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I've had my uk bought 18650 lights charging overnight in my uk bought 3 pin plug charger. Showing fully charged this morning I took the batteries from the charger and put them in my uk bought waterproof plastic case.
I started eating my breakfast when I heard a hissing sound and saw the noise and acrid smoke was coming from the batteries/case. I tried to remove the batteries but the case had melted together. I'd just put it down when there were 2 explosions and plastic and exploded battery were fired in every direction. Believe me it made a mess of the kitchen. The wife's still cleaning up now.
So there's a warning there I'm sure, or maybe more than one.
Did I do something wrong though? If I had inserted a battery or the batteries Incorrectly would it cause this.
I think I'll contact the UK supplier and see what they have to say.
What sort of case? Hard to see why it would have happened right then (after taking off charge) without a short circuit or similar. More commonly a crap charger may cook the cells but I'd expect that to cause a problem while it's actually plugged in.
The wife’s still cleaning up now.
While I sit down and go on my phone 😂 how big was the bang?
Were the batteries hot when you removed them? Was the plastic wrapping damaged before charging?
Just because it's a UK seller doesn't mean much. I use torchy for all my stuff. He tests a lot of it to make sure it's legit.
That sounds like quite a lucky escape. I use cheap Chinese lights and have 3 4-cell battery packs. I never leave the charging unattended, but do leave the actual batteries unattended (obvs).
A similar malfunction in a camelbak or jersey pocket would be nasty.
Looks like the UK is to blame here.......down to Brexit I say.
Links to the goods
It's right there in the brand name.
UK seller maybe, but 12 days delivery and megahellfire battery branding suggests Chinese recycled laptop battery death traps.
Did you not look at the reviews before you bought them 😂
Not at all cheap nasty stuff.
If you do buy foreign, at least buy the stuff with plenty of decent reviews
When a big company like Samsung can't build batteries that don't catch fire, I'm very cautious of anything that's on the 'cheap' end.
My wife's best friend's husband is a fireman and he is absolutely clear on this 1/ don't use cheap / rip-off versions of batteries; 2/ NEVER EVER leave them charging unattended - that includes overnight.
Yes, it's unlikely but the consequences could be catastrophic, and he's been to too many fires where that unlikely chance happened.
In that e-bay link for the charger - is that what the plug looked like?
That's definitely not British Standard compliant. Not fused by the looks of it, part plastic earth pin and the body is too small. No way would I use that as the general level of shonkiness doubtless extends to the rest of the construction. The CE mark that is undoubtedly stamped on the base of it stands for Chinese Explosives in this case.
My battery charging box.
Have put a couple of vent holes in it.
As said, UK eBay seller or writing "UK plug" doesn't make them UK sourced and certified. Loads of Chinese imports come through a UK registered seller. They may not even really exit in the UK, just a fake address.
Prices and the reviews would ring alarm bells.
Torchy has this to say on Ultrafire and chargers
www.torchythebatteryboy.com/p/dangers-of-ultrafire-18650-batteries.html
www.torchythebatteryboy.com/p/18650-batteries-chargers.html
Also check the CE marking. Though China doesn't care about it any will use the genuine space marking or the fake without having gained certification anyway. https://ce-check.eu/ce-marking-topics/the-ce-mark-of-a-product-real-or-fake/
It's easy to say UK sourced.
I can see cheap import crap from my bedroom on eBay/Amazon/a number of other channels in the UK .....
Was any of it from recognised brands and properly CE marked rather than just Chinese export marked ?
I bought a set of lights from Torchy. I’ve had them a year but only used a couple of times before they packed up. On taking the shrink wrap off the battery I found the insulation had torn on the leads because there was no strain relief but the reason they’d failed was that one of the cross connectors on the bottom of the cells had actually rusted through despite me never having used them in the rain!
So he might have a good rep but these were dangerous junk. I have pics but don’t have hoasting to put them on here.
i bought an exposure joystick instead and it’s not worth taking a risk with cheap lipo or lion batteries.
was the breakfast UK bought?
uk bought 18650 lights
uk bought 3 pin plug charger.
uk bought waterproof plastic case.
No
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<h2>Business seller information:</h2>
<div class="rd-sep">1)</div>
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<div>FEI WANG</div>
<div>B5-1, 29/F LEGEND TOWER 7, SHING YIP ST KWUN TONG, KL</div>
<div>Hong Kong</div>
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<div>2)</div>
<div class="bsi-bn">WU HAN PEI QI KE JI YOU XIAN GONG SI</div>
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<div>文川 吴</div>
<div>Room 03-5,1-2/F, Building 4, No. 77, Guanggu Avenue</div>
<div>430223 Wuhan City, 湖北省</div>
<div>中國</div>
</div>
</div>
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<div>3)Health Bomber. Can't find business details for some reason. but someone who resells cheap chinese stuff they've bought on alibaba or somewhere else is no more reputable than someone selling straight from china. There are no more checks or QA.</div>
<div></div>
<div>Buyer beware on all this stuff. (Far too easy to lie about item location)</div>
It’s the nature of lithium batteries unfortunately. The packs for my race drone come with warnings taped over them, 2 more warnings in the box and a fire resistant pouch to charge them inside.
Was the bunny okay?
I use either a magicshine charger, or an Xtar charger (remove batteries from case. I have the older version of that case without the USB. I do use Samsung batteries - bought via Torchy - it's most likely those batteries - once one goes, it will set the rest off.
I also tend to charge under supervision in my Xtar smart charger, or using the magicshine charger (batteries in battery case) on the garage floor.
Don't scrimp on batteries. Ultrafire etc have a bad reputation.
Well this has opened up a can of worms really. It's funny how you think things will never happen to you. Like many I've used cheaper battery packs for years and had no.problems, this will make me think twice though.
I've contacted the seller well see if I get a reply. If not then it's paypal and trading standards.
Looking carefully at the batteries, they are not Ultrafire, but Uitrafire (the second letter is i). Trying to imitate another brand would have put me right off.
OP, from the look of the case, it connects the batteries in series and produces an 8.4V output ie, it's a device not just a carrying case. It could have had a fault that short circuited the batteries. Alternatively, is it possible that you could have put one of the batteries the wrong way round?
The battery seller is apparently based in Saltburn, which is a small pleasant seaside town near me. Seems a bit weird unless one of the pensioners is hawking vape liquid and batteries off Ali Express. Have you got a credible street address for them?
If you look at the pictures of that battery case on the eBay link, there are two photos showing the batteries in the case and the polarity is different in both!
Something I bought a while back has got one of these superdodgy mains adaptors, there must be l loads knocking about...
There are more detailed (longer) videos showing how the inside contacts including the earth are just touching the contacts inside, and how you can easily plug the earth pin into the live connection and make an entire lamp or similar live...
Did the claimed 6000 mah not ring alarm bells with you? #fakegoods
Get onto ebay, make a claim, report them to trading standards. You've had a lucky escape.
And if you buy from torchy and you are not happy with your goods send him a message, his customer service is top class. He also needs to know if he's bought a bad batch so he can recall them.
XTAR chargers FTW.
Mine has been brilliant and I paid double what Gearbest are charging (pun intended) in that link. Be aware there are lots of fakes though. IIRC they come with a code that you can put into their website to check the unit you've received is legit.
LIPO fireproof charging pouch is a good idea too.
As greybeard has spotted, batteries are obviously fakes. Are you certain you got the polarity right in the box? Although the box should have dealt with that issue.
Any battery with fire in the name is generally best avoided. Only buy proper branded batteries from a reputable source - not someone random on eBay.
Torchy or MTB batteries are generally the ones people recommend.
Thats just answered my next question as the battery boy doesnt have any 18650's for bike lights in atm.
Lion battery packs can easily explode with no apparent stimulus just like toughened glass can craze a long time after the impact. In both cases the damage was done earlier but there’s an unpredictable time to failure following. It’s usua crap chargers that cause trouble but poor internal connection and physical damage can also do it.
The last of your pictures of the aftermath look like two pip-ends of batteries. I have a similar battery box and the top of the cells should be
+ -
- +
Or, if you're using 2 cells, + -.
If you've put one or more cells in the box the wrong way round, could you have ended up with a dead short, or the voltage of three cells backwards on the fourth cell? In which case I doubt that the best quality cells would have done much better.