Halftime Hope Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 (edited) There are an increasing number of lithium batteries embedded inside household appliances now, everything from battery banks to small screen devices to medical gear. Some of the batteries are even in higher risk places and can become degraded due to environmental conditions. I think we've all seen news reports of EV batteries bursting into flame and the hazard those can be, because they cannot be extinguished: they have to burn themselves out and they often pump out noxious fumes for days. We had a automobile jump starting device that's several years old, and we had brought it inside to charge it several days ago. It sat on the dining table, untouched. This morning when dh picked it up, the plastic casing was obviously split/opened up. I immediately thought it looked like an expanded battery. He started to unscrew the case, dropped the whole thing on the floor, picked up and continued unscrewing it on the kitchen counter, and it started spewing smoke and fire (like a firecracker without the noise) and hissing. He picked it up with his bare hands and ran about 15 feet to the back door, and fumbled with the door, while the battery spewed billowing white smoke everywhere. He hands got grey scorch marks, but were not injured and he washed them off under the hose for several minutes. We called poison control (from the back porch) and they said to get everyone to fresh air, and go to the hospital if anyone started having respiratory effects. I was able to get a respirator (yep the kind with canister filters) in the garage without having to go into the house unprotected, and we opened up the entire house for several hours and gave it a good airing. Moral of the story #1: don't mess with a battery inside the house. From other stories we've found on the internet. if you see or feel something suspicious, don't sniff the battery. CO2 is a large part of what is off-gassed in actual lithium batteries, but phosphorous, lithium salts, toxic iron compounds, and hydrofluoric acid can be in the mix, too. Moral #2: if you drop a lithium or NIMH battery, consider it busted. (Yes, based on many stories on the internet, dropping a battery is bad news.) Please feel free to learn from our mistake. 🙂 Edited June 26, 2023 by Halftime Hope 9 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 😳😳😳 I’m glad it turned out Ok for you and your family! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El... Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 Whoa! Scary! I'm so glad everyone is ok. Good to know. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 We have a fire proof charging bag for ours thankfully as one went the other day. It was a small pop and a bit of smoke thanks to the bag. Thermal runaway is the main issue. DH says they don’t stop charging once they’re fully charged, so you need to pretty much babysit when charging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 https://rcbox.com.au/products/lipo-safe-explosion-proof-battery-bag-1 this is similar to what we use and it seemed to work well. Fairly cheap insurance considering the number of house fire incidents involving lithium ion batteries 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-18/e-scooter-lithium-battery-fire-risk-fears-/101863902 This was a news article from earlier this year with a lot of information about the increase in lithium ion battery fires around the world. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephanier.1765 Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 About a week ago in my city, a golf cart with a lithium battery, which was housed inside a garage, caught fire which then in turn caught the home on fire. Luckily, no one was hurt. There has to be a better way, a better battery. I sure hope they are working on finding one. I'm so glad no one was hurt or more damage happened in your case. https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2023/06/21/home-destroyed-in-e-town-after-lithium-batteries-in-golf-cart-catch-fire/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 This is terrifying. Are all rechargeable stuff lithium batteries? Or do we need to check each thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
athena1277 Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 Those charging bags look great, but what about laptops or other larger devices? What about all the things that we don’t realize have those batteries? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarita Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 There are different rechargeable batteries out there. They all have their pros and cons. Things like how much charge they can have for the size, discharge rates (in use and not in use), how many times you can charge and discharge, etc. Yes we would love a totally safe, reliable, high capacity battery. People are trying to find those and pour resources into making/finding something capable of that (the person who finds that will make $$$$$). In general, if you see any deformation or fishy stuff on your batteries stop using them and get rid of them. Like if your laptop or cell phone starts to bulge get rid of it. Never poke around 6 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said: Thermal runaway is the main issue. DH says they don’t stop charging once they’re fully charged, so you need to pretty much babysit when charging. Although technically the technology doesn't in many applications the battery and/or the charger will have circuitry that monitors and prevents this from happening. There is regulations and stuff surrounding this that manufacturers have to meet. A lot of the regulations are per application so, cell phones and laptops may have more stringent rules than a scooter or something that a less used or newer product. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 3 hours ago, Clarita said: There are different rechargeable batteries out there. They all have their pros and cons. Things like how much charge they can have for the size, discharge rates (in use and not in use), how many times you can charge and discharge, etc. Yes we would love a totally safe, reliable, high capacity battery. People are trying to find those and pour resources into making/finding something capable of that (the person who finds that will make $$$$$). In general, if you see any deformation or fishy stuff on your batteries stop using them and get rid of them. Like if your laptop or cell phone starts to bulge get rid of it. Never poke around Although technically the technology doesn't in many applications the battery and/or the charger will have circuitry that monitors and prevents this from happening. There is regulations and stuff surrounding this that manufacturers have to meet. A lot of the regulations are per application so, cell phones and laptops may have more stringent rules than a scooter or something that a less used or newer product. Yes true. There’s also a lot of eBay imports etc that don’t necessarily meet standards I think. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 (edited) We had one catch on fire in the back of our Jeep. It was our mower battery Edited June 27, 2023 by Tap 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 4 hours ago, athena1277 said: Those charging bags look great, but what about laptops or other larger devices? What about all the things that we don’t realize have those batteries? There are larger options and even full on esky size lock boxes. E-scooters might be a bit harder. It’s a problem that needs solving for electric cars to become a safer alternative as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 5 hours ago, vonfirmath said: This is terrifying. Are all rechargeable stuff lithium batteries? Or do we need to check each thing? A lot of products have nickel cadmium and nickel metal hydride which are a bit safer I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 6 minutes ago, Tap said: We had one catch on fire in the back of our Jeep. It was our Ryobi mower battery Eek! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausmumof3 Posted June 26, 2023 Share Posted June 26, 2023 https://www.productsafety.gov.au/products/electronics-technology/lithium-ion-batteries There are some good general safety guidelines here. Sorry to hijack your thread a bit @Halftime Hope it’s one of DHs pet topics 😂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halftime Hope Posted June 26, 2023 Author Share Posted June 26, 2023 We were relieved to find out that ours was one of the "better" options, i.e. less noxious upon explosion. But we'll never unload a battery in the house again. We were blessed not to have been seriously injured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted June 27, 2023 Share Posted June 27, 2023 18 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said: https://www.productsafety.gov.au/products/electronics-technology/lithium-ion-batteries There are some good general safety guidelines here. Sorry to hijack your thread a bit @Halftime Hope it’s one of DHs pet topics 😂 I appreciate the additional information. Another hijack: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/john-goodenough-nobel-laureate-battery-pioneer-dies-100-2023-06-26/ The guy who invented lithium ion batteries just died at 100 years old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSera Posted June 27, 2023 Share Posted June 27, 2023 One of my kids was given a couple different cheapy Amazon toys with rechargeable batteries for his birthday. I wasn’t really thinking about it, but now I’m thinking those are probably exactly the kind that are higher risk (they are smallish ones at least). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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