Unprotected CR123a EXPLODES!!

Hi all,
The other day I was messing around with the broken tailcap on my XENON police flashlight 7.2V. I was a bit puzzled why it wouldn't turn on at all. Then I put the tailcap back on, after adjusting the spring and I felt the handle heating up, so I figured the batteries must be shorting out, I unscrewed the cap and before I knew it smoke was coming out of the back of one of the batteries and I just chucked them out of the back of the flashlight on to the street (THANK GOD I WAS OUTSIDE!!) and one of them literally bursted in flames! I really think we ought to be careful with unprotected cells folks. (I was using purple DX batteries)

Here are photos of what I was using.
(I will take a picture of decimated street later)

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Sorry for the bad focusing, I use an autofocus POS 5000 from kodak.

Glad you were not hurt! I was wondering, you said your light was 7.2V? If you were using 2 unprotected Li-on cells, the combined voltage could be in the vicinity of 8.4V or higher. This would be bad for the light. Also I believe it is not advisable to use rechargeable Li-ons with incandescent lights. I do not know if any of these issues would cause one of the batteries to vent with flame but at the very least it may damage your light. Hope someone with more knowledge about this will chime in as I am going on vague recollections.

Haha, thanks.
It wasn't really a life threatening situation. Just a scary one. DX says it should work fine, however I will be sending Kyle a very lengthy email

Got any pictures of the exploded battery?

an incadescent using series unprotected? that is an accident waiting for a location.
here is why, an incadescent doesnt ever stop draining the batteries, Unless it has a low cutoff curcuit built in, which most dont.

Even if you dont damage the battereis in the light, if they go to low, then they are damaged, and they could be a problem when charging.

a person could keep topping of the battereis , so they never went low, but one misteak, and you at least ruin the cell.
a minor error like this you reverse charge one cell and it poofs or fisses or explodes, and depending on the light it can build up LOTS of pressure in the light itself.

with a Potent incadescent like this, and little weak cells like these marked for 800 and mabey good for 600, there is no way you could do this safely, just because it wouldnt last a whole night walk before it toasted the cells. plus the incan head heats up the head battery too, making it discharge differentally.

sorry to say, nothing about this is a battery sellers problem or responcibility, by default the cells cannot be "treated right" in this flashlight unless they are protected. and almost every seller has a warning about using unprotected cells and KNOWING when NOT to.
and protected, you will want to get ones with the high amp curcuits for incadescents.

that might sound harsh, but not indicating what is wrong with this, could put you or someone else in a VERY bad situation, with the battery on the charger in thier house having a problem. so potentially you could help others by this thread.
if you have other cells that you have used similar to this, make sure you check them before and during charging. or making your next incident report will be at the internet cafe after the fire department leaves.

i repeat, Unprotected cells in Incadescent lights without cutoffs is a accident waiting for a place to happen, and the place it will happen is in the charger in your house.

Erm.. Look at the wrapper on those cells. Notice how the wrapper DOES NOT go around the entire cell on one of them?

My theory is the middle cell shorted to the side of the barrel due to the wrapper being insufficient. This is likely the case...

Safety first.. it's a lot safer with cells where the wrapper actually goes around the curve at the bottom.

Stephen, this is the second accident I've read about concerning you and flashlights/lasers. You might want to take up a less risky hobby, like reading!

Glad to hear you're okay, lithium cells definitely need to be respected, that's abundantly clear here....

still, can't believe that those cells even passed QC what with the short wrapper leaving the bottom portion of the cell exposed, an accident waiting to happen

It just goes to show that it doesn't make sense to use cheap Lithium cells, the inexpensive Chinese cells seem to have hit-or-miss quality control, and there have been a lot of "misses" recently

I stay with reputable brands, like SureFire, Streamlight, Energizer, Duracell, and i've actually had good luck with BatteryStation cells, but, i make sure to match cells on my ZTS battery tester, and i only use R123a's in single-cell lights

Yeah, how come those batts are wrapped like that? Did they come like that?

There have been no cases of 'unattended' li-ons exploding on CPF, they have all been primary CR123as. But in your case, it definitely sounds like a short, and any lithium based battery would have burst if heated to that extent due to a prolonged short.

I've used 2 x unprotected series batts for my old setup of a 6P/P91 and also use them in a similar police xenon light, and have had no problems so far in normal operation. I think it pays to be careful, but this doesn't look like a cause for li-on users to worry, unlike the cheap CR123a episodes.

My suggestion would actually be to use a protected 18650 with DX's 10W/3.7V lamp assembly (AWs, or even the DX 18650s I have work). Since there is only one cell, there is no chance for cell reversal, and 1x18650 should actually have much more energy capacity than 2xCR123 as well, so runtimes are better.

2xTrinity said:

My suggestion would actually be to use a protected 18650 with DX's 10W/3.7V lamp assembly (AWs, or even the DX 18650s I have work). Since there is only one cell, there is no chance for cell reversal, and 1x18650 should actually have much more energy capacity than 2xCR123 as well, so runtimes are better.

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Agreed wholeheartedly. With the exception of my UF502 (which takes 2x18650s), All my other rechargeable Li-Ion lights are run on single cells. And I only use protected cells. Hope this will avoid the usual dangers. I would never run any light on 2x RCR123As (3.7 v 0r 3.0v).

jbviau said:

Stephen, this is the second accident I've read about concerning you and flashlights/lasers. You might want to take up a less risky hobby, like reading!

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Hahahaha, never. I love flashlights and lasers now, and I don't think I could "get out" of them if I tried. Anyways

Yeah, the batteries came like this. These are different batteries then the one that exploded, however but they all have incomplete wrappers. I just changed my recent order of more purple batteries to http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3273. If anyone has a better link for cr123a's I would be thankful for the suggestions . Possibly after work I will take pictures of the street.

Oddjob said:

Glad you were not hurt! I was wondering, you said your light was 7.2V? If you were using 2 unprotected Li-on cells, the combined voltage could be in the vicinity of 8.4V or higher. This would be bad for the light. Also I believe it is not advisable to use rechargeable Li-ons with incandescent lights. I do not know if any of these issues would cause one of the batteries to vent with flame but at the very least it may damage your light. Hope someone with more knowledge about this will chime in as I am going on vague recollections.

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No that's incorrect. All incan lights for 2x RCR123 3.7v are designed to run 7.2v lamps. the batteries drop to the correct voltage under load. His problem are the cheap chinese unprotected batteries.

are you sure you want to buy ones with Fire in the name
(just kidding)

there is also AW Protected li-ions, which are slightly more tested, and have had various modifications through the ages.

remember for high powered devices you want to try and find a protected with a 4amp TYPE protection (sometimes called 8A), not the 2 amp type(sometimes called 4A). arggg, the higher powered one, that will work with incadescent.

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=166496&highlight=rcr123
link to AW sales thread , jumps to marketplace.

I'm fairly new to these rechargable li-on batteries myself. I recently picked up an Ultrafire WF-500 (500 lumen rated incan) and lighthound (ultrafire) recommended the Ultrafire 18650 unprotected cells. I have been reading up on how to properly charge them, etc, and I'm making sure I don't run them down too much. Should I still be concerned? I read some of the protected 18650's may not work because the light draws so many amps. Can anyone recommened a brand of 18650's that would work in this light and be safer to use? Would AW's protected 18650's work?

AW's protected 18650 work fine in a WF 500 (I have 2 in mine now) - although as the cells are a bit longer, you may lose the momentary on.
It only draws approx. 2.7A.

Just one more example of why lithums rechargables shouldnt be promoted so much. So many people talk about using them and recomend them but there is very little caution given. Average flashlight joe hears about them and buys them not knowing how to use them or make packs with them etc.

eyeeatingfish said:

Just one more example of why lithums rechargables shouldnt be promoted so much. So many people talk about using them and recomend them but there is very little caution given. Average flashlight joe hears about them and buys them not knowing how to use them or make packs with them etc.

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I don't think that is a fair comment at all.

There are many responsible posters on this forum, SilverFox being chief among them where batteries are concerned, who step in at once with a caution if they see something unsafe being proposed.

Practically every day there is a new post by a member who doesn't understand the issues, or hasn't bothered to do any basic research, and is on the point of doing (or has already done) something very unwise. There is almost always someone responsible around to try to persuade against an unsafe practice before it causes a problem, and point the new member in the right direction.

It can't be helped if people choose to ignore the wealth of advice and experience available to them here. To say "there is very little caution given" is a very unfair comment.

+1. Advice by knowledgeable CPF'rs against the use of unprotected lithium ion in high current draw incandescents is plentiful.

Hello Stephen,

Glad to hear you are OK.

There are definitely some quality issues here. Most reputable battery manufacturers do testing similar to the UL testing. One of the tests involves the cells response to a direct short. The cell passes if there is no explosion or burning, and the cell casing temperature should remain below around 300 F.

It appears that those cells can not pass that test...

I would recommend against those cells, and anyone that has those cells should recycle them and not use them. They don't appear to be safe.

Tom