istick 50 watt exploded

[Robino1]

Wow!! Glad you were awake when that happened!
I can't imagine if you had slept longer
Probably not a good thing to charge when you are not awake or at home <~ Lesson for the day

Would it have been better to use a charger that works with the device? Or was it definitely something wrong with the cable?

I'm just happy that no one was hurt. Carpet is a mess though

 

[Bikenstein]

Just my 2 cents but I really feel like the 50 chips are faulty. I've seen them blow up by autofire. When they autofire you can't turn them off. Five clickin has no effect. The only thing you can do is remove the atty like I did. If the charger was causin it to heat up it would have started to cool down when it was taken off. More than likely the 50 was causin the charger to heat up.

 

[thesoulsniper1]

From how it went and people over talked to it sounds like the charging circuit shorted out and as soon as I removed the charging cord to let it cool down it shorted the whole device.

 

[CardinalWinds]

That's scary. I have two of them that work fine but...that's scary. I love my istick 50's (well, my mother has one of them) but as time has gone by and more people have them, the failure rate seems unusually high. It's a great unit for the price when you have a good one but I guess at just a dollar per watt, quality control takes a back seat. Shame, really. Hopefully iSmoka is aware of these issues and does something with future production runs.

Now I'm nervous for my mom. She's 76 and not very tech savvy, so I think I'll go over charging safety with her again in detail...

 

[sonicbomb]

Really glad you didn't get hurt. Thats one way to patina a mod.

 

[TaketheRedPill]

I'm very happy to hear that noone was harmed. In the future:


1. Never ever ever leave a charging battery unattended. Always charge a battery within your line of sight. Sleeping is leaving a charging battery unattended. Do not trust your life or home to a two-bit charger (and they are ALL two-bit).

2. Know your device. With a 1A wall charger, an istick50 will charge in less than 5 hours. Don't risk overcharging by leaving a battery on a charger after it's completed it's charge cycle. When the charging is complete, immediately unplug the charger and let the battery rest for at least 10 minutes while it is being closely monitored.

3. Thermal runaway in batteries and resultant fire/explosion tend to happen most often within the first 10 minutes of being fully charged (or in your case, overcharged). It's highly preferable to let your battery rest for at least an hour after charging so that all the little excited bits inside the battery can migrate off the poles and back to the center of the battery where they belong.

Vape safe.

 

[WillyZee]

a guy at work said he doesn't use his anymore ... he said he was afraid to carry it in his pocket.

 

[Semiretired]

Charging bags are never a bad idea. Ive always been paranoid about leaving vape hardware plugged in after its done charging, or leaving it plugged in and leaving the house. Then again, im paranoid about leaving batteries inside mech mods too

No, charging bags are a good idea. Hardware should never be left charging when leaving the house and I will not charge in an area that is highly flammable.

 

[sludgeheart]

Thanks for the heads up. Though any battery can blow, I hope yours is an isolated incident, not the beginning of a trend.

 

[thesoulsniper1]

I hope so. I've got another one now and don't even wanna use it because of that.

 

[WharfRat1976]

Did you ever drop it? Obviously you had a live short in there...brutal...nothing stuck in the 510?...like a lil chard of metal? Hard to say if it was the usb connect. It could have been the culprit. Dropping a vv mod can cause wires to move, become unconnected and create a catastrophic short.

 

[sludgeheart]

I hope so. I've got another one now and don't even wanna use it because of that.

I know the feeling.

 

[subohms4you]

Unrelated but do any of you know how to enter the security code on the eleaf website? It's in a weird format

Example
0000 1111
2222 3333

I tried it from top left to right and bottom left to right it says its not found, I bought it from vapenw, just wanna check authenticity just in-case mine goes boom, or it needs parts.

 

[Bikenstein]

Don't fool yourself, there are more. Not tryin to create a panic but be careful if you have one. iSmoka is aware of problems

 

[thesoulsniper1]

Nope never dropped it. Nothing stuck in it Nada. Looked and worked perfect until this morning.

 

[Bikenstein]

I've seen 3 now blown up and know of at least 8 more cases of this. It's called BLS I still own 2. I have a replacement coming.
istick 50w firing by itself | E-Cigarette Forum

 

[sonicbomb]

Those videos are terrifying

 

[twgbonehead]

Did you ever drop it? Obviously you had a live short in there...brutal...nothing stuck in the 510?...like a lil chard of metal? Hard to say if it was the usb connect. It could have been the culprit. Dropping a vv mod can cause wires to move, become unconnected and create a catastrophic short.

Not obvious; there have been a number of complaints about the istick50's control circuitry failing, resulting in auto-firing, or other disastrous results. And even if the 510 connector was shorted, there shouldn't have been an issue as long as he wasn't pressing the fire button, right?

This is a recurring defect in the istick50, it really should be taken off the market until the problems are fixed. And "Dropping a vv mod can cause wires to move"? Only if the mod was built in an extremely unsafe manner would this have any consequence whatsoever.

 

[DaveP]

The charger in the picture posted up topic had 1000mah on the side. That shouldn't be too much for a pair of 18650 batts. I've been charging several brands of 18650's on my Efest LUC 4 charger set to charge at 1A (1000mah) and warmth is barely detectable during charging or immediately after they show full charge.

I'm using the same EasyAcc charger from Amazon for my iStick 20W and my iStick 50W with no problems. I charge them both at 1A. That charger has 4 ports that go from 1A to 2.1A for different types of devices. I charge my iSticks at 1A. I did sense some warmth when I tried the 1.3A port, so I went back to the 1A port.

The iStick 50W is said to have Lithium Polymer batteries (LiPo). Those are said to be much less likely to explode or spew when being charged or in use. I wonder if the iStick circuitry failed and caused the problem. The picture posted definitely looks like there was extreme heat and flames.

I've dropped my iStick 50W a couple of times. You always wonder if something shifted inside, but it works just fine. Any safety conscious manufacturer would insert mylar inserts where components could shift and touch ground.

 

[Bikenstein]

In my opinion, I think they should do a recall. There are many with glitches like VV to VW switching and cutting off. But that still leaves the very serious potential for explosions. I would suggest not leaving an atty on it overnight. My episode happened when I went to the kitchen one morning to get another cup of coffee. When I returned to the couch, I saw the thing start firing by itself just sitting there on a coffee table. it would go the 10 seconds and shut off, then immediately fire again for 10 seconds, etc. The buttons would do nothing to cut it off or change anything. By the time I thought to remove the atty, it had cycled 3 times that I know of and was very hot. Though relatively few have done this, I strongly advise you to keep an eye on yours. I still use one of mine and still like it but take the atty off when not in use. Forget blamin a little charger.