Battery Go Boom

[Christopher]

Another reason I always recommend the VP units over other custom crap units, \

take a look at this post from ECF:

*******

Ok I have read one other post where a non-protected li-ion battery exploded. Luckily the user was in no way hurt. Today I got to see for myself what kind of force is created by these tiny cells when they explode. First the basics:

The batteries were almost new. Only recharged maybe 4 times

They were 2 CR2 3v in a magnum mod that was set to run at 5volts

The batteries were charged the night before on a charger with built in protection.

The mod was used maybe for 4 or 5 drags during the morning before the explosion.

So basically this was definitely not a case of over-charging. It was a case of the batteries allowing a serious over-discharge. I DO NOT vape on 5v all day. This is an occasional (maybe once an hour) hit just for a boost. This was also on a relatively new mod. Only a few weeks old. Nothing showed any kind of wear or any other sign of trouble to come. I have learned that the 801 atty's last a lot longer on high volts if you keep your drags to a 3 second draw. So, this is what I have been doing. No power draws lasting 5 or more seconds here. Leaving my atty connected all night must have sucked some of the juice from my batteries while not is use. I do not usually have to charge these batteries more than every couple of days due to my light usage.

So I go to take my next drag and 2 seconds in BOOM!!!! Holy cow! Ok, I am definitely awake now. If I did not know better I would have sworn someone just fired a shotgun in my living room. It was that loud. On top of that there are pieces of debris everywhere. And lets not forget the smell.

Time to assess the damage.

Ok, as unbelievable as it may seen, the atty is perfectly fine and still produces great vapor and flavor. The batteries did not come out so well. One battery appears perfectly fine (threw it away anyway) the other battery is in several pieces from one end to the other of my living room. So now I collect all pieces and make sure there is no fire anywhere. So far so good. The magnum mod didn't fare well either. The end cap bent in the middle and blew off. The body has a bit of a bulge. Suprising in this is that the top where the atty connects looks just like new.

Now for myself. Well I didn't come out clean either. I have black soot from the massive flash all over my face and the hand that I was holding the mod with. So I clean my face to find that I have the fattest purple lip I have ever had. Well now I can just say I ran into Tyson in the alley. I have also singed my hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes. No wonder it stinks so bad. While showering and washing my hair for the 3rd time I realize that my tongue hurts. Sure enough I look in the mirror and I have a "V" shaped cut in the middle of my tongue. I have no clue how that happened. It is not possible for me to have bitten my tongue in that spot. I think the force of the explosion pushed the end of the atty into my tongue and the shock just kept me from realizing it at the time.

All said and done, I was very lucky. Nothing that won't wash or heal itself in a few days. What have I learned????? No more unprotected batteries. I will be using protected 3.7 volt batteries until they start making protected CR2's. I can wait to use 5v until then. I still have my backup 5v mod to use at that time. For now it's 3.7v for me. Since I own several other mods that currently use 10440 batteries that are also unprotected, I will put them away for a few days until my new protected 3.7 10440's batteries come in.

Many of the veteran members have warned of the hazards of unprotected batteries. I wrongly assumed that the issues would be from charging. So, I never leave charging batteries unattended., Never charge longer than needed. And, I only use protected charges that have 2 separate charge adapters so that one battery never gets over charged while a weaker one is filling up. This is obviously not enough! For those of you who have not experienced one of these tiny batteries blowing up, take my word for it. The explosion will be far larger than you think!!! Protected 10440 batteries can be bought here 10440 PROTECTED BATTERY

Do yourselves a favor, spend the extra few dollars and replace any unprotected batteries with protected ones. If your mods don't have protection in them put them away until you can get protected batteries that fit them. I was home alone today. That was a good thing. I usually have an infant here that I babysit. Imagine if that had happened while I was holding her???????? And do not blame other when/if this happens to you. There are warnings all over the modders section of the dangers of using unprotected batteries. I saw the warnings and though the danger was minimal. I only found one post where a battery had exploded. This is why I am posting this. This is NOT an isolated event. I am sure there are others that simply don't want to look like idiots for not listening to those who know. I for one don't care if I look like an idiot if it saves someone else from what cold be a very serious injury. Please take my advice and go get those protected batteries!!!

For those who asked for pictures: The first pic shows the inside of the pvc spacer tube with the faulty battery fused inside. The second pic shows the end cap, the good battery, the other side of the spacer tube and a piece that I am pretty sure used to be part of the battery. The third pic shows all of that plus the totally charred inside of the mod itself (not that yo can actually see anything in there. There were also about a dozen tiny pieces of parts that I cannot find in the trash at the moment.

[StevenP]

Holy crap, that's just scary! Glad to read he's okay.

I just had a flash back of one your reviews, Chris. Of the VP1 version 2, I remember you mentioned it had a protected battery... 3:50 of the review, "Not like it would have blown up on you, you freakin' wussies!" Guess more reason to get a VP for that, "just in case" incidents.

[chrismonk]

Chris,

That must have been quite a scary experience man, glad to hear that you didn't get hurt any worse than you did. I am wondering if the Ecigs I have could be succeptible to such an episode. I have the DSE901 with an automatic battery and a Joye510 with a manual battery. Are either of this units risky?

[keenan]

WOW, that read like a Stephen King novel ! Thank God for no serious injuries. But remember, we used the take chances like that with analogs. I remember a friend of mine whose Bic exploded in his hand. 2nd degree burns. And how many burn holes are in my cars front seat ? I stopped counting. This story is a good heads up, but Vaping is still far safer.

[elem187]

Heres an idea... lets not force the battery to do more than the 3.7 it was designed to handle

[SteveD1]

I am glad you are OK!!! And good lesson for all using this type there is good reason for these protected batteries.I had contemplated making a box mod.Just dont think its worth the risk.Would be better off with a quality Unit with the correct components...

[Sinikal]

Lol dont worry folks, Chris is alright im pretty sure he is posting another persons story from ecf about exploding batteries and the danger of misuse.

[TheGreen]

This didn't happen to Chris, it happened to a member on the ECF (e-cigarette-forum).

....@ chrismonk.....

The batteries in standard e-cigs like the 901, 801, 510, etc, are protected batteries. That's why the led flashes when the voltage in the battery gets low to protect from over discharge.

[Christopher]

Woah! I'm ok! That post was taken from ECF look at the first part of what I wrote

The reason this thing exploded is because those mods are using 2 batteries to create 6 volts. One battery WILL discharge faster than the other. When I said don't be a wussy on the video it's because the chances are MUCH slimmer on a single battery working the way it was intended I was referring to the VP1 unit not some of these dual battery custom units.

The problem is there are people creating mods left and right who have no idea wtf they are doing. Stuff like this is going to happen.

[Evapers]

Heres an idea... lets not force the battery to do more than the 3.7 it was designed to handle

You can't "force a batty to do more than"... To get the 6V you need 2 batts in parallel wireing (positive bat 1 to negative batt 2). This doubles the voltage in the circut. Series wireing (pos bat one to pos bat 2) with the 2 batts keeps the volts the same but double the lifespan.

The batts that come with kits, like the 510, 801 ect all have a circut that protects the batt and keeps them from exploding due to over charge or a short, or near to it circut. The are correctly engineered, so there is very little danger. A mod without any consideration or understanding of the parts, is a great danger.

When someone plays around with a mod, not knowing what they are doing, this can happen. YOU MUST HAVE PROTECTED BATTS!!!! The only case, and the reason why they sell Lithium ion batts unprotected is to replace one, such as in a 510/whatever, where the protection circuit is external to the batt. Batt is unprotected, BUT it is inline with a protection circut.

[Christopher]

There is really no reason to use 2 batteries actually. If you have the know how, only one battery is needed rather than 2. The modification that exploded above is just 2 simple of a design.

For example I've always told many members to wait for the VP3 to come out to support their 5 volt needs. Not because I make some type of profit from Jeso (ha, wouldn't that be sweet) but because he uses a single battery, protected unit. Same thing with his passthrough, there is a fuse built into the unit so that in the event your atomizer shorts out (which people said would never happen) your computer doesn't fry out. (Which happened to a few people on ECF)

[chrismonk]

This didn't happen to Chris, it happened to a member on the ECF (e-cigarette-forum).

....@ chrismonk.....

The batteries in standard e-cigs like the 901, 801, 510, etc, are protected batteries. That's why the led flashes when the voltage in the battery gets low to protect from over discharge.

Thanks green!

[pendarus]

This issue has been on my mind for a few days now.

I did some research, and these batteries should not explode unless they are overcharged or shorted out externally or internally. Over discharging at a nominal should not cause these batteries to explode.

I have no idea what caused this, but it seems to be the one in a million.

Edited October 30, 2009 by pendarus

[Christopher]

Actually not really. The reason why is because they double stack the batteries to create 6 volts.

When you double stack batteries say in a flash light for example the discharge is very low, but when using an atomizer it's quite a bit higher. What's happened, is one of those batteries discharged much faster than it was designed to. You say it's 1 in a million, actually it's not. There are a few modders that have had this happen to their customers but they brush it under the rug hoping nobody will say anything. Lucky for them the fan boy base is high enough that people will keep it quite. That women said something, which is great because it needs to be known.

Some of these modders have no idea what the heck they are doing. They see $$$ in the ecig world, create something and just start whoring it out. Without much safety in mind. There is reason many of these people sell via PM messages. They do this crap out of their basement with minimal liability.

[MunkusBFunky]

This is why I wire all of my mods in parallel instead of in a series, much less chance of over-discharging one or both the batteries. 3.7V is good enough for my homemade stuff, if I want a 5V mod I will proly purchase the Vaprlife VP3.

[Evapers]

I did some research, and these batteries should not explode unless they are overcharged or shorted out externally or internally. Over discharging at a nominal should not cause these batteries to explode.

Bingo on the short...

You have a hollowed out pipe in some of these poorly though to mods, making the entire thing a ground. Positive come in contact with just about anywhere and you have a short. Somewhere the positive must be insulated from the ground. How much do you want to bet that the insulation has not been tested, such that it would be possible to run the PV for an extended length of time, causing the insulation to break down or melt or whatever, break down over time, or be damaged installing batts, causing a short in the pipe bomb.

I'll take a guess on this one in regards to discarged batts exploding, might be worth looking into.. I'll bet that if you take a next to dead discharged unprotected cell, and try to charge it on an unprotected charger, I'll put money that it will explode.

[VapnRealtor]

I use a Silver Bullet, VP2 and have a protege on order and the only one I can use 2 batteries with for 6 volts is the Silver Bullet. I actually just bought 2 energizer cr123 photo batteries to test it and was instantly pardon the pun BLOWN AWAY with the increased vapor and taste I experienced.

From the recommendation of Rob at all smokes I just put in an order thru Batt Junction for a set of Life Po? RCR123A that are protected and the description says they will not blow up etc. This should safe to do right? I'm not great on the tech side of things and would like to know of anyones thoughts regarding these batteries and the way I intend to use them.

Regards,

Derek

[pendarus]

Actually not really. The reason why is because they double stack the batteries to create 6 volts.

When you double stack batteries say in a flash light for example the discharge is very low, but when using an atomizer it's quite a bit higher. What's happened, is one of those batteries discharged much faster than it was designed to. You say it's 1 in a million, actually it's not. There are a few modders that have had this happen to their customers but they brush it under the rug hoping nobody will say anything. Lucky for them the fan boy base is high enough that people will keep it quite. That women said something, which is great because it needs to be known.

Some of these modders have no idea what the heck they are doing. They see $$$ in the ecig world, create something and just start whoring it out. Without much safety in mind. There is reason many of these people sell via PM messages. They do this crap out of their basement with minimal liability.

I was trying to say that these batteries being discharged at a normal rate should not explode. Now running them in series we have no idea what the discharge rate is. Has anyone done the proper testing to see what the discharge rate is like for 2 batteries in series? Any electrical engineer should be able to test and prove if it safe or not.

Maybe we should be looking into using DC to DC inverters with a 18500 battery for 5 and 6 volt mods. With proper design, we can stabilize the voltage and add a cutoff if the voltage falls to low or the draw is too high.

Another reason I love the VP1 are the vent holes, if a battery does pop, much of the force will be exhausted out the vents.

Edited October 31, 2009 by pendarus

[jerryjoe]

 

 

You can't "force a batty to do more than"... To get the 6V you need 2 batts in parallel wireing (positive bat 1 to negative batt 2). This doubles the voltage in the circut. Series wireing (pos bat one to pos bat 2) with the 2 batts keeps the volts the same but double the lifespan.

 

The batts that come with kits, like the 510, 801 ect all have a circut that protects the batt and keeps them from exploding due to over charge or a short, or near to it circut. The are correctly engineered, so there is very little danger. A mod without any consideration or understanding of the parts, is a great danger.

 

When someone plays around with a mod, not knowing what they are doing, this can happen. YOU MUST HAVE PROTECTED BATTS!!!! The only case, and the reason why they sell Lithium ion batts unprotected is to replace one, such as in a 510/whatever, where the protection circuit is external to the batt. Batt is unprotected, BUT it is inline with a protection circut.

For the sake of getting info correct I felt I needed to say something. 2 batteries in series double the voltage. 2 batteries in parallel increase amp hours or "lifespan ". Not trying to be a jerk but I was searching an answer about something else and stumbled across this old post. 

[jerryjoe]

http://www.batteriesnorthwest.com/batteryschool.cfm?TID=17#ANC17