Battery & Mod Explosions

[Wraith504]

Looks like that vid shows what happens when everything worked the way it should on a runaway. The battery vented at the top, you can see it off gas at the top of the mod, and see the residue on the atty. Where the problem comes in is when it doesn't vent properly. That's when things get very nasty very fast.

And arent quality batteries designed this way?

 

[Mrs C]

Design and reality are sometimes very different irl.

 

[Fir3b1rd]

Ouch. I dreamt that the charger(!) for my pad went thermal the other night. I sure did a lot of stuff to prevent it from exploding.




I don't believe it will. Imagine that you lick your fingertips and put your right finger on the positive battery pole of a fully charged 18650, and the left finger on the negative battery pole. What would happen? This is the worst case scenario, as far as I understand.

I don't think thermal runaway causes the battery to pump out more volts. As far as I can tell from googling around, you need more than 40 volts, plus water, for electricity to be lethal.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nor a qualified electrical engineer, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

Voltage doesn't kill you, amperage does.
Voltage is a measure of the pressure built up from the electrons moving. Current(amperage) is a measure of the amount of electrons. Wattage is the power or work done. There's slot more to it but that's the most basic I can put it.
Think of it as pinching a hose. Voltage is the pressure caused by the pinch, current is the amount of water.
It only takes 10 milliamps to stop the heart.
Voltage can cause damage to the best buy USUALLY wouldn't kill you-ie Tesla coil, tazer gun.
Better one would be a defribrilator
They start at 15000 Volts using 0.1 amps... enough to kick start the heart. I believe they can cause cardiac muscle damage though...
sorry for the diatribe, I'm exhausted but in also an nerdy electrical engineer so all this tech talk makes me Blabber

 

[doctadrea]

Then there's the issue if the current sticking the mod to you. Not sure if that happens or not, but if you out a fork in a socket, the electricity traveling through you to get to ground will not let you remove the fork. Not sure if the high drain battery behaves the same.
Not ready to find our either.

I don't know if that can happen with one of our batteries either, but I've been there. I was fixing an industrial dishwasher and forgot to turn off the main power to the machine because I'm dumb. I couldn't pull my arm away when I got zapped. I had to pull that hand away with my other hand, and it was like moving granite. Took all of my strength just to move it a few cm. Veins burst through my fingertips, and all in all, it was a bad time. Electricity is scary.
I love my mech mods, but I respect the danger and act appropriately because I know how hardcore they are. I also used to work as a bike messenger. I'm taking my life into my own hands every time I get on a bike, but I'm super aware, super careful, and I know what I'm doing. If people driving cars (using regulated mods) paid just a small fraction of the attention I do... that's all I'm saying.

 

[Baditude]

AW IMR (safe chemistry) 18490 battery which vented/exploded in a book bag. Likely came into contact with something metalic which completed the battery circuit and quickly over-discharged the battery, sending it into thermal runaway. Imagine this battery in a mechanical mod.




What's left of the battery/mod which exploded at the Vape Blast convention a couple of weeks ago. It exploded when an autofiring clone mutant mod was thrown onto the floor because of the heat generated and it exploded like a live grenade. Witnesses said it sounded like a gunshot. Shrapnel hit the ceiling and a fire started on the carpet. 26650 size battery, no one knows the make or model.




Not sure about the details of the above, but I seem to recall this had something to do with stacking batteries.

 

[ElConquistador]

The sad thing about the guy at Vape Blast is that he had his one golden shot at being a hero and he blew the chance. Apparently, he hasn't seen enough war movies to know that what he should have done was throw the battery on the floor and then jump on it. He might have earned himself a Congressional Medal of Honor, instead of being universally ridiculed on vaping forums all over the world.

 

[Shootist]

Simple stop using Mech's and switch to a regulated device.

 

[mightymen]

China hasn't been know for their quality of products and now were moving into 100 watt devices that need a bigger battery and better wiring. IMO it's going to be a wait and see what's going to happen are these device going to be safe are people going to throw caution to wind and buy cheaper products that are less safe.

If we start hearing more stories of explosions will this back fire on the vaping community by given the haters the proof they need to dismantle vaping with tons and tons of regulations.

 

[peraspera]

IMRs vent rather than explode. However, if the venting gets blocked (easy to happen if the battery swells) or isn't sufficient to release all the gasses from the venting in a timely manner things can go boom.

Good safety practices are all about layered protection. Regulated mods are now available that have enough power to drive builds for totally devoted cloud chasers. They add meaningful layers of protection.

 

[John Lever]

Thus, the reason I only use regulated mods.

 

[Wraith504]

I have never been one to like any kind of regulation. LoL

 

[Fir3b1rd]

I like regulated mods. I have a dna30, a couple of provaris and a handfuls of mech. My daily drivers are my dna30 and sringrayx though. At some point I'm going to get a reo and a 50w mod. And that'll probably be it. I'm waiting to see evolvs next generation of offerings before I get one though. Totally dig the tatroe atlas though.

 

[iClearoman]

i saw a youtube video where a guy purposely vented three different 18650 batteries and none of them turned into a pipe bomb. They all just vented and expanded in the tube. Pretty interesting video I always thought if a battery vented it meant big explosion! here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjjscec3HuI

 

[rondasherrill]

Voltage doesn't kill you, amperage does.
Voltage is a measure of the pressure built up from the electrons moving. Current(amperage) is a measure of the amount of electrons. Wattage is the power or work done. There's slot more to it but that's the most basic I can put it.
Think of it as pinching a hose. Voltage is the pressure caused by the pinch, current is the amount of water.
It only takes 10 milliamps to stop the heart.
Voltage can cause damage to the best buy USUALLY wouldn't kill you-ie Tesla coil, tazer gun.
Better one would be a defribrilator
They start at 15000 Volts using 0.1 amps... enough to kick start the heart. I believe they can cause cardiac muscle damage though...
sorry for the diatribe, I'm exhausted but in also an nerdy electrical engineer so all this tech talk makes me Blabber

The myth that "voltage doesn't kill, only amps" needs to die. Perhaps by electrocution.

The FACT is that BOTH are absolutely necessary, because POWER across the heart is fatal.
1. The threshold of conductivity for humans is about 24V. Above that, about 18mA across the heart can lead to cardiac arrest.
2. Below that voltage however, the body's internal resistance is simply too high. At 20V, the current required to overcome the bodies internal resistance would be 2 x 10 to the 13th power. The lower the voltage goes, the higher the necessary amperage would be.

 

[Wraith504]

The myth that "voltage doesn't kill, only amps" needs to die. Perhaps by electrocution.

The FACT is that BOTH are absolutely necessary, because POWER across the heart is fatal.
1. The threshold of conductivity for humans is about 24V. Above that, about 18mA across the heart can lead to cardiac arrest.
2. Below that voltage however, the body's internal resistance is simply too high. At 20V, the current required to overcome the bodies internal resistance would be 2 x 10 to the 13th power. The lower the voltage goes, the higher the necessary amperage would be.

Soooo.. without getting too scientifical, is it ok for me to lick my fingers and stick them in my electrical socket?

 

[Nermal]

Sure! It's less than the 24V minimum given by rondasherrill, isn't it?

 

[rondasherrill]

Well, you COULD, but since it is well over that 24V threshold, it would probably result in the electrocution I mentioned.