Lucky escape with a regulated mod and cell?

[crayfishx]

I recently had a rather unnerving experience and I'm still not quite sure of the root cause, maybe I never will be... First, the set up I was using

IPV D2 regulated mod with an Aspire Triton 2 tank, 0.5ohm coil. I was using a set of Aspire 2600 ICR batteries, which claim to be 20A, but I rarely vape over 30W so only ever pushed them to about 10A or so. I charge my batteries on a Nitrecore Digicharger.

Recently while walking home, with my mod in my bag at my side, I noticed a burning smell, a quite distinctive and nasty chemical smell - not something I've ever really smelt before. This went on for about 5 or 10 minutes and I was wondering what could be on fire, never did I imagine that the smell was coming from my bag. Only when I got home and put my hand in my bag to be greeted by a scorching heat did I realise what was going on. My mod was incredibly hot, I could hold it briefly, but only for less than a second. Thankfully the IPV D2 has a very easy to open magnetic battery casing and I ripped the battery out as fast as I could, it was on a glass topped table and I decided to leave the room for 20 minutes before even going near it again. When it cooled down enough to hold I moved it outside and put it on a flat surface in a closed BBQ. The smell (which I'm assuming was battery venting) lingered in my bag for quite some time after that - I'm pretty sure it wasn't burnt juice, it's not a smell I've ever come across before.

I'm not sure what happened here. It's possible that I didn't switch the mod off before putting it my bag, although I always turn it off, who knows, maybe this one time I forgot.... But even then I would have thought the mod's protections should have kicked in. I've had the mod for nearly two years and it's had a couple of bumps and falls over time so I guess it could have been defective. I've since inspected the battery and there is a very small tear in the wrap, right up near the edge of the wrap on the top contact that I didn't notice before, could this have caused a short?

The whole thing got me quite unnerved about vaping, I can't help thinking I was seconds or minutes away from becoming the next news headline.

I've ditched both the battery and the mod and replaced the mod with an eVic Primo Mini (my cash is less important to me than my face or limbs) and I've picked up some LG HE2 INR batteries. It's made me super cautious though, I won't even carry my mod in my bag with the battery inserted anymore.

Most of the horror stories out there seem to be from user error on mech mods or from using bad chargers, I've not come across this before. Any other possible causes for this to happen? I'd like to avoid such scares in the future!

 

[ppeeble]

I had a D2 start auto-firing on me for no discernable reason. The mod was 6 months old but barely used and never taken out of the house. An Evic VTC mini also just stopped working for no obvious reason.
To add context to that statement i must add that i own and use upward of 100 mods in rotation. So that's a 2% failure rate over a year.
Unfortunately the current state of play with most of the available Chinese made devices is pretty poor. As long as China keeps producing CHEAP vaping devices there will always be an element of uncertainty as to their reliabilty. It's consumer led - we all want low cost shiny things.
The only advice i would give is buy a European device or be prepared to remove the battery when not in use.

 

[sonicbomb]

Firstly I glad that you didn't get hurt.
The most likely cause is that you didn't lock it and the button was held down in your bag. It's also possible that the mod just auto-fired on it's own, this does happen. It's unlikely that the batteries shorted as most regulated mods have protection against this. The smell is most likely to have been incinerated cotton and burnt juice, it's happened to me and smell is truly awful.

I do not have any test data for those cells but based on the mAh rating they are probably have a 10 amp CDR. If your mod was set to 30 watts then this probably saved them from venting as the amp pull probably didn't exceed 15 amps by the time they cut-out. They would have got extremely hot, and the continuous firing of the atomizer would have generated a lot of heat which would have inducted into the body of the mod. If the batteries had vented then I would expect there to be at least some electrolyte apparent, though this may have evaporated.

You did the right thing getting rid of the batteries as they are almost certainly damaged. If the mod did auto-fire then it cannot be trusted. The LG HE2 is a great 20 amp cell so you made a good choice there.

LG HE2 20A 2500mAh 18650 Bench Retest Results...a very good 20A battery
Mooch's Recommended Batteries | E-Cigarette Forum
https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/f...etest-results-a-very-good-20a-battery.716469/
Not carrying a mod in a pocket or bag is probably a sensible choice. You certainly should not give up vaping, but exercising caution and not getting complacent with your equipment would be a really good idea.

 

[brittianm]

I had this happen with my triade. Worst smell ever.

Sent from my LG-LS777 using Tapatalk

 

[crayfishx]

Thanks for that reply @sonicbomb - I think you maybe right, maybe it wasn't actually as bad as I was assuming - but it's still pretty scary to see something so small and utterly powerful get so hot! I was assuming the smell was battery venting, but there was no residue in the battery compartment or any noticeable damage to the battery, so maybe it was just burnt gunk.

The new batteries I got are HG2, not HE2 like I previously posted, but either way reviews on them look good and so far I've been impressed with the battery life, much more vaping time than my previous ones. I'm still quite content vaping at 35W on 0.4ohm, I don't really need it any higher for my personal tastes, and it keeps the amp draw less than 10A which I feel more comfortable with no matter what the ratings say.

It has scared me into being a bit more cautious though (which I don't think is a bad thing) - I remove the battery and put it in a case when the mod is not in use now, even just walking down the street. I've also purchased a multimeter so I can keep an eye on my charger and make sure it's behaving correctly.

 

[sonicbomb]

The HG2 is an even better battery.
On a regulated device the resistance does not play a part in the amp draw only the wattage, and the amp draw will be highest when the battery is discharged.
Have a read of this
Ohms Law - Calculating safe amp usage | E-Cigarette Forum

 

[crayfishx]

The HG2 is an even better battery.
On a regulated device the resistance does not play a part in the amp draw only the wattage, and the amp draw will be highest when the battery is discharged.
Have a read of this
Ohms Law - Calculating safe amp usage | E-Cigarette Forum

Thanks - thats really useful. I'm quite liking the eVic Primo Mini as it gives you the current amp pull on the screen based on the current battery voltage and watt setting. I've verified the eVic voltage reading against a multimeter and it's correct to the decimal point. Very nice feature IMO

 

[tazzle]

hmmmm. I don't think it was your fault, crayfishx. Just a couple from the list...

 

[crayfishx]

hmmmm. I don't think it was your fault, crayfishx. Just a couple from the list...

Yikes, that top one was almost my exact set up.... Scary thing is I travel a lot and I was on a plane with my mod in my bag 24 hours before it happened. I'm never boarding a plane again with my battery inserted in my mod! I may not have made headlines for my face blowing off, but making the headlines as "that guy" who got a plane diverted isn't a great honour either

Also - if my mod starts auto firing I think the last thing I'll be doing is getting my mobile out to video it happen! [/QUOTE]

 

[doctadrea]

I had a qbox that decided my atty (which was built to .4ohms) was actually 2.8 all of a sudden, so when I fired it, set for 35w, it put out about 10v into the .4 coil. That's 25amps on an itty bitty battery mod that only goes up to 50w (and even then, only if it's charged more than halfway full). The screw on the bottom got hot enough in that second to burn a little blister on my finger, the rest of the mod was very hot but not burning. I obvs only pressed the button for a second, and thankfully that was it. No fires, no explosions thank god. I didn't use it again, but did note that it still thought all coils are 2.5+. Got a replacement which is working all hunky dory, but I sure as hell am side-eyeing these regulated mods.

 

[sonicbomb]

Thanks - thats really useful. I'm quite liking the eVic Primo Mini as it gives you the current amp pull on the screen based on the current battery voltage and watt setting. I've verified the eVic voltage reading against a multimeter and it's correct to the decimal point. Very nice feature IMO

I don't know the specifics of the Evic, but generally the volts and amps shown on the display are atomizer side, not battery side readings. If you read the article I posted you'll know that the regulator chip separates these two and each is independent from the other. Essentially what it shows you is useless information. You don't care about what mix of volts and amps the mod is using to create the wattage you requested. But you do care what amperage is drawn from the battery, and the only way to get that is some simple maths.

Or you can use steam-engine to calculate it. Set to 'regulated' and 'power regulation - VW' mode on the left.
A fully charged 18650 is 4.2 volts, and empty one (though this value varies depending on the cut-off of you mod) is around 3.2 volts. Play with the resistance of the coil and see that the balance of amps and volts changes, but the wattage to the atomizer does not. Decrease the voltage in the battery to 3.2 volts and see how that increases the amps drawn from the battery. You can see that if you were to use the 80 watts that the Evic is capable of, you would probably want to use the Sony VTC5a which is a 25 amp cell. Over taxing a battery will prematurely age it, and is not recommended.

 

[DaveP]

I need to start locking my mods when I pocket carry. The other day I pulled out my Alien and the vape was weak. Button presses in my pocket had turned the wattage down. Luckily, the fire button is a bar with a hefty switch spring load and it takes a pretty hard press to actuate.

ICR batteries aren't the best choice. Stick with LMR, as SonicBomb said uptopic.

 

[Eskie]

I need to start locking my mods when I pocket carry. The other day I pulled out my Alien and the vape was weak. Button presses in my pocket had turned the wattage down. Luckily, the fire button is a bar with a hefty switch spring load and it takes a pretty hard press to actuate.

ICR batteries aren't the best choice. Stick with LMR, as SonicBomb said uptopic.

I always lock whatever I'm taking out with me in my pocket. It takes a second and saves hours of sorting the whole mess out while sitting in the ER to get some burn cream.

 

[DaveP]

I always lock whatever I'm taking out with me in my pocket. It takes a second and saves hours of sorting the whole mess out while sitting in the ER to get some burn cream.

Yup! I'd hate to have to suddenly pull my pants off in Walmart to escape the heat burn.

 

[KenD]

I need to start locking my mods when I pocket carry. The other day I pulled out my Alien and the vape was weak. Button presses in my pocket had turned the wattage down. Luckily, the fire button is a bar with a hefty switch spring load and it takes a pretty hard press to actuate.

ICR batteries aren't the best choice. Stick with LMR, as SonicBomb said uptopic.

Very few batteries are IMR though (I can't think of any actually). Most of the batteries we use are of a hybrid chemistry. ICRs are definitely not ago good choice of course (though I'm not sure if the Aspire batteries are actually ICR chemistry or if the "ICR" is simply part of the model number).

Sent from my K6000 Pro using Tapatalk

 

[DaveP]

Very few batteries are IMR though (I can't think of any actually). Most of the batteries we use are of a hybrid chemistry. ICRs are definitely not ago good choice of course (though I'm not sure if the Aspire batteries are actually ICR chemistry or if the "ICR" is simply part of the model number).

Sent from my K6000 Pro using Tapatalk

You're right. It's changing. The ones I use are generally lithium manganese nickel. I'm partial to Sony, Samsung,and LG.

It's always puzzled me that the L in LMR has always been typed IMR and referred to as lithium manganese rechargeable. Early on, I just thought that it was a confusion between lower case L and the I looking alike. Still, you see that abbreviation used all the time.

 

[90VG]

Yup! I'd hate to have to suddenly pull my pants off in Walmart to escape the heat burn.

At least at Walmart you wouldn't look out of place.

I had an IPV5 that autofired. It still shut off after 10-12 seconds, would wait a little while then fire again. I would just leave it in the menu, and it would cycle through the options slowly and not fire. I just returned it and the vendor (101vape) replaced it for free. The replacement died a few months later.

 

[puffon]

Any concerns with a IPVD3s ?
I have a couple.

 

[90VG]

My IPVD3 has always behaved. Not my favorite mod, but it keeps on working.

 

[bwh79]

Essentially what it shows you is useless information. You don't care about what mix of volts and amps the mod is using to create the wattage you requested. But you do care what amperage is drawn from the battery, and the only way to get that is some simple maths.

Why do they do this, though? Wouldn't it be just as easy for them to show the other side of the page (they have to know the battery voltage already, in order to get the wattage right in the first place, yeah? And then like you said all it takes is some simple maths) and show the input volts/amps coming off the battery instead of the output values off the board?