Punctured 18650 cell?

I don't use flashlights, but do use advanced vaporizers that run off of 18650 batteries. I would post this on a forum for vaporizers... but honestly the community is full of idiots and 90% of the 18650 questions I Google point me to this forum. The batteries that came with the tube I purchased are unprotected cells, with a red wrapper. I cannot determine the brand, but they look like Sanyo 2200 mAh. They have a button top with 6 holes on the top.

Recently, I dropped my tube from a decent height. Everything still worked fine, but when I took the battery out of it, I noticed the button top was depressed a bit. I foolishly took a paperclip and tried to press the button top back up to fix it. I nearly instantly heard a short and quiet hiss that sounded like gas escaping from a high pressure. I was very gentle, and I don't think there's any way that I punctured it, but I can't think what else has happened.

The cell still works. It charges and discharges fine. The concerning thing is that I can smell an odor coming from the positive terminal. Can anyone tell me what has happened? I thought that if the cell had vented, it would stop functioning completely. Also, how do I properly dispose of this battery?

I would pitch it. DIscharge the battery outside somewhere, or throw it in a vat of saltwater for a few hours to completely kill the battery. Any time there in an odor coming from a battery, it is not a good sign. If you live in the USA, put the battery in a small plastic bag after you are through discharging it, and take it to a recycling center (Best Buy I know does this for free, and so do a few other stores.)

really ?

do not use that battery ever again. it could explode without warning and drive your vaporizer into your skull.

If it is punctured it simply can't explode because all possible gases can freely escape. But you should really throw it away - once you breach integrity of the cell it will die in few days/weeks (depends on how big the hole is) because electrolyte will evaporate (yes that is the odor you smell)

czAtlantis said:

If it is punctured it simply can't explode because all possible gases can freely escape. But you should really throw it away - once you breach integrity of the cell it will die in few days/weeks (depends on how big the hole is) because electrolyte will evaporate (yes that is the odor you smell)

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not like that...doesn't matter. a damaged cell can rapidly overheat, or expel explosive gasses, or both, depending on the chemistry...

in a runaway situation the container itself can overpressure and burst, removing the lower jaw from the vaper

any cell of any type that is noticeably damaged must be considered entirely unsafe for all intents

Also, I don't think that is the vapor you want to inhale ;-) Just get some more Sanyos. I have a few sanyos that the top is pushing in, but I'm going with it because I wanted to avoid exactly what you described, since I don't know how fragile a PTC device is.

czAtlantis said:

If it is punctured it simply can't explode because all possible gases can freely escape. But you should really throw it away - once you breach integrity of the cell it will die in few days/weeks (depends on how big the hole is) because electrolyte will evaporate (yes that is the odor you smell)

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The elctrolyte may evaporate, but that won't stop metallic lithium from forming on the electrodes. After enough builds, the cell will violently catch fire.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll give it a saltwater soak and take it to a Best Buy.

Just to clear some things up, I wasn't using this battery in my vape anymore, and any good vaporizer is ventilated. Occasionally China will produce something without vent holes, and the community backlash is insane, just google "GotVapes Telescope ventilation". Granted, the Telescope is an extreme example -- it lacks any circuitry whatsoever, and shorts are common with vapes... there's no way I'd put something like that near my face.

Your paperclip probably caused a short circuit by coming into the contact with the outside "can" part and the "button" part simultaneously. Basically the edge you used as the fixed point for your minuature lever is the negative terminal, and the button top is the positive terminal. As a result of the short circuit, the battery sustained damage, there was an internal buildup of pressure, and the safety vent opened.

As others have said, that battery is now very unsafe and it'd be advisable to get a replacement..

shadowjk said:

Your paperclip probably caused a short circuit by coming into the contact with the outside "can" part and the "button" part simultaneously. Basically the edge you used as the fixed point for your minuature lever is the negative terminal, and the button top is the positive terminal. As a result of the short circuit, the battery sustained damage, there was an internal buildup of pressure, and the safety vent opened.

As others have said, that battery is now very unsafe and it'd be advisable to get a replacement..

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It's my understanding that if I had shorted it, it would build pressure, but the CID valve would blow, which would instantly vent the pressure and stop the battery from working entirely. As I said, it still charged and it still discharged. I doubt I shorted it, because the area I used as a fixed point for leverage is wrapped, and there was no way I pressed down hard enough to break through the wrapper.

I'm almost tempted to disassemble it to see how exactly I could have caused this leak. Almost. But I still value my life...

Gary13579 said:

It's my understanding that if I had shorted it, it would build pressure, but the CID valve would blow, which would instantly vent the pressure and stop the battery from working entirely. As I said, it still charged and it still discharged. I doubt I shorted it, because the area I used as a fixed point for leverage is wrapped, and there was no way I pressed down hard enough to break through the wrapper.

I'm almost tempted to disassemble it to see how exactly I could have caused this leak. Almost. But I still value my life...

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correct, for something that close to your face, its not worth the risk.

if we get blown cells in our flashlights, it normally seeks the path of least resistance, and these would be the heads of our flashlights, so our hand and fingers would be intact, unlike vapers, where chances are, the path of exploded material will go towards your face.

Also, you might want to purchase protected Panasonic cells, much much safer.

Protected cells won't fit in this device. What kind of protection does it add, anyway? Overdischarge? The circuitry of the device itself will already cut it off at 3.1v.

You don't need protected cells in this case, also Sanyo cells would be better than Panasonic's for you because they hold higher voltage under load, and provide full capacity down to 3.0V, unlike Panasonic's which need 2.5V cut-off in order to provide full capacity.

Gary13579 said:

It's my understanding that if I had shorted it, it would build pressure, but the CID valve would blow, which would instantly vent the pressure and stop the battery from working entirely. As I said, it still charged and it still discharged. I doubt I shorted it, because the area I used as a fixed point for leverage is wrapped, and there was no way I pressed down hard enough to break through the wrapper.

I'm almost tempted to disassemble it to see how exactly I could have caused this leak. Almost. But I still value my life...

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it is also worth nothing that a quick short circuit may not cause the cell to vent, as it does take a little time to build the pressure high enough to get the valve to pop in the first place.

I have a cell that I recovered from a power tool that has a hole in it, on the negative end and guess slightly smaller than the period on most of our keyboards. Not worth the risk keeping it around so just read on this tread to throw it in salt water. Guessing volts doesn't matter and what is the ratio of salt to water? Sorry if that sounds stupid but really don't know if it's simply throwing salt in OR one tablespoon to every 8 ounces kinda thing. Thanks! Battery holding charge and haven't noticed leakage... charged it before seeing the hole so guess I got lucky nothing bad happen.

I would lean towards tossing it myself unless you really need it as most power tool batteries don't have that much capacity to them typically 1300-1500mah and unless you really need high current cells you can find these tool batteries and laptop batteries for pretty cheap. I once went to a computer store that recycled them and paid them scrap prices for 9 laptop batteries netting about 40-50 good cells from 2000mah to 3000mah for under $10. I was going to a home improvement store and they used to allow people to dig through their battery recycle bin and I got a dozen battery packs from it but they decided to ban that option about 6 months later it is sad because I bet there is a huge amount of good tool batteries tossed especially lawnmower batteries 40-80v with perhaps only a few bad cells in them. The problem with laptop batteries is they quit using 18650 cells in them long ago so either they are aftermarket replacement batteries or have some age to them and as the older packs are in older laptops often they sit unused for years and discharge too much.