Not very good at writing story, so I post some pictures instead...
I was at work when this happen. Fortunately my wife was at home. What I can say is that we are lucky that someone was there we are not using the flashlight when that happened.
My wife was nice enough to leave everything untouch for me to do some CSI works [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif[/img] except took out the box that was on fire.
WHOA !!!!!!!!!
That looks pretty bad !
Looks like a couple lights there,
I assume a 123 cell exploded?
What light was it in? or was it laying there loose?
PLEASE POST MORE DETAILS...I'm on the edge of taking the batteries out of all my torches?! Sounds extreme, but I've got torches all over this house with batteries in them.
Looks like a Pelican M6...
Now we've heard of this happening before "here & there", but it sounds like it's happening more & more often.
How many incidents does it take before "big industry" puts out warnings & recalls - I don't know. I'd hate to hear of someone getting hurt or their house burning down!
Please let us know what the "Flashaholic CSIs" find!
[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img]
That looks like a disaster waiting to happen!! Luckily your wife was home to stop the fire on time and nobody got hurt. Oh, God...
Are those SF cells that went POOOOM!!? The Peli looks bad, but that other light definitely saw better lumens [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/au.gif[/img] RIP. We need more details!
Thats a problem. You should really email those pics to Surefire or whoever made the batts... They may not cover anything since the batts were in a Pelican, but they will probably look into it, even if they don't say so... I know I would!!
Not sure what the light is, but here is my take...
It looks like the light was in the cupboard. The battery (or batteries) rapidly vented with flame and blew the tailcap against the cupboard door with enough force to fracture the door completely through. A little more pressure and there would probably be a hole in the door.
Total speculation here, but that is typical of Li-Ion unprotected cells that have suffered anode damage through high current (discharge higher than around 2C or charge faster than 1C) or high cycle voltage (over 4.2 volts and/or under 2.5 volts) causing a short circuit to form within the cell.
Appears to be Pelican M light and perhaps UKE 2L. Also appears to be mixed cells. A no-no even with alkaline cells.Please provide more information regarding lights and batteries involved.
[ QUOTE ] chevrofreak said:
I wouldnt be at all surprised if the M6 caused it.
[/ QUOTE ]
I am not sure how the M6 is at fault here. I looks more like a battery short/pressure build-up issue. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif[/img]
Looking at the pictures I'd say it was mixing the cells, you should never mix cells of different chemistries or age or rechargables that are in different states of discharge. Doing this at best can lead to leakage and so damage your light and at worse what we see in the pics.
I really want to find out what happened but I feel it is a significant over-reaction to stop carrying flashlights if you are using American made 123A batteries according to the instructions (safety information provided).
[ QUOTE ] greenLED said:
[ QUOTE ] chevrofreak said:
I wouldnt be at all surprised if the M6 caused it.
[/ QUOTE ]
I am not sure how the M6 is at fault here. I looks more like a battery short/pressure build-up issue. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif[/img]