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FrozenGate by Avery

BEWARE of ARCTIC BATTERY EXPLOSION

electron

electron

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Sep 11, 2007
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Hello everyone as you may know I've had my Arctics for a little while now.

I originally charged-up one of WL green 1300mAh 18650 batteries and while it didn't last long, all was fine.

Last night I needed to recharge that same WL 18650 battery. I used the same charger that I charged with last time around, and I've been using that same charger (one of several I have) for about 2 years now.

About an hour into charging I heard an explosion & large flash and awful burning smell from the room the charger & batteries where. Both my Fire Alarm & Burglar Alarm went off at the same time.

The WL 18650 battery had EXPLODED all over the place, and burn the wall, table top it was sitting on, scorched 3 other chargers that were sitting near it not plugged in and not being used at the time. It also scorched the side of the TV it was near. Pieces of the exploded battery flew across the room and light fire to my bedding linens.

Needless to say I had my hands full taking care of all this, in the end I'm left with ruined bed linens. Scorched table top, wall, side of 40" HDTV, 3 other scorched chargers from being near it and a ruined charger and an AW IMR battery sitting near it; not to mention all the pieces of the WL battery and fire/soot smell.

Spent must of the night and early this morning cleaning-up the best I could and got a Commercial Ionizer this morning to cleanup the air in the house to rid the house of that nasty fire smell.

I am very lucky that one it didn't burn my house down, and two I wasn't hurt because just 10 minutes before the Explosion I went in that room to checked on those batteries; thankfully it didn't explode in my face at that moment.

Someone once asked if the WL 18650 is a protected battery, I can tell you now for certain NO it's not.

PLEASE DON'T use your WL supplied 18650 batteries, they are EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, as I just found out the hard way. :lasergun:

THANKS WICKED LASERS, YEA THANKS SO MUCH!!!! :wtf:
 

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all I can say is WOW! Just WOW. it's rather sad too, cause I've got a ton of the protected 18650's and they dont' fit in my arctic very well... The tailcap doesn't screw in all the way when you use a protected cell.
 
WTF :wtf: a DEALEXTREME battery exploded!?!?
Oh I see you´re talking about a Wickedlaser battery. Sorry I´m not a bit surprised :tired:
 
Wow how many more WL FAILS could there be?? I'd be sending those pictures to WL.
 
For the price of the Arctic.....
you know they will need to save money somewhere...:whistle:

The battery must have been quite hot before it blew...:eek:
Luckily you were not near the event..

I have a charger that I use to charge my R/C plane
batteries that I modified with a temperature sensor..
It shuts the charger off when the batteries get warm
before the end of the charge cycle...


Jerry
 
How is "Steve" not in jail yet? Seriously. I'm still waiting on a replacement, your battery exploded and damaged your personal property, that could've resulted in your injury or death. This is bulls**t.
 
electron said:
Hello everyone as you may know I've had my Arctics for a little while now.

I originally charged-up one of WL green 1300mAh 18650 batteries and while it didn't last long, all was fine.

Last night I needed to recharge that same WL 18650 battery. I used the same charger that I charged with last time around, and I've been using that same charger (one of several I have) for about 2 years now.

About an hour into charging I heard an explosion & large flash and awful burning smell from the room the charger & batteries where. Both my Fire Alarm & Burglar Alarm went off at the same time.

The WL 18650 battery had EXPLODED all over the place, and burn the wall, table top it was sitting on, scorched 3 other chargers that were sitting near it not plugged in and not being used at the time. It also scorched the side of the TV it was near. Pieces of the exploded battery flew across the room and light fire to my bedding linens.

Needless to say I had my hands full taking care of all this, in the end I'm left with ruined bed linens. Scorched table top, wall, side of 40" HDTV, 3 other scorched chargers from being near it and a ruined charger and an AW IMR battery sitting near it; not to mention all the pieces of the WL battery and fire/soot smell.

Spent must of the night and early this morning cleaning-up the best I could and got a Commercial Ionizer this morning to cleanup the air in the house to rid the house of that nasty fire smell.

I am very lucky that one it didn't burn my house down, and two I wasn't hurt because just 10 minutes before the Explosion I went in that room to checked on those batteries; thankfully it didn't explode in my face at that moment.

Someone once asked if the WL 18650 is a protected battery, I can tell you now for certain NO it's not.

PLEASE DON'T use your WL supplied 18650 batteries, they are EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, as I just found out the hard way. :lasergun:

THANKS WICKED LASERS, YEA THANKS SO MUCH!!!! :wtf:
Click to expand...
You're lucky you were home, otherwise it might have burned the house down.
Sad thing is, I don't think you'll be the victim of this.
Were they the Chinese "Maypop" brand?
The Li-ion chargers and made to sense the voltage of the battery, so it shouldn't matter if they are protected or not.
These were just very, very cheap cells.
As soon as I saw that they were only 1300mAhr, I thought to myself were did they find such relics? Every 18650 cell I've seen in the last couple of years is at least 2000-2200mAhrs minimum and these were probably left over cells from when lithium ion cells 1st came on the market; probably picked them up less than 50 cents a piece.

I would urge anyone having these to stop using & charging them and just get rid of them ASAP at a battery recycle center.
 
I am so glad you are okay, you should check your local laws to see if you can sue their ass.
 
Woodofcville said:
How is "Steve" not in jail yet? Seriously. I'm still waiting on a replacement, your battery exploded and damaged your personal property, that could've resulted in your injury or death. This is bulls**t.
Click to expand...

+ take a look at their 190-449nm OD5+ and 450-532nm OD6+ claimed 445nm&532nm "safety goggles"!!


We should write an official letter for the public to let people know what´s going on here.

We should do this before more happen and the WORLD take away OUR laser hobby!!!
 
Last edited:
I've been using that charger for years to charge un-protected 18650 LG batteries I bought from Optotronics and several other protected ones such as AW's. I carefully plugged the charger into AC again, and to my surprise it still works and is putting out 4.20v; of course it's badly burned, so I'm not going to use it anymore, it's trash now.

Still though, I have some 18650 I need to charge and I'm darn scared right now to charge any 18650 right now; hopefully that will pass, as I have too many things that use 18650 batteries now.

Maybe I put them outside on the porch, or better yet, the walkway.

I hear Pila chargers will shut down to prevent this, but again this I firmly believe happened only because it was a totally crap/junk 18650.
 
rangedunits said:
I am so glad you are okay, you should check your local laws to see if you can sue their ass.
Click to expand...
Yes I'm calling my Lawyer Monday, but it's China; that why Chris/Steve setup shop over there in the first place; they can get away with most of anything.
 
Wow! I'm glad it wasn't worse. Could of injured someone or burnt down the house.

I'll post this warning on my Arctic tutorial.
 
Jesus. Just when you think it ain't getting worse.

I'm really glad that you are unharmed, though same cannot be said for your property it would seem. I'd agree with ranged, you could look into legal action. This coule have ended a LOT worse.

Offtopic, Jerry, I'd be interested in a shematic for that "modification" if it's not a company secret or something.
 
These Li-Po batteries can and do overheat and explode. I am not defending WL, but the supplier of the batteries is the one that is most liable. We have all heard the reports of Laptop batteries catching fire, and They are made up of 18650 cells. Glad You are ok electron!!
 
lasersbee said:
For the price of the Arctic.....
you know they will need to save money somewhere...:whistle:

The battery must have been quite hot before it blew...:eek:
Luckily you were not near the event..

I have a charger that I use to charge my R/C plane
batteries that I modified with a temperature sensor..
It shuts the charger off when the batteries get warm
before the end of the charge cycle...


Jerry
Click to expand...
Do you know of any chargers at any price range that have that feature built into them? I'm waiting on word back from Pila, they are suppose to be much safer; I still believe it was the crap battery, but a heat sensor such as you have done, probably would have prevented this.

Thanks
 
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