Lithium battery fire!

[drjim]

I had a fakita dual cheapie charger, I also have two genuine 3ah batteries and half a dozen eBay cheapies between 4 and 6ah.

This just happened...

Just been putting up a curtain rail, stuck battery into charger and left it on the lounge floor, fortunately next to the door and with toolbox between it and the new curtains.

Was in kitchen when my Wife started screaming that something had exploded. Managed to kick it into the hallway (tiled floor) unplug it and chuck it out of the front door where it happily continued combusting itself. Gave it a good going over with the hosepipe until it stopped sizzling. Solder melted into carpet which she wants to replace anyway, fortunately nothing else caught fire.


I'll have to inventory the remaining batteries so I can work out which of the various batches I have it was, can't remember what it looked like before exploding.

A reminder to us all to be careful with these things, I normally leave batteries on charge in the shed overnight, won't be doing that again.

 

[tom2207]

Good grief ,, that was a lucky escape , good job you didnt go out for coffee or the end result could have been a lot different ,,
Im told the fakita stuff has a lot of the circuitry missing from inside the batteries , probably the safety stuff.
I think theres a contact missing in the fakita batteries from memory , but someone will be along who knows.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Mate had a battery fire recently...it was an old camera I think he said (just sitting in a box!). He was also lucky and spotted it before it got fully going.

I wonder how many battery fires there are up and down the country...doesn't seem to get much news coverage but I'd wager not an insignificant number.

I charge stuff in my garage...but the chargers are locked in a metal cabinet just in case.

 

[8ob]

https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/trusting-anything-left-plugged-in-at-night.130606/#post-2284324

 

[Chippie]

Good grief ,, that was a lucky escape , good job you didnt go out for coffee or the end result could have been a lot different ,,
Im told the fakita stuff has a lot of the circuitry missing from inside the batteries , probably the safety stuff.
I think theres a contact missing in the fakita batteries from memory , but someone will be along who knows.

The replacements I have for my Makita tools have a pcb inside for charge/discharge protection, no issues so far…
but a stark warning not to leave battery packs charging unattended…

I fly model aircraft that are lipo battery powered, even though the chargers I use have several safety features, I tend not to leave them when charging them…
I’ve only ever had one pack catch fire that was when the leads accidentally shorted together…( don’t ask..) was my own fault..

 

[pressbrake1]

I remember when there were(seemed to be) many house fires started by smoking in bed and electric blankets.
I wonder if lithium will bring the numbers up again

 

[Parm]

I remember when there were(seemed to be) many house fires started by smoking in bed and electric blankets.
I wonder if lithium will bring the numbers up again

It already is

 

[minimutly]

I remember when there were(seemed to be) many house fires started by smoking in bed and electric blankets.
I wonder if lithium will bring the numbers up again

Smelly candles...

 

[rich_c]

I'm glad that ended with minimal damage for you, it could've been a lot worse.

Even on genuine makitas (well, definitely the early ones I've dismantled) the 2 power terminals are wired direct to the cells. That means the cells can't protect themselves if the charger decides it's going to overcharge or overvolt them.

The 3rd terminal is for the temperature sensor and then there's the yellow middle connector for more elaborate digital communications between battery and charger but at the end of the day it's down to the charger to stop charging at the right point.

 

[qwakers]

this. ^^^ you cant blame the batteries on that one, blame the charger.

im all for fakita tools, i have several, but go genuine on batteries and chargers.

 

[rich_c]

technically you could blame the batteries if the chemistry ate itself within normal operating parameters, more likely with fake than genuine batteries though. But, fake or genuine, it reminds us all to be mindful of where and when we charge - I'll be making some adjustments after realising my 'temporary' charger location is a little too complacent to deal with a runaway situation like this.

 

[brightspark]

wouldnt use cheap batteries on my dewalt gear there krap wouldnt leave them on charge niether unless im about and then not left anywhere that is a fire risk just on an empty worktop in utility room

 

[striker]

I read somewhere, maybe on here, that someone was charging tool batteries with the charger in the workshop wood stove with the door open just wide enough for the power lead..

 

[CompoSimmonite]

RC model enthusiasts are well aware of small battery packs catching fire whilst charging for many years

 

[Ross365]

I read somewhere, maybe on here, that someone was charging tool batteries with the charger in the workshop wood stove with the door open just wide enough for the power lead..

There's a market there for someone; battery charging boxes. Could be quite thin steel, some means of letting the cable in and a smoke alarm.

I tend to charge my Li batteries for garden tools in the kitchen, but maybe that needs re-thinking?

 

[mike os]

Glad you got away with it relatively unscathed

This is why I won't buy non branded batteries and chargers

Too many poorly regulated charge controllers and poor qc on the cells/ batteries

 

[Cobbler]

I was discussing pro‘s & con’s of electric vans for camper vans with someone the other day & his view ”would you want to sleep above a ton of lithium batteries“ I agree with him about that.

 

[optima21]

you can already get charging boxes, or people have used ammunition boxes. one of the issues with the batteries and cheap copies and chargers is that you dont know if they work correctly, the chargers need to be balanced chargers (so each cell charges separately) as one of the issues is if you overcharge them, and cells will lose capacity at different rates, so its best to use cells from the same batch of production, (which may be fine with branded cells, but cheap cells really are a mixed bag). also with cheap batteries they may save money by not using a battery management board, but you need one for each cell for best results. these days there so much fake products about its hard to tell what is genuine and what isn't. one of the most popular chargers for radio control models has that many fakes about that there are even videos on youtube comparing the genuine ones to the fake ones (take your pic of the videos you can watch)

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=b6ac+fake

 

[Blobber]

Scary, glad your all ok, I never have and never will leave any sort of battery on charge unattended

 

[brightspark]

remember m,y cousin charging his motorbike battery up in his shed all of a sudden a massive bang went in acid all over and a load of shrapnell it had exploded