PSA -Warning – Lights bought off ebay – batteries exploding

Model: CREE XM-L XML T6 LED 1800Lm Headlamp Rechargeable Headlight bought from EBAY

Work in a Fire Safety Department and we have recieved this message from a colleague

The occupier had been alerted by popping noises coming form the kitchen. The lithium batteries for his new bike lights had been placed on charge on the work surface in the kitchen. There must have been a fault with either the batteries or more likely the charger as they overheated to a point were the batteries began to explode. The explosions were very short lived and only caused a small amount of superficial damage to the work top and floor.

The owner was going to post on a forum and contact the manufacturer just though I’d post on here in case he’s not on this forum.

Not saying it will happen to them all and this may just be an isloated case just be aware and never leave batteries on charge when you go out. Probably a good idea to use a tin to charge the batteries in just in case (I do with my mine)

Ooops, I have some on order, although they emailed me through ebay yesterday to tell me that they’d been held up by China Air because they are lithium batteries and they begged me not to open a case against them on ebay.

It begs the question, if they were being sent by air why would they still take 4-5 weeks deliver?? Are they sending it by glider?

With regards to the fire, I’ll charge them up in the garden 😆

explosions were very short lived

They generally are. What’s a slow explosion, an expansion?

Mine have been fine, though.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Apple-iPhone-4-allegedly-catches-on-fire-while-charging-overnight_id28312

appears to not be limited to ebay purchases.

Doh! Just bought these.

Thanks for the heads up, I’ll be sure to charge them near someone else’s desk 😈

A slow explosion is a deflagration I believe. Sub sonic

All good so far but thanks for the heads up.
These only took 7 days to arrive maybe I was lucky.

always wondered about leaving chargers on overnight……but tend to still do it. On a ‘typical’ night, there are probably 3 phones charging in our house, and at least once a week, a couple of sets of Exposure lights – now the Maxx D takes up to 16hrs to charge, so how you going to do that while ‘monitoring’ it ?

I wonder if the lamp unit is compatible with my magicshine battery.

I’ve not had any issues with that, and might be worth paying to get and run with the other battery.

My magicshine batteries have been recharged dozens of times… OTOH, my Dell laptop battery caught fire, my mate’s expensive “proper” bike light charger blew up, and another mate had his Hope battery go up.

Or, to put it differently; stuff fails, what varies is the amount of noise people make about it. When the Hope caught fire everyone said That’s weird! When a magicshine catches fire everyone goes Pff, magicshine.

See also: practically everything else that ever breaks 😉

The DX and ebay ones are knownfor this which is why people were suggesting they were charged while sitting in a saucepan.

My mates dad bought the aforementioned Cree light 3 weeks ago from Amazon and the battery pack blew this morning. Utter crap

I charge all my stuff @ work phone lights camera and laptop 😉

It says the charger is the likely problem, always a risk buying products that may not have been tested to UK standards but good heads up.

We were on Black Rock Sands a few years ago, friend of mine was charging his remote controlled car from his car 12v socket, was a bit of a hot day.

We were sat there and heard a pop noise but didn’t think anything of it and carried on chilling out.

About an hour later he went to his car and exclaimed in a very Anglo Saxon way that something was wrong.

We rushed over to find the interior of his car completely ruined, the seats were all burnt, the dash had melted all over his girlfriend’s handbag (and phone, wallet etc), all the roof lining was down, center consol a mess, but the fire had gone out.

We figured that the batteries had overheated, gone bang and burned away or awhile before it had consumed all the oxygen inside and put itself out. Car was a write-off though. Funny thing was we were sat only 10 feet away, people walking to and from the sea close by and no one noticed!

At RC car races they have to use fire/explosion proof bags to charge the lithium batteries as part of the regulations. Might be worth getting one for light batteries too. Like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LiPo-Guard-Lithium-Battery-Charge-and-Storage-Bag-Small-22cm-x-18cm-/130768534806#vi-content

Not sure why the text is all blacked out (highlight to read it)

yeah.. so I’ll be charging mine in s saucepan from now on!!!

now you can see how people have been killed by phone batteries exploding in their chest pockets.

Higher energy density than dynamite apparently!

It’s not good practice to leave any battery charging unattended but with Li-pos in particular you want to be careful. And don’t beat them up either! This is as true for any light.

The bag is a joke. I would rather a bit of fire damage than a whole building thrashed by smoke ;O)

yes smoke does so much more damage than smokeless flames and fires 😕

Maybe this is what they mean when they say you get a lot of bang for your buck with the cheap Chinese lights 😉

now you can see how people have been killed by phone batteries exploding in their chest pockets.

I guess this must happen all the time ?

Ive seen people lying dead all over the streets in big cities all over the UK.

now you can see how people have been killed by phone batteries exploding in their chest pockets.

Quick ban them all!! Would that be from one of the many spam/hoax and discredited e-mails that go round.

Go straight to the Daily Mail Queue

Mate of mine placed his battery inside his helmet in the boot of the car after a night ride – trashed helmet and big mess in the boot…..

…despite this, I’ve just bought two sets of the Chinese Cree lights above and all good so far….

Is it the charger or the batteries that are the problem?
I tend to use recycled laptop cells (Samsung and Panasonic )in my Cree torch so they are good quality brands ( I’m hoping this will make a difference )

I guess this must happen all the time ?

Ive seen people lying dead all over the streets in big cities all over the UK

🙄

no because fortunately and obviously batteries exploding is a rare event. As I was quite obviously saying the explosion is severe enough that you can see why people have died from batteries that have exploded. There was one in Japan and another I have heard of.

edit: there was one in china but that may have been a home made gun!

The one I am thinking about was a very unlucky situation in that the guy had an existing condition IIRC.