Zebralight SC600 III exploded, battery intact

I took it out of my backpack and it was lukewarm. I didn't think anything of it. I 4x clicked it, it blinked twice, indicating battery was relatively low. I put in a new battery correctly, and put the one I just took out on the Pila charger (yes, I still have it!). 5 minutes later, I heard a pop. There was a chemical smell in the room, and I saw smoke from the flashlight. It was hot. I threw it outside. After it cooled down, I took out the battery, which was fully intact. But the flashlight? The tube is flawless, but the head blew off. What gives?

https://ibb.co/X8PByqD

WOW! Glad to hear no injuries or property damage resulted. From that pic it seems as though it is actually the controller chip that detonated. I could be wrong about the purpose of that chip though as I don't own any Zebra lights. It's definitely a warranty issue for sure, as obviously it had nothing to do with your 18650 cells.

Bizarre for sure, I would guess that something went wrong in the controller and once it had full power again it overheated and vaporized enough material to blow the head off since it obviously didn't have any other way for it to vent.

Hello Excfenix,

I am glad to hear you are OK. That looks like a failure of the protection circuit as Lightfooted commented. I also am not sure the exact cause.

I can tell you it had nothing to do with your Pila charger. I still use mine and it just keeps charging and charging.

Tom

Can we get an update?

Also, you might want to get checked out by a doctor since that smell you mentioned is literally toxic. A member years ago had a flashlight explode on him. Although he wasn't initially injured, breathing in the toxic fumes has unfortunately badly effected his health.