My husband's eGo exploded!

[chinsk]

I checked out the pictures, not sure what to make of it other then "yup, it blowed up". I do find it interesting that it blew out the top and the bottom cap appears to be pretty well intact and not moved a millimeter. I am thinking back to the other eGo explosion pictures I have seen, I am pretty sure the battery remained attached to the charger and the bottom blew out. The charger isn't damaged as badly as I would have expected as well.

I am curious to hear what people more savvy than I about batteries think.

 

[Corley]

I have added 3 new photos to the photobucket album. My internet is incredibly slow, even for DSL, so I have to size them down or they will never finish their upload. If you hold down CTRL and use a scroller on top of your mouse, it should make the image bigger on your screen, though I don't know if that's what you want to do either.

For reference, the album is located at www.photobucket.com/corleyego

NOTE--if you can't see it well, the top of the connector part has no charring or any visible defect around the threads, post, etc.

 

[Corley]

I checked out the pictures, not sure what to make of it other then "yup, it blowed up". I do find it interesting that it blew out the top and the bottom cap appears to be pretty well intact and not moved a millimeter. I am thinking back to the other eGo explosion pictures I have seen, I am pretty sure the battery remained attached to the charger and the bottom blew out. The charger isn't damaged as badly as I would have expected as well.

I am curious to hear what people more savvy than I about batteries think.

You are correct. The bottom cap is not loose at all.

 

[Rocketman]

The insulator in the nose piece of the eGo looks pristine.

 

[markfm]

Swollen battery from an initial thermal event, whether too high a voltage or current off the charger, or a latent internal battery defect, combined with offgassing from the positive terminal (at least some batteries have vents at the positive end)? Once the event is underway, the gas needs to go somewhere unless you have a really strong pressure cylinder. Swelling removes the path towards the bottom, so you get greater pressure buildup in the tiny space at the top until it pops off the press-fit top cap?

The charger itself wouldn't necessarily be obviously significantly damaged as the event didn't puncture the cap, the cap/connector acted like a shield.

Maybe any initial signs of things going wrong would have been stuff ejecting from around the button hole, until there was too much buildup for that hole to have done anything?

(This is just a random set of thoughts, not necessarily tied to reality.)

 

[Rocketman]

The internal cell in the eGo is just wrapped with the ends pinched to seal it at both ends. Positive and negative ends of the cell are the same. Spiral laminar flat wrap, wire out each end of the cell, sealed in a plastic bag. But it's obvious the positive end got hotter.

If the charger still puts out 4.2 volts it could probably be ruled out.
If 5 volts out, it was bad or became bad, maybe it's a cause, or as an effect.

 

[markfm]

Neat, learned something new I never bothered tearing an eGo open, so only saw the photos of the battery in the silver wrapper, ground coming off the bottom, so I had expected a standard cylindrical cell inside.

 

[Corley]

There is no evidence of this "silver wrapper" so I am guessing it incinerated during the explosion. There is something burned to the inside of the tube, which may be this wrapper. The glowing debris that burned my floor turned to crumbling black ash after they were smothered out.

Yes, the connecter end in the most recent picture from the top view looks as if nothing ever happened below it.

 

[cags]

I've got a call in to the vendor of the cartos asking what the ohm/resistance is. I get curious and can't help jumping to action to get questions answered

 

[Rocketman]

Corley,
it the rubble, use gloves, there should be evidence of two long flat sheet, one copper. They will be black, but you can now wash them with water (reaction is over) to see. The 'plastic bag', mylar I think, has probably melted to the inside of the case.
I would really like to know if the charger still puts out regulated voltage. If 4.2 volts out of the charger then the failure was most likely internal to the eGo.
I believe that the eGo will overcharge if 5 volts is applied. I see no protection against that i the eGo circuitry. Could be wrong, but I'll know soon

 

[Corley]

Corley,
it the rubble, use gloves, there should be evidence of two long flat sheet, one copper. They will be black, but you can now wash them with water (reaction is over) to see. The 'plastic bag', mylar I think, has probably melted to the inside of the case.
I would really like to know if the charger still puts out regulated voltage. If 4.2 volts out of the charger then the failure was most likely internal to the eGo.
I believe that the eGo will overcharge if 5 volts is applied. I see no protection against that i the eGo circuitry. Could be wrong, but I'll know soon

Nothing but the charred black ash remained in the debris that was strewn. We cleaned it with a broom and dustpan, but some did get on our hands...I'm not glowing yet, so hopefully I'm ok. I don't have a multimeter, and if I'm not mistaken, I would have to plug the charger in to see what voltage it was applying, and I am NOT plugging that thing back in. LOL.

 

[CraigHB]

My bet would be an internal cell defect causing a short inside the cell and subsequent thermal runaway. This can happen with anything that uses a Li-Ion battery and there are a some documented cases with devices like cell phones, cameras, and laptop computers. It's not something limited to e-cigs. It can happen with anything that uses a Li-Ion battery. Though, the quality control is much better with other devices so it's a more rare occurance with those.

 

[SteelJan]

Thanks for the additional pictures. Yep, sure doesn't look like a connector shorted. Sure is looking more and more like it was either the charger or a faulty battery the way CraigHB describes. I'm with Rocketman on wishing I could see if the charger still puts out a voltage and what that would be, but since you don't have a meter and are understandably not wanting to fool with that charger anymore, guess we'll have to wait to see what the manufacturer finds after they get the pieces and analyse them.

 

[Rocketman]

Agree, charger voltage now could be enlightening.

I just tried to blow an eGo with a 5volt charger and failed
It got too hot to hold but didn't blow.
I have a feeling that the eGo won't protect from a failed charger.
That's a good, properly functioning eGo.


http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...e-single-point-failure-built.html#post5482310

 

[Corley]

Sure hope that was in some sort of controlled area. I wouldn't want to be next to one that went off like ours did.

 

[Rocketman]

Sure hope that was in some sort of controlled area. I wouldn't want to be next to one that went off like ours did.

No problem. I blow stuff up all the time. Sometimes, on purpose

 

[CraigHB]

I've blown up a couple of the eGo 1000mAh cells purposely. I've gone through so many of them in the past couple years, I've taken a few apart just to see how much torture the cells can endure. I haven't done any over-charge tests, but I've done some short tests on them. It takes like 20 Amperes current for them to go off. That's a lot. So, in my experience, a connector short would be less likely to set one off. Also, the eGo electronics should normally disconnect when a short is detected.

BTW, don't try that carelessly. It did it in a ceramic pot with welding gloves, goggles, and a fire extinguisher close by. Even when removed from the eGo chassis, the cell inflates and pops pretty good, just like the video posted earlier.

 

[Rocketman]

I agree that a connector short would first, shut off the current flow, then a mosfet failure, then a mosfet vaporization. A connector short would also load charger voltage to zero, not much charge going in that way.
Just a circuit board failure in the eGo would only allow charger to run until cutoff.
Maybe it was a 2-point failure/ or like has been said, maybe just a defective cell.

The cell can take more current than the rest of the circuit if you got 20 amps from the cell. That was directly to the cell, right?

My overcharge test probably cooked the circuit board (it got really really hot) and stopped charging before it blew.
But I sure wouldn't want to use that cell ever again.

 

[chinsk]

Agree, charger voltage now could be enlightening.

I just tried to blow an eGo with a 5volt charger and failed
It got too hot to hold but didn't blow.
I have a feeling that the eGo won't protect from a failed charger.
That's a good, properly functioning eGo.


http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...e-single-point-failure-built.html#post5482310

Dude. Awesome.

 

[Rocketman]

Dude. Awesome.

No, Awesome would have made a noise