18650 explosion ('EE power bar')

[jonathan75]

God only knows what happened here. EE, the UK mobile phone company, have been handing out free 18650s encased in a plastic USB charger, and one of them blew up and set someone's flat alight, burning her when she tried to put the flames out. Perhaps EE's buyer got the batteries off Alibaba.com... alternatively maybe the electronics in the charger were duff - the same model sells on eBay from china for 99p incl postage.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11769886/EE-phone-charger-explodes-and-leaves-student-with-serious-burns.html

 

[flecc]

Unusual to have an 18650 involved in anything like this since they have built in protection. Companies are getting increasingly nervous about any lithium batteries though, the other day I received a tiny camera battery in the post and on the back of the package was this large notice:

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Only some cells have built in protection; however, any that are assembled into a power pack of any sort will have a rudimentary external BMS that looks after charging.

She charged it from her laptop USB port. USB is 5v. It would surprise me if that's would make the battery catch fire on its own even without a BMS.

 

[jonathan75]

She charged it from her laptop USB port. USB is 5v. It would surprise me if that's would make the battery catch fire on its own even without a BMS.

I take on board what you're saying, but what alternative explanations are there?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

There's hundreds of possibilities. Start with the easy ones, like the battery got damaged by rough handling, or the cable was faulty. USB cables are very easier to damage. I get through loads of them.

Looking at the damage, it's going to be very difficult to get to the exact cause.

 

[Fordulike]

'' We then went to A&E where I had to keep my hand underneath a cold water tap for three hours before it was cool enough to be treated ''

I know it's a good thing to run a burnt limb under cold running water, but three hours... really

 

[anotherkiwi]

My Nikon stopped charging and when I took the battery out it took a bit of skill because it had swelled up "a little". LiPo I think seeing the sall rectangular shape? In any case makes you think.

I had a cheap rechargeable AA go up in smoke in the charger last year. Yes I was out at the time...

 

[Kinninvie]

The batteries being recalled are batch E1-06.
Luckily mine are E1-02s.

 

[KirstinS]

I've bought loads of these 18650 power bars. I put my own harvested 18650 cells in then

The quality control on bms inside is horrible. About 15% were faulty in one way or another . Once the tiny copper coil ignited and set the plastic on fire almost immeqdiatly. Had I not taken very swift action I.guess the cell would explode due heat/fire

 

[jonathan75]

Yes I got an unbranded one from eBay for 99p and it was so flimsy, I'm actually quite surprised engineers gave EE the go ahead for a mass rollout -someone on Theregister.co.uk pointed to EE attempting to limit liability for injury /death to £3k or 6k (buried in smallprint)- I think their lawyers sold EE a pup there as such clauses are likely to have no effect in consumer contracts, even straight commercial nonconsumer ones. Sorry for legal geekery here.