Have any rebuildables ever exploded?

[Beerman309]

I'm just curious. There was a news feed today about an ecig exploding and it seems like the only ones that have done so so far are the store bought small ones. Has anyone heard of a rebuildable exploding? I use a Russian 91%, Tesla FirePhoenix II, and Sony 18650 battery.

 

[DavidOck]

Toppers won't explode, although if poorly made (i.e. with a short, or too low a resistance for the battery) they may cause the battery to overheat.

batteries, built in or removeable, are the power source that, if abused, may go into thermal runaway. Such abuse can be from connection to too low a resistance, improper charging, failed charger and so on.

Regulated mods provide a level of protection against shorts, but it's not wise to rely on only one layer of protection. And mechs don't have that at all, only you.

 

[Ryedan]

I'm just curious. There was a news feed today about an ecig exploding and it seems like the only ones that have done so so far are the store bought small ones. Has anyone heard of a rebuildable exploding? I use a Russian 91%, Tesla FirePhoenix II, and Sony 18650 battery.

I agree with what David said, I just wanted to add a couple of thoughts on the FirePhoenix II.

I don't get much about it when I Googled for a review of it. There was one video in french and this one. Check that one out, the guy had a problem with his. Fasttech doesn't have any user reviews on their site for it. They do have good reviews on the FirePhoenix I.

The amp limit of the voltage regulator in either FirePhoenix is not listed anywhere I can find. It is supposed to go up to 6 volts and is speced to handle down to 0.5 ohms. With a variable voltage device the amp draw is determined by the combination of voltage applied and atty resistance according to Ohm's law. Here is an Ohm's law calculator. Plug in 0.5 ohms and 6V, hit enter and you get a draw of 12 amps. I am pretty sure that device is not capable of handling that much current safely. What the regulator needs to do to save itself in that situation is to either limit the voltage to not exceed the maximum the mod can handle no matter what voltage you set and what resistance atty you use, or to stop the mod from firing if you exceed its amp limit.

This mod is not well known so we can't rely on its good reputation and it's about as cheap as you can go with this type of mod. We also don't know what the amp limit is so we don't know how to avoid pushing it to the point where the regulator safety features kick in.

Compare that to something like the Vamo at a few bucks more. It's been around for a long time, has a good safety reputation and we know its amp limit is 5A from the details on the Fasttech web page. It has a few more features like both VV and variable wattage. It also has thermal monitoring which means it will shut itself down if the circuit board gets too hot. The resistance check feature is nice to have too.

Now, I'm not suggesting the FirePhoenix II is an unsafe mod, I have absolutely no way of knowing that, but personally I would be more comfortable with a mod I knew more about and that has a known track record.

If I would use a FirePhoenix, I would not charge the battery in the mod. I would take the battery out and use a good external charger. If you don't have one you can pick one up for about $20.