mods blowing up? Really?

[Spencer87]

Just looking in to how ... verifiable this is

I mean, People on here talking almost like this is a daily occurance.

I really dont hear of it happening all that often, and there are probably a lot more subohmers than all would like to believe, even as most seem to vehementely (I think thats a word) Evangelize AGAINST it...

But I was looking up mods blowing up, and most people say that your mod is not going to blow up unless you have a really cheap old mod that has no air holes on the area with the battery...
So it seems that the only mods that are dangerous are those mods then? Just seems like with all the people sub ohm building, there would be more mods blowing up. I know it cant just be because ther general population is smart. There are maybe more smart people here, but, In the world...,.nah


and then people talk about blowing up your hand, as if at some point your just sitting there, and then with absolutely NO warning, the mod would just blow... i am sure idiots wouldnt be sitting there watching it vent for 2-3 minutes.... in their hand, not noticing it getting super hot, and allow it to blow in their hand

And even from the instances where we do have mods exploding, (which is a stageringly low amount to my knowledge) How can people be sure that that is due to the Low ohm more than to a short in the coil or the battery or the mod?
Many people talk about the continuous rating of batteries, but in my experience, the lower the ohm, the shorter the pull! My sweet spot now is 0.5 (Which is a 9amp draw) . At that level then highest pull I can get is at about 4-5 seconds. MAybe the pull has more to do with airflow on your rba I guess,


Anyways, I am beginning to Rant!

 

[Baditude]

Vape Show Attendees Remain Calm Despite Possible Tragedy

Vape Blast Had a Vape Blast

ECF Forum Administrator Rolygate Comments On The Vape Blast Explosion and On Mechanical Mod Safety Issues

Rolygate: Eight APV explosions reported...

PBusardo comments on the exploding mod at Vape Blast

_________________________________________​

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/announcements-news/269461-exploding-mods-update-february-2012-a.html

Colorado e-Cigarette Explosion Lawsuit

Man Suffers Severe Injuries After E-Cigarette Explodes in His Mouth

__________________________________________​

 

[Spencer87]

Granted. That's still not... alot... It's a few... but comparatively? I mean..... is it still trouble if the battery part has a hole in the metal, a vent hole as most mechanical mods have now? Were these older mods, cheaper mods?
From What I read online, if your mod has vent holes, it won't explode, although the battery May, the explosion is caused from gas being presurized, not from the actual battery bang, which doesn't emit enough force alone to blow metal apart

 

[snork]

Just looking in to how ... verifiable this is

I mean, People on here talking almost like this is a daily occurance.

I really dont hear of it happening all that often, and there are probably a lot more subohmers than all would like to believe, even as most seem to vehementely (I think thats a word) Evangelize AGAINST it...

But I was looking up mods blowing up, and most people say that your mod is not going to blow up unless you have a really cheap old mod that has no air holes on the area with the battery...
So it seems that the only mods that are dangerous are those mods then? Just seems like with all the people sub ohm building, there would be more mods blowing up. I know it cant just be because ther general population is smart. There are maybe more smart people here, but, In the world...,.nah


and then people talk about blowing up your hand, as if at some point your just sitting there, and then with absolutely NO warning, the mod would just blow... i am sure idiots wouldnt be sitting there watching it vent for 2-3 minutes.... in their hand, not noticing it getting super hot, and allow it to blow in their hand

And even from the instances where we do have mods exploding, (which is a stageringly low amount to my knowledge) How can people be sure that that is due to the Low ohm more than to a short in the coil or the battery or the mod?
Many people talk about the continuous rating of batteries, but in my experience, the lower the ohm, the shorter the pull! My sweet spot now is 0.5 (Which is a 9amp draw) . At that level then highest pull I can get is at about 4-5 seconds. MAybe the pull has more to do with airflow on your RBA I guess,


Anyways, I am beginning to Rant!

Sub-ohm vaping is actually a very recent development (somebody help me out here, within a year?) Before that mechanical mods' power draws were basically self-limiting considering the low resistance norm was a 1.5 ohm coil. Now that number has plummeted like a rock as some folks seem to feel there are no limits. Time will tell.

 

[Spencer87]

Plus the face one was most likely just an ego or cigalike from What I heard about it earlier... doesn't say it was a mechanical mod, and three of those posts were about the same incident

 

[issy]

Batteries also swell when they vent, possibly blocking the vent holes (or so I read...) Anywho, I've read enough stories to not take them with a grain of salt. Better safe than sorry. If you educate yourself well on the physics batteries, you'll understand enough to know that they can and do explode. So can cell phones, laptops, etc. so it's always best to play it safe!

 

[Baditude]

Mechanical mod design needs a major overhaul. Most mechanicals utilize a bottom firing button. Unless the button is recessed, the button will need to be locked each time it is set down or there is a risk of auto-firing the battery. How many owners of this button type lock it EVERY time they set their mod down? A recessed, side-fire button is much safer and less likely to auto-fire. Bottom-fire buttons are most common in mechanical mods because they are cheaper and easier to make. IMHO, safety should be the priority over cheaper and easier.

Too many mechanical mods made today have NO vent holes. This is a major safety risk should a battery vent gas. If there are no vent holes, gas builds up and the mod becomes a pipe bomb.

Some batteries, even the recommended safe-chemistry batteries, will swell in diameter and length when they vent. This increase in size can block off access for the gas to vent through the vent holes. Again, setting up the pipe bomb scenario. Batteries are designed to vent from the top, yet most vent holes are in the bottom of the mod. Something's wrong with this picture.

Swollen AW IMR safe chemistry battery after venting

A mod does not need to "explode" to cause physical damage; the vented gas is hot enough to cause surrounding materials to catch on fire.

 

[Baditude]

Plus the face one was most likely just an ego or cigalike from What I heard about it earlier... doesn't say it was a mechanical mod, and three of those posts were about the same incident

Wow, that was very observant of you. At least you took the time to click on each link. (I purposely included three links to the same story.)

The one where the man had facial injuries was using a Prodigy mechanical mod made by Pure Smoker. The manufacturer lost his business after the lawsuit. The victim lost his jaw.

That's still not... alot... It's a few... but comparatively?

Compared to the total number of people vaping, you're right. It's just a few.

But that statistic is meaningless if you happen to be one of the few. My educated guess is that most incidents were the result of human error.

Autofiring fire button; over-discharge of a battery; using the wrong chemistry battery; abusing a battery over its amp rating spec; allowing a battery to vent from a hard short; using a mod with inadequate venting, running a build so hot it melts the insulator causing a short, etc.

I read or hear about people bragging about their < 0.1 ohm build on a daily basis, which is way over-spec for any battery on the market. That's literally a dead short in the making. The meters we use are not that accurate to read that low resistance. This is just plain stupid.

 

[DaPopeLP]

A) the chinese pictures are very likely fake.

B) There is very likely a lot more info about vape blast incident we dont know.

Batteries do not go kaboom with standard high drain batteries and low ohm builds. Only vids Iv seen of them going boom were when a piece of metal is just placed over the positive. But Im sure someone will just argue with me. Most of the explosions have NOT been mechs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQocKa-Rh-s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjjscec3HuI

 

[Ed_C]

Yeah, I agree, a small hole or two on the bottom of the mod doesn't mean the gas will make it outside. Better to make sure it doesn't vent in the first place.

 

[milescadre]

On the topic of venting, I have to agree. Poorly placed or drilled vent holes is an issue.

I love my nemesis to death. but never could understand why the vents were at the bottom. as if they wanted you to put the battery in upside down >.<

But other nemesis-alike clones (Posieden, Humming Bird, etc) have vent holes (large ones at that) placed alot higher on the mod. I love my hammer because the 6 big vent holes are on the bottom of the mod right at the positive side of the battery, to ensure that even in a catastrophic venting, the mod can safely vent.

But a major reason I dont use my valkyrie as much as I want to is because it has only one tiny vent hole at the bottom of the mod. its a huge shame. =(

 

[eratikmind]

Every fatal car accident is not reported in the evening news, as well. Yet, they happen.

 

[Baditude]

Every fatal car accident is not reported in the evening news, as well. Yet, they happen.

I had a battery explode in my first mechanical mod. No one would have known if I didn't tell anyone either.

 

[denali_41]

li-on batteries for vaping are not the only li-on batterys that explode !!

i had a cell phone batt explode ,not vent but literally explode and the phone bounced off the far wall in pieces .but how often do you hear about those ??

 

[Baditude]

A) the chinese pictures are very likely fake.

Not to be argumentative, but what makes you say that? As someone who worked in the medical/surgical field for 35 years and saw a lot of trauma injuries, those pictures look authentic to me.

B) There is very likely a lot more info about vape blast incident we dont know.

Meaning what specifically? A mod autofires in a guy's pocket, he screams out in pain as he struggles to remove the hot mod from his pants, and tosses it on the ground into a crowd of spectators. Upon impact, it explodes vertically, spraying multiple metal shards into the ceiling and catching the carpet on fire. Someone might as well have set off a live grenade. It's a miracle no major injuries did not occur.

Batteries do not go kaboom with standard high drain batteries and low ohm builds. Only vids Iv seen of them going boom were when a piece of metal is just placed over the positive. But Im sure someone will just argue with me. Most of the explosions have NOT been mechs.

Those videos were of controlled experiments. Under the right circumstances, ANY battery can explode.

What is becoming more and more common is the number of new vapors who want to be self-described "cloud chasers". They watch a video on You Tube, or see vapers at vape lounges making huge clouds of vapor and say, "I want that!!" Not knowing about potential safety issues of operating a mechanical mod with ultra-low ohm builds, they go to a vape shop and end up with a mech with a 0.1 ohm build with no education and no personal research on their part.

They know nothing about the battery in the mod (they might remember what color it is), what amp limit it has, don't own an ohm meter and may not even know the resistance of the coil. And what is sad is some shop owners are gladly selling such a setup to an ignorant consumer without regards to their safety. I posted to someone just within the last day of someone who had a new setup from a shop, and the sales person sold him an Efest protected ICR battery for an ultra-sub-ohm build for which he had built the coil. That's a battery that would have had just a 3 amp rating. http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/new-members-forum/602173-questions-cotton-bedding-cotton-thru-coils.html#post14107675

They post on ECF wondering why their fire button or mod is hot; why did the battery spring collapse; why is the vapor so hot?

 

[JohnnyBGoode]

I had one cheap ego explode on me, decent firecracker, shorted out the house, hole in my couch.

Had one ICR cell (LG) vent due to own carelessness , the wrapping was damaged , allowing it to short when inserted in a simple mech. Luckily the mech had plenty vent holes and I noticed it getting hot so was able to throw it outside.

Had a final near short (measured at. 0.02ohm afterwards) with a vtc5 because a coil came loose and made connection to the base. When firing it gave me a nice spark and jolt.

Point is.. Accidents can happen ... I always check and measure my coils, I (nowadays) use safer batteries , etc. Still something as stupid as a too tight screw which snapped the kanthal after some time caused a minor short.
I make sure my batteries vent side faces the vent holes reducing hopefully the likelyhood of a pipebom.

It would be sad to die of vaping as that was one of the reasons why I quite smoking.

 

[HauntedMyst]

It happens. Tom Hanks was using a very early mech while filming Castaway when one went off. It's dangerous stuff.

 

[stevegmu]

Given the amount of recent threads started by beginners asking what to get for sub-ohm cloud production and the number of posts about how B&Ms are recommending mechs and sub ohm builds to beginners, I'd say the flood of mod explosions will be happening soon...

 

[Funk Dracula]

I am fairly confident in having an assumption that there are far more battery vents than are reported. OP, I reckon if it happened to you, you would not be rushing to post pics of it either after the fact.

Pure speculation on my behalf, but i don't think I'm anywhere near approaching "tin foil hat" territory.

And why?

It's simple: Don't argue with Science.

I'm really getting tired of people making a debate of this particular subject and the rationalizing that goes along with it. It lacks common sense and a respect of the massive energy that is contained within a 18mm X 65mm metal tube. There is enough "rationalizing" with how much harm reduction vaping actually is to keep us busy for a long while.

And for the record, I sub-ohm all day, every day.

 

[xcrazydx]

There's one or two of these threads everyday. The same few people try to give information to keep people safe. And then there's the other few idiots that pop in and talk about how they only pulse their mod so it's safe and it won't vent or blow up.

Whatever, blow your face off I don't care anymore.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk