TheMediocrePirate
Newly Enlightened
I woke up early last week to catch a flight to Washington state for a quick mountaineering expedition up to the top of Mt. Ranier. In my final preparations before leaving the house, I put in 4 brand new duracell AAs in my Fenix HP25 which I've had it for a while. So far it's been reliable, and has only seen occasional use on the odd night time search & rescue call at the rescue squad. After swapping out the batteries, I tested it to see if everything was in order, and tossed it into my carry on alongside of my heavier Arc'teryx jackets and didn't think anything of it. About six hours later, I reached into my backpack to get out a snack and was baffled to feel the interior of my bag feel VERY warm. I quickly found that the battery pack of my headlamp was very hot, and saw that the outside was starting to melt and deform. I opened the battery compartment to find all the cells had started to char and were too hot to the touch. Having no other options, I dumped out the cells on the floor where they remained too hot to touch for a further 10 or so minutes.
I am EXTREMELY happy that I found this issue when I did. Had I not discovered this issue, I would have walked onto my flight 30 minutes later with an active fire hazard on a packed commercial flight. Thankfully, I didn't have to have that conversation with Airline staff/the TSA, and the rest of my items including my main outer-layers needed to climb Rainier came out unscathed. I also had packed my trusty Black Diamond Ion as a backup, so I didn't have to learn how to climb by braille. Upon getting back home last Friday, I put in new cells, and despite deformed springs that no longer really contact the batteries, the light still turns on. I however did not leave the batteries in long enough to find out if they got warm.
Has this ever happened to anyone else? Anyone have any speculation as to what might have caused this issue? Unfortunately I'm still waiting to hear back from Fenix despite having sent 2x emails and one voice mail over the course of the last week. Duracell responded within an hour, and has been extremely helpful and willing to help figure out the cause.
20180805_085225 by Nico, on Flickr
20180805_084726 by Nico, on Flickr
I am EXTREMELY happy that I found this issue when I did. Had I not discovered this issue, I would have walked onto my flight 30 minutes later with an active fire hazard on a packed commercial flight. Thankfully, I didn't have to have that conversation with Airline staff/the TSA, and the rest of my items including my main outer-layers needed to climb Rainier came out unscathed. I also had packed my trusty Black Diamond Ion as a backup, so I didn't have to learn how to climb by braille. Upon getting back home last Friday, I put in new cells, and despite deformed springs that no longer really contact the batteries, the light still turns on. I however did not leave the batteries in long enough to find out if they got warm.
Has this ever happened to anyone else? Anyone have any speculation as to what might have caused this issue? Unfortunately I'm still waiting to hear back from Fenix despite having sent 2x emails and one voice mail over the course of the last week. Duracell responded within an hour, and has been extremely helpful and willing to help figure out the cause.
20180805_085225 by Nico, on Flickr
20180805_084726 by Nico, on Flickr
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