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FrozenGate by Avery

BEWARE of ARCTIC BATTERY EXPLOSION

Hello Everyone,

I tried to post this earlier but I don't think it want through so I'm asking again. I also appologize in advance if this was answered in an earlier post & didn't see it.

I have a quick question in regards to the Arctic & the 18650 battery.

After the exploding battery incident (thank goodness you weren't hurt "Electron") I went through my other 18650's I have in my other lasers & flashlights that use them. I have a no name blue 3.7v 2400mAh 18650 & a couple of protected Ultafire 3.7 3000mAh 18650's (which are slightly longer & make the tail-cap stick out) . I tried them both in the Arctic & noticed with the 2400mAh & 3000mAH the battery indicator lights did not illuminate on the Arctic. However with the stock WL green 1300mAh 'exploding' battery the indicator lights did work.

I just ordered some 'Tenergy' protected 2600mAH 18650's off of amazon as suggested by ZapU & my main question is:

1. Will the indicator lights on the Arctic work with the 'Tenergy' protected 2600mAH 18650's? (I guess you could answer this one ZapU)

Thank you for you time,

Alfie Chip
 





This stupid laser just keeps getting more frustrating! I guess I'm lucky my battery doesn't even work...or my charger, whichever one is the problem.
 
alfiechip said:
Hello Everyone,

I tried to post this earlier but I don't think it want through so I'm asking again. I also appologize in advance if this was answered in an earlier post & didn't see it.

I have a quick question in regards to the Arctic & the 18650 battery.

After the exploding battery incident (thank goodness you weren't hurt "Electron") I went through my other 18650's I have in my other lasers & flashlights that use them. I have a no name blue 3.7v 2400mAh 18650 & a couple of protected Ultafire 3.7 3000mAh 18650's (which are slightly longer & make the tail-cap stick out) . I tried them both in the Arctic & noticed with the 2400mAh & 3000mAH the battery indicator lights did not illuminate on the Arctic. However with the stock WL green 1300mAh 'exploding' battery the indicator lights did work.

I just ordered some 'Tenergy' protected 2600mAH 18650's off of amazon as suggested by ZapU & my main question is:

1. Will the indicator lights on the Arctic work with the 'Tenergy' protected 2600mAH 18650's? (I guess you could answer this one ZapU)

Thank you for you time,

Alfie Chip
Click to expand...

The battery lights on mine work intermittently with the Tenergys, didn't work at all with the original 1300mAh battery. I don't pay any attention to them.
I know I'm good for more than an hour. I just check it with a volt meter.
 
wow electron glad to know your ok. Today I'm heading to USPS and sending my Arctic back. At the same time I'm waiting for my Spartan to ship, should be a little under a week now as they're producing more.
 
If anybody is keeping their arctic but not using the 1300mAh cell that came with it, please consider sending it my way. I am only interested in this 1300mAh WL green cell "+ 18650 1300mAh -" the same as this one.

Thanks!
 
Rule of thumb: NEVER CHARGE LITHIUM BATTERIES UNATTENDED. EVER.

They used to put much bigger warnings on them, they used to make a big deal of it, but now it seems there's no warnings anywhere.

I charge all my batteries in a metal toolbox, with a sand bag handy in case something goes wrong. In case you didn't know, putting water on a lithium fire is one of the worst things you can do, it'll make it worse. One of the only ways to put out a metal fire is by smothering it in sand. You could possibly use a class D fire extinguisher, but sand is your best bet.

It's easy to forget that inside these batteries is an ongoing chemical reaction involving volatile and highly reactive metals and chemicals. The power stored in lithium chemistry batteries is immense, and if released all at once, lithium batteries can easily produce 6 foot fireballs that burn hotter than the surface of the sun.

It's very lucky you were home when this happened, it would be very tragic to lose your home because of faulty batteries. I hope more people read this and learn from your misfortune, that lithium batteries are serious f**ing business and should be treated with care and respect at all times.

I didn't read the whole thread, but I do hope you bring this issue up with Wicked, maybe talk to a lawyer about this. You've got a few hundred dollars in damages there at least, and from what I've read about battery explosions in the past, HP, Dell, and Apple, have paid people 5-6 figure sums as settlements to avoid a class action lawsuit. I'm not sure Wicked will be so cooperative, but I'm certain you can get at least a few thousand dollars from them to replace your linens.
 


See from 5:00 onwards. The amount of energy is a lithium cell is staggering - then you remember that petrol has higher energy density, and that there's 50l of the stuff in an average car...

I hope this gets a mention on the Gizmodo page about the Arctic...
 
I emailed it to them last night charlie; I also included links to the bad goggles, and general crappyness of the laser :p

Rpb
 
robjdixon said:
I emailed it to them last night charlie; I also included links to the bad goggles, and general crappyness of the laser :p

Rpb
Click to expand...

They have their lurkers and already know about it. They have their money, that is all they´re interested in.
 
robjdixon said:
I emailed it to them last night charlie; I also included links to the bad goggles, and general crappyness of the laser :p

Rpb
Click to expand...

I also emailed the article's author (didn't realise anyone had already) - but I guess the more the merrier, and the more likely it is to get noticed.
 
SenKat_Stonetek said:
WOW ! Sorry to hear that happened - I wouldn't wish that stuff on ANYONE. Glad you are okay, though - it could have been much worse :( I guess I don't know that much about 18650's - or ANY of the Li rechargeables...I thought with that little "vented" part on the positive end, that meant protected ? Where can I get more educated about this issue ?
Click to expand...
Protected means that a battery has a little PCB on it's negative end which monitors it's output and current status, so that is shuts off the battery if the voltage gets below 2.75 V or over 4.2 V (preven deep discharge and overcharge), sometimes it shuts it off it short circuit occurs.

Though, at cheapo batteries they do more hard then good. I had to cut a PCB out of one battery because it was dead, but cell itself was alright and it still provides me with serious amps.
 
electron said:
H...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....
Click to expand...


I'd like your permission to post this in my Arctic's evaluation at http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/30/arctic.htm if you don't mind.

The update would be made on 10-01-10 (or "01 Oct 2010" if you prefer), assuming you give me the green light.

Thank you for taking the time to read this! :)
 
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