apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning (shorted cord)

So about an hour ago my wife calls me and tells me she was plugging in her table this morning. she went to unplug the charger and there was a huge bang and it literately blew the cord off the charger! thank god she is ok, now i have to go home and see what the heck actually happened. there was only one battery charging at the time (imr 18350) which was only on there for a few minuties

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

gianetics said:

So about an hour ago my wife calls me and tells me she was plugging in her table this morning. she went to unplug the charger and there was a huge bang and it literately blew the cord off the charger! thank god she is ok, now i have to go home and see what the heck actually happened. there was only one battery charging at the time (imr 18350) which was only on there for a few minuties

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Waiting for more details, hopefully no damage was done to your wife or anything else. Sounds like the cell might have blown, rather than the charger...I can't see any way how the charger itself could explode. Stop working, sure, even start a fire even something was horribly wrong, but explode? Just don't see how that is possible.

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

Pics or it didn't happen!

Glad she was ok. Of course this is a flashaholics worst nightmare. Explosion of a piece of our gear around the wife. Now our crazy hobby is unsafe for her and or the house. DOOM!

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

ill get some pics tonight when i get home. the cell was brand new so i dont think that was the problem. if i had to guess right now on my limited info i think the cord shorted. my wife knows to grab the plug not the wire so thats a little confusing. since no one got hurt i more curious than mad. hopefully nitecore has a good warranty.

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

I have a NC i4 v2, so this thread is of interest to me. Mine's been fine for over half a year.

Chris

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

Awaiting pics. Happy for your wife's well being.

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

Wern't these the ones recalled for getting too hot or melting? Sorry, I don't remember and could be thinking of another similar charger.

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

i got the v2 all issues were apparently fixed, yea right. i talked with my wife again. she said it blew up when she was unplugging it and the plug and cord are now two separate pieces. i am going to contact nitecore as soon as i see what happened first hand. i guess when it blew although scaring the crap out of her didn't harm her, it did however blacken her entire hand. not acceptable! i am very curious too see the damage first hand. the house we are living in now is going on the market in a few days so i am going to be very upset if there is a huge black spot on the hard wood floors. there website now shows they are internationally insuring there chargers huh... are they standing behind there product or insuring themselves knowing there is a problem? sorry its a little too early to jump to conclusions, makes me wonder a little though.

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

So what 'blew up'...the plug at the outlet, or the actual charger itself? If she pulled the plug out by the wire and that wire broke (somewhat unlikely, as it's a thickish cord diameter,) it could have created a dead short right then and there.

What are the odds that when she went to pull the plug out of the outlet, something in the charger went dwanky and caused a dead short bypassing any fuse within the charger?

Maybe the problem is with your outlet, or the wiring in your home going from the electrical panel to that specific outlet?

Chris

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

Yeah, if it happened when unplugging it, odds are that the cord itself pulled on/out of the plug and it arced, etc.

IE: If you pull the cord, it pulls it out of the plug, if you pull the plug, it pushes the cord onto itself. They should be able to take the push, and occasional pull at least for a decent cord.

Nitecore should help you out on this I would hope.

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

What brand was the imr 18350 battery? If it was the cheap Trustfire or Ultrafire brand, you are asking for trouble.

Also, did you get the Nitecore i4 charger from a reputable dealer? According to Nitecore's website, there are alot of fake chargers floating around.

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

you know i dont remember where it came for, i believe it was from going gear. i deal with a lot of fakes in my business and im pretty sure this was not a fake. this is the battery i used: http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_87&product_id=59. ive taught my wife to never pull on a cord when unplugging something so im baffled as well. as for blowing up, in her words [i saw a flash and heard a loud pop]. i really dont want to comment more until i can see it for myself. i will say if her hand got "blackened" while unplugging the charger then it must have been at the plug side not the charger. ill use a dmm on the outlet tonight to make sure its still good. ill check the cell as well. on a side note it seems that mountain electronics sell pretty good stuff so im hesitate to try and blame the battery. every company can make defective items, but since it blew at the outlet im concentrate there first.

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

That is one of the reason why I would never used IMR unprotected lithium batteries.

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

royjohnson77 said:

That is one of the reason why I would never used IMR unprotected lithium batteries.

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I use naked AW and Kinoko IMR 16340s and they perform safely and without issue. I'm also running some naked Efest 26650 IMRs and the same goes for them.

Chris

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

well i built a 18350 sized light running a triple xp-g2 drawing 3.04 amps. imr batteries are pretty much my only choice to get full power out of it. they are unprotected because they are a safe chemistry. this one was brand new and only discharged to 3.2v resting. and it was charging at below 1c. again i dont think it was the battery. the problem happened at the plug.

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

Gianetics, glad there were no injuries. Having several Nitecore chargers, myself, I look forward to hearing what you find when you are able to check everything out.

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

Str8stroke said:

Pics or it didn't happen!

Glad she was ok. Of course this is a flashaholics worst nightmare. Explosion of a piece of our gear around the wife. Now our crazy hobby is unsafe for her and or the house. DOOM!

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LOL

Unless hubby can say he took up flashlights when she made him give up BASE jumping in wingsuits.

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

Never leave imr on the charger...they dont know when to stop charge or discharge.

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

dc38 said:

Never leave imr on the charger...they dont know when to stop charge or discharge.

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Come again?

Chris

Re: apparently my intellicharger i4 blew up this morning

gianetics said:

So about an hour ago my wife calls me and tells me she was plugging in her table this morning. she went to unplug the charger and there was a huge bang and it literately blew the cord off the charger! thank god she is ok, now i have to go home and see what the heck actually happened. there was only one battery charging at the time (imr 18350) which was only on there for a few minuties

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Sounds like the cord shorted.