Fire at Glenmore Lodge: Exploding Headtorch!

“…the headtorch was charging within an empty bedroom and during this time the batteries overheated, melting the compartment and exploding the internal contents of the battery 3m across the room, on to a mattress and created a blaze that destroyed the bedroom.”

https://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2018/02/19/experts%E2%80%99-warning-to-outdoor-fans-as-exploding-headtorch-sparks-glenmore-lodge-blaze

Take home message: don’t trust your chargers, especially those dodgy uncertified eBay specials!

They look like Ultrafire batteries.

Blimey, that’s not good. Sounds like it was pretty well contained

On the flip side, if you were monitoring it, you’d be right by it when it exploded…

Better to use a charging bag or something else that would contain it

The problem is that good 18650s aren’t cheap and cheap 18650s are so cheap. The price of better offerings often reflects the higher battery cost, the light heads can often be quite similar

almost as if it needs some better regulation

Take home message: don’t trust your chargers, especially those dodgy uncertified eBay specials!

I’d say, Take home message: Don’t charge headtorch whilst wearing it.

(My “dodgy, uncertified batteries” have been fine for about 3 years, but then I did get them from Amazon, not ebay)

almost as if it needs some better regulation

Hard to do though in the days of easy access to a global market. The article talks about CE certification, but ultimately that’s just a marking, in reality it actually means very little:

My “dodgy, uncertified batteries” have been fine for about 3 years

AIUI it is mainly the chargers that are the issue. Good batteries should have protection circuits on them to prevent overcharge, sudden discharge and overheating – but decent chargers should also have monitoring circuitry to prevent these things.

Not always the case on dodgy chargers:

Blimey!

Oh eh…

My “dodgy, uncertified batteries” have been fine for about 3 years

of course, you won’t really know whether they’re dodgy or not until they explode and melt your face, which is kind of the point!

If you do a google image search looking for that headtorch, it appears to be branded Boruit, is claimed to put out 6000 lumens and retails for about £15 – here’s a review from amazon…

Excellent light. The batteries are prone to exploding on charge. so charge batteries outside of device in a safe zone. Do not charge in vehicle.

It gets five out of five stars. Seriously…

Same set of reviews –

The torch itself is amazing but while charging it a few weeks ago it blew up and sparked, it also blew all my sockets in the kitchen. It is such a shame as it is a really good torch.

Also:

Please note very dangerous .. !!!! on charge battery blew luckily we were at home.. house filled with toxic smoke could of been tragic

Where’s the eye-rolling smiley when you need it 🙁

4.5 stars, very bright, great beam pattern, only mildly lethal. Would buy again.

Might be worth adding links to those Amazon reviews to the Grough article

Might be worth adding links to those Amazon reviews to the Grough article

I’ll maybe drop them a line. I can’t say with 100% certainty that it’s the same torch, but the headband material looks identical as does the main light with additional sidelights configuration. It’s pretty poor that amazon seems happy to continue to sell what appears to be a potentially lethal product.

Is that a bottle of whisky in that first pic?

Looks like those Boruit headtorches are on sale pretty widely, as there are loads of links to eBay sites selling them, some of which have pretty scathing reports about chargers exploding!

t’s pretty poor that amazon seems happy to continue to sell what appears to be a potentially lethal product.

They genuinely don’t even give half a shit. Raise it with them- point them to the discussions on their own pages where customers discuss dangerous and fake products that remain on sale and see for yourself how little they care.

It’s pretty poor that amazon seems happy to continue to sell what appears to be a potentially lethal product.

To be fair, it isn’t the torch that seems to be the issue, rather the batteries or the charger; the obvious step to take is to buy the torch, but either use your own charger and batteries, or source them from a known supplier.
I’ve got a bunch of 18650 cells that look very much like the blue ones in the bottom photo, but mine are seven or eight years old, and still charge up fine, it’s the charger that’s the weak link here, and it pays to buy one that can handle a wide range of cell sizes, mine charge 18560 and 14500, but will probably charge other intermediate sizes as well.

GrahamS wrote:

AIUI it is mainly the chargers that are the issue.

It is.

Good batteries should have protection circuits on them to prevent overcharge, sudden discharge and overheating – but decent chargers should also have monitoring circuitry to prevent these things.

Maybe – you can get good batteries without protection circuits – it’s just that they shouldn’t be used in a device or charger which doesn’t have proper protection itself. Which TBH should only be devices which aren’t designed to use LiIon/LiPo batteries. My RC batteries are all unprotected, but they’re used with good quality chargers and ESCs which have low voltage protection. It really should be up to the charger design – I’d be extremely surprised if any of my chargers resulted in a fire even with cheap batteries – the only problem with cheap batteries is that the performance might be poor.

the obvious step to take is to buy the torch, but either use your own charger and batteries, or source them from a known supplier

Thats assuming the person has read all the bad reviews as well and so knows not to trust it.

It also doesnt really put Amazon in better light. They could, for example, only sell the torch.