Battery Giant (The story of smoking batteries)

I recently bought a custom battery and Tenergy charger. Their custom battery service is a great idea. But a few reviews warned that the batteries may "explode," a warning which I ignored and ordered anyway. I went online to place an order. The custom battery builder kept throwing an error so I placed my order via the phone. I ordered a custom 12v 3300 MaH NiMh battery. Two weeks later I called them. They said my charger was out of stock and they they were going to call me. That took two weeks. So with that solved I paid $20 extra for a Tenergy 01025 (highly recommended, it has a thermocouple to monitor the battery unlike some of the clones of it). So after that delay, I got a package 3 days later from Tenergy. They drop shipped me a charger but no battery. I called them and they said the battery was on it's way. 8 days later it finally came. This was all two months ago.

Today, my battery was sitting on a table in a flashlight off, not charging when it smoked. A lot. I grabbed the flashlight and ran outside. I cracked the glass lens and pulled out the bulb then the smoking battery. It was still smoking so I ran to get a diagonal cutters and cut the leads and make sure they were not shorted. I threw a wet paper towel over it, and slowly it stopped smoking. Upon slicing open the heat shrink, I cant tell what went wrong. All the tabs that connect the batteries are melted, but the cells are undamaged except for 1.

Anyway, dont buy from battery giant.

Wow... it just went up in smoke like that when you werent even handling the flashlight?

I guess something must have shorted out considering the molten tabs, but thats worrysome enough. NiMH cells dont usually explode or actually catch fire like some lithium cells can, but they can deliver a heck of a load of current when shorted, enough to melt through wires and tabs. I wouldn't expect it to go 'boom', but something like that is definitely a fire hazard, who knows what could have happened if you were not at home when it happened...

It didnt catch fire but the tabs melted. Here is a pic of the heat shrink that was around it. I just sat down on the couch and it was on the table leaning on the couch. It is scary that such a small shift could cause this

pictures of the battery please :thanks:

The pics of the battery suck. I sanded the tabs so they are not black anymore and the blackened cell is hard to see. Dosent make for impressive pics.

Edit: I think a lot of the smoke came from a piece of masking like tape over the terminals. that must have gotten very hot

Scary stuff...good thing you where there when it happend.

Im still a little scared with al the chinese lithium cells that i have, i know what lithium can do, just hope none of my batteries do that....:scared:

Btw what kind of flashlight uses a batteriepack like that?

You risked 3rd degree burns for a light bulb lol. be safe man. it's better to replace a flash light than it is your skin. Believe me, i know.

michael.

As far as i understand the flashight wasn't even on when this happened, which makes it all the more worrysome.

The picture tells the whole story though, this pack was definitely short circuited, possibly internally. The tabs have clearly burned/melted the plastic wrap, while the actual cells are intact. This is very typical for a NiCd/NiMH 'meltdown' - usually the actual cells dont show much sign of damage (no bulging, leaks, holes etc), apart from the plastic wrapper around them.

Xtrm2Rick said:

Scary stuff...good thing you where there when it happend.

Im still a little scared with al the chinese lithium cells that i have, i know what lithium can do, just hope none of my batteries do that....:scared:

Btw what kind of flashlight uses a batteriepack like that?

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I am really glad that it wasn't lithium. I can't imagine what it would have been like if there was anything more then smoke,

Benm said:

As far as i understand the flashight wasn't even on when this happened, which makes it all the more worrysome.

The picture tells the whole story though, this pack was definitely short circuited, possibly internally. The tabs have clearly burned/melted the plastic wrap, while the actual cells are intact. This is very typical for a NiCd/NiMH 'meltdown' - usually the actual cells dont show much sign of damage (no bulging, leaks, holes etc), apart from the plastic wrapper around them.

Click to expand...

That is exactly right. No damage to any but one of the cells. That one cell tha was damaged (and that damage was minor, just some blackness on the cell) was next to the positive wire that exits the battery. I am sure that it was shored internally. There was no damage ton the wires that connected to the switch.