Killed 2 Slimline Chargers in 2 Hours!

[katz-in-boots]

OMG! Last night I killed 2 slimline chargers!!! 8-o This hasn't happened to me before and I don't understand what I did wrong. Here's the story...

All 6 of my slimline chargers were working fine except for one which occasionally took some turning on & off before it lit up - not one of the chargers that died. Because I'm in Oz, I use adapters to plug the US pin chargers into an Australian power board.

In the afternoon I did my routine battery & charger cleaning. I used alcohol swabs & a toothpick to push the swab into the threads of the chargers. Both chargers were used without problem after that process, so I don't think that's the cause.

In the evening, I think I had 2-3 batteries charging already and went to charge another one. I turned on the switch, charger light came on, went to screw the battery in. As soon as the battery touched the charger there was a flash and an acrid electrical burning smell. Charger dead. Screwed battery into another charger, all fine. Later in evening went to screw another battery into another charger, exactly the same thing happened!

Checked today, both chargers are definitely dead. Neither has any blackening that I can see. The adapters I use with them both work still. Nothing tripped a fuse or the surge protection on the power board, the batteries recharged on other chargers and seem to be fine today.

Any ideas what would cause 2 chargers to do that ?

Just when I thought I'd finished with ordering for a while, looks like I'm going to need new chargers

 

[plantlvr]

Oh my katz, so sorry this happened to you! Can't offer any advice cus I hardly ever clean my chargers . Was there maybe a power surge due to your storms?

 

[TheBlueAdept]

What a bummer! How old were the chargers, if you have any idea? Over time, some components will fail, and perhaps those were both of approximately the same age / usage amount?

Also, I suspect it is possible for their to be momentary surges that aren't big enough to trip the protection in your power board, but may still be big enough to damage circuits (especially if they are older).

I'm sure Mr M sir has way better answers for this, but these were my thoughts when I read what happened to ya..

 

[katz-in-boots]

Thanks for the replies. No storms here, and if there were surges, well ....

How old are the chargers? No idea. I bought them in two different orders, but I'm guessing a few months now.

 

[StormFinch]

Same set of batteries go through both chargers? If so, you might want to check the voltage on them just to be sure it wasn't one of them.

 

[Morandir835]

Ms. Katz have a feeling it was a power spike from the World/US adapter at the start up, and when you screwed the battery in caused it to fry. The alcohol could still be the culprit, did you make sure it was completely dry before using them? Could be a drop had gotten just the right place that when you screwed the batt in well..... In my juice tests with killing them would be amazed at how little it would take in just the right spot to kill at least the charger if not both. There is a very easy way to avoid this though in either case, screw the battery in before you turn the slim line on, and don't use the charger for 24 hours after cleaning.

 

[EleanorR]

OH NO, Katz! Chargers are so critical to vaping! I bet Morandir is right about the cause -- and I always screw in the battery first before plugging a charger in.

 

[katz-in-boots]

Ms. Katz have a feeling it was a power spike from the World/US adapter at the start up, and when you screwed the battery in caused it to fry. The alcohol could still be the culprit, did you make sure it was completely dry before using them? Could be a drop had gotten just the right place that when you screwed the batt in well..... In my juice tests with killing them would be amazed at how little it would take in just the right spot to kill at least the charger if not both. There is a very easy way to avoid this though in either case, screw the battery in before you turn the slim line on, and don't use the charger for 24 hours after cleaning.

Thanks M'Dir. I used alcohol swabs on the chargers & battery threads, both chargers had been used since the cleaning and the batteries were sitting around in open air. The flash happened before I could even start to screw the battery in - I just touched the charger post with the battery.

Funny, I always thought one was supposed to turn the charger on first so that when you screwed the battery in you could stop as soon as the LED flashed, to avoid over-tightening & pushing down the post. I do recall this being an issue with my first V4L Diamond auto batts, which is why I adopted that procedure.

I don't think it was an issue with the actual power supply because there were other batteries already charging on the same power strip at that time. If it was a power surge through my adapters, wouldn't that happen if the battery was already in place before I turned it on? Both adapters are still working okay.

 

[Taryn]

ahh I never knew it would be better to put the batteries in first then plug in the charger, thanks for the tip!