Are fully discharged 123s dangerous?

[etc]

I took 3x123 cells out from SF 9P and misplaced them somewhere. They are definitely not in a lite, but somewhere in the house.

Reading all the stories about 123 safety... makes me wonder if they can spontaneously combust. They are very deeply discharged.

BTW they are Surefire 123 cells.

 

[LukeA]

If they're fully discharged there's no chemical energy in the cell to cause it to combust.

 

[kramer5150]

I have never heard of Lith-Ion cells spontaneously combusting/venting. The exploding cell cases I have read up on, always seem to have some amount of discharge/charge going on at the time of explosion, or they have been over-discharged to the point of cell reversal. Obviously they will explode if exposed to open flame, and there's no telling what they will do if exposed to water or high moisture content.

 

[Illum]

well...there has be advisements over the years not to drain them way down...not sure why but I followed the rules...when the ZTS doesn't click the cell is tossed, many of which will register ~3V OCV on the voltmeter...though I have left a light on and forgot about it, eventually it drained the cell way below 1V OCV. Nothing happened except a very concentrated whiff of flashahol when the tailcap was removed:candle: