Just vented my first 2 batteries

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Alien Traveler

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Baditude

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Why do you blame batteries? It definitely was either mod failure or user error.
Using known inferior batteries increases your risk of battery failure. This seems to be common sense.

Battery companies who inflate the rating of their batteries give users a false sense of security.

I'm not saying it wasn't mod failure or user error in this incidence, but it didn't help using inferior batteries in the first place.
 

MMW

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You can see the battries vented from the positive end like they are known to. You can see the negative contacts on the battery sled torched while the positive contacts aren't. No atomizer on or button pushed. Vented right when they were put in.

Seems pretty simple to me.
 
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Lessifer

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Am I see things, or do I see some tears in the insulator wrap of the bottom battery? If so, this would cause a battery hard short.

I don't think its a coincidence that a lot of the battery venting/explosions involve purple Efest batteries. It's now well known that Efest re-wraps reject cells from the major battery manufacturers, yet for some reason people still use them.

Purple Efest Batteries Not As Advertised




Rest batteries after charging
One commonly-reported factor in almost all the incidents we hear of where batteries failed violently while in use is that they were taken directly off the charger and then used immediately, at which point they failed.

Because of this, we think it may be a good idea to rest batteries after charging them. This advice will not be found in the usual 'reference bibles' on batteries, but we see more and different reports than others. Therefore we now advise:

Do not use batteries directly after charging them. Use a battery or batteries you previously charged, and that have rested for several hours. This is especially important if using a stacked pair for higher voltage, as statistically the risk is far higher. --- rolygate

The benefit to resting is increased battery lifespan & minimize chance of venting.

I agree that letting batteries rest is a best practice, however, I think in this case there had to have been something that started the venting. There should have been no release of energy. So, either the battery was put in reverse, or the wrapper was torn on the positive end upon insertion, or there was a short in the mod.
 

DaveP

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Why do you blame batteries? It definitely was either mod failure or user error.

I agree that it was probably a reversed battery that caused it.

Any time there's a battery failure thread some things need to be repeated. It's a good idea to cover all the ways and reasons that lithium batteries fail just for the sake of new people who haven't yet been introduced to battery safety. Most of us have heard it over and over, but someone will benefit. These threads attract vapers at all levels of vaping expertise.

Then, there's the issue of dendrite formation. Hopefully that problem will go away in the years to come.

New electrolyte promises to rid lithium batteries of short-circuiting dendrites
 
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Alien Traveler

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I agree that it was probably a reversed battery that caused it.

Any time there's a battery failure thread some things need to be repeated. It's a good idea to cover all the ways and reasons that lithium batteries fail just for the sake of new people who haven't yet been introduced to battery safety. Most of us have heard it over and over, but someone will benefit.
And what is "someone" will decide that all of failures are just battery failures? Not user failures? Not mod failures? This thread not about quality of batteries, it is about very special case, very special accident. Why dilute real possible causes with imagined ones? It will not introduce novice user to battery safety, but just confuse him/her.
 

DaveP

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And what is "someone" will decide that all of failures are just battery failures? Not user failures? Not mod failures? This thread not about quality of batteries, it is about very special case, very special accident. Why dilute real possible causes with imagined ones? It will not introduce novice user to battery safety, but just confuse him/her.

The pictures look like a case of reversed battery, but it's hard to tell from the charred remains. "Someone" could be anyone who is reading the thread that hasn't had a chance to learn battery safety. For that reason a discussion on battery safety has a place where an accident has occurred. Someone will learn something they haven't heard before. If that makes them respect lithium batteries and triggers a desire to read about battery safety, then that benefits all.

The two telltale symptoms here are 1) The positive contacts are shiny and aren't smoked. 2) Negative contacts are burned. What I gather from that is that the spew was emitted from the positive battery pole into the negative connection.

Supporting evidence here is the torn battery wrap on one of the batteries. That allows the case of the battery to contact the connector contact and short both battery poles together. You can see the circular end of the battery case in the picture. That spells instant high amp discharge through the mod connector across the battery terminals.

Venting doesn't occur from the negative end of the battery since it's a closed tube on the negative end. The evidence is pretty straightforward for a battery reversal. That could happen to anyone if they were distracted at the time.

Some mods have reverse voltage protection through high amp diodes that conduct only when the batteries are inserted properly. That couldn't have prevented this because the terminal was able to short across the center contact and the case of the battery. The heat from one battery burning would burn the battery next to it and the other battery shows a lifted end of smoked wrapping. Mod protection can't stop that current flow path. Damaged case wrapping can bypass electronic safety features.
 
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Forkeh

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I will never use a mech mod. I just got through saying it. But I do use Efest batteries. Sorry to hear the bad news.

That's you're choice, and not necessarily a bad one. However, please don't neglect battery safety even in your regulated devices. Safety features can fail. I mean your chances of an incident are lower. But the chances of an experienced user venting a battery even in a mech is pretty low already, and it happened to the OP.
 

DaveP

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@sonicbomb , yes I am aware that the Efests exaggerate and I have taken that in to account, by reading the reports and never pushing past their actual capacity. There wasn't an atty on in this case. It had something to do with putting them in

Spencer, when you insert batteries do you press them against the negative spring and lower them into the mod or do you just press them in? My Smok Koopor 200W has rounded contacts with no exposed metal edges and I'm still concerned about one day having the battery wrap crack and short. I noticed that the connectors in your mod are tab types with exposed edges. Those connectors could easily wear a thin spot in the battery wrap or split the wrap.
 

Spencer87

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Am I seeing things, or do I see some tears in the insulator wrap of the bottom battery? Looks like bare metal front and center. If so, this could cause a battery hard short when the bare cell body came into contact with the mod body. That plastic shrink wrap is there for a very good reason.

Rest batteries after charging
One commonly-reported factor in almost all the incidents we hear of where batteries failed violently while in use is that they were taken directly off the charger and then used immediately, at which point they failed.

Because of this, we think it may be a good idea to rest batteries after charging them. This advice will not be found in the usual 'reference bibles' on batteries, but we see more and different reports than others. Therefore we now advise:

Do not use batteries directly after charging them. Use a battery or batteries you previously charged, and that have rested for several hours. This is especially important if using a stacked pair for higher voltage, as statistically the risk is far higher. --- rolygate

The benefit to resting is increased battery lifespan & minimize chance of venting.

So first off, @Baditude HAHA I definitely would NOT use batteries that had all that exposed metal on them. No, That happened because of the heat. The batteries were still extremely hot a couple minutes later when I tried to touch them. I ended up leaving them there on the ground for a day.

but, Even So, The battery sled is plastic, so the batts do not touch any of the mod body directly.
As for letting them rest , i took them out of the Intellicharger when I noticed that it was finished charging... I dont know how long it had been finished, but at least a couple minutes. I had planned on letting them rest. I didnt have an Atty on... so I didnt think any power would be released. Although I wasnt aware of this rest thing, I still wasnt planning on using the mod right away

since you are the battery expert though, I noticed that the NEGATIVE end of one of the batts is Also fairly discoulored and brownish black on a part of it. Im curious as to why that happened as I only saw smoke coming from the positive end.



Spencer, when you insert batteries do you press them against the negative spring and lower them into the mod or do you just press them in? My Smok Koopor 200W has rounded contacts with no exposed metal edges and I'm still concerned about one day having the battery wrap crack and short. I noticed that the connectors in your mod are tab types with exposed edges. Those connectors could easily wear a thin spot in the battery wrap or split the wrap.

there is no negative spring, There is not a spring. you kind of need to push them in.
I suppose it is possible that in this one time the battery wrap cracked....and immediently shorted... somehow.
 

r055co

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Why do you blame batteries? It definitely was either mod failure or user error.
EFest batteries are pipe bombs, this malicious company takes reject batteries and rewraps them with grossly exaggerated ratings. This is well known and documented.

So yes the batteries are rightly suspect.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 
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crxess

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since you are the battery expert though, I noticed that the NEGATIVE end of one of the batts is Also fairly discoulored and brownish black on a part of it. Im curious as to why that happened as I only saw smoke coming from the positive end.

Heat Discoloration from the Rapid discharge & contact reaction between dissimilar Metals.
Think of Bluing a Mod for custom color.
As a Parallel mod, I hate to say, but it really sounds like you mistakenly dropped one battery in backward. I've done it several times.........fortunately in a protected single battery mod.
 
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DaveP

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there is no negative spring, There is not a spring. you kind of need to push them in.
I suppose it is possible that in this one time the battery wrap cracked....and immediently shorted... somehow.

There are conical springs and leaf springs. They can crack the battery wrapper. I like to press my battery into the negative end and lower the positive end into the positive connector rather than just pressing the battery into place. That prevents the battery shrink wrap from cracking.

On my Smok Koopor the negative contact is a very heavy conical coil spring that comes to a narrow point of contact. The positive contact is a heavy rounded metal contact. Think round top mountain shape. Those are both not what you'd think would wear down a battery's shrink wrap, but I've caught my wrap cracking before. I repaired that by double wrapping the paired batteries I use in that mod. All it takes is a crack wide enough to allow the battery tube to contact the same metal as the positive pole of the battery and it's off to the races.

On your mod you have curved flat metal spring pieces with sharp edges. I'm just thinking that those type contacts as well as the ones in my mod have the propensity to cause a crack in the battery sleeve that could lead to a peeling of the wrapper. It's as much the pressure as it is the sharpness that can crack the sleeve.

The edge of the positive end of the battery tube is covered by the plastic wrap. All it takes is a split in the wrap and it won't matter whether the battery is inserted correctly or not if the wrap splits enough to allow the outer metal case to contact the same metal as the positive center connector. That's my theory for the sudden heat and spew in your battery's sudden short.
 
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ENAUD

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, I noticed that the NEGATIVE end of one of the batts is Also fairly discoulored and brownish black on a part of it. Im curious as to why that happened as I only saw smoke coming from the positive end.

It sounds like a case of battery reversal, the negative end probably got scorched from the escaping gases from the positive of the other battery.
 
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