems either. More than 15 Rcr123, 3v and 3,7 with no problem. 10440 with no problem, the same with aa and aaa


SFMI4UT
 

Therrin

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Jun 25, 2010
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Funny that I should come across this thread today.

Yesterday I was putting together battery packs. I was given about sixty 18650's. They were not loose in the bag, they had been in plastic cradles and had tabs on each end. While I was working I must have jostled the bag just enough for one's tab to reach over and connect the outter casing through a tear in it's wrapping. (these are semi-used, used, and non-used batteries)
When I smelled something "electric burning", I bent down to the bag and tried to figure out which cell it was. I knew it right away as that one had gotten quite warm, and singed on the POS side.

I'm pretty sure I whiffed a little too much of the vapor though, because I had irritation in the right side of my sinuses and a mild headache for about 6 hours or so afterwards. I know the fumes are TOXIC, but it's hard to hold your breath while searching through 60 cells, and I didn't want one or more to explode in the bagful.

I'm SUPER CAREFUL with all of them now. I inspected the wrappers on all of them, taped a few to soothe my peace of mind till I can get to projects with all of them.

Now I'm a little freaked out about having them on chargers and whatnot. I need to get one of those charging bags.
 

bansuri

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Mar 28, 2009
Messages
886
Had to qualify my vote for Cell exploding or venting violently.

It was probably 30 years ago and I was making a little project that required a small battery which I didn't have a holder for so was going to try to quickly get a spot of solder on the corners of the + and (-) areas, I was vaguely aware of the dangers of heat+batteries=boom so I proceeded with safety measures in place. The battery was a tiny lithium hearing aid type battery. The results were quite amazing.
The battery popped, shot off the table and burned. This was fascinating to me as the soldering iron doesn't get hot enough to set anything else on fire like that so more research was required.
Moved the test outside and found that it was easy enough to recreate the same results with other batteries of that type. I'd just set the iron on the ground and balance a battery on the heating element, plug it in, and it wouldn't take too long to pop and burn. It was a lot of fun with those tiny batteries.
I will not be revisiting these tests with my much larger batteries.
 

awyeah

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 19, 2009
Messages
264
If you're concerned with battery safety, you can do what I do. Note: I might be a little too paranoid.

All of my multi-cell lights are AA and AAA, and I use only Eneloops, or occasionally a lithium (Energizer Ultimate Lithium) to power those lights.

I do have one CR123A light, and it uses only one cell. I will probably only ever buy single-cell CR123A lights, although I've been thinking about LiFePO4 now that SureFire's selling them.
 

LuxLuthor

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MS
I voted yes, and the most dramatic events were the firecracker like explosions from high current drain of NiMH cells powering aggressive mods. Never had a Lithium primary or secondary vent.
 

jasonck08

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Sep 16, 2007
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Redding, CA
I've only had one cell in a 6 cell pack die and smell funny in the pack. There was no vent with flame or anything like that...
 

Helmut.G

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Nov 28, 2007
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Germany
I had a set of expensive AA NiMHs vent (in a fenix L2D on turbo) and blow up the rubber button like a ballon years ago.
This is a pretty common event and no reason to worry.
Never had trouble with Lithium so far.

Option 2 should be called "cells getting hot with no apparent reason" or something like that. Getting hot when you short them, etc, is not indication of a problem.
 
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