My Provari went up in smoke!

[slickcdb2000]

Well my precious black chrome, blue led went up in smoke this morning.... Literally!!! Almost got to work, went to get a vape... nothing.... looked at it, no lights. I started to unscrew the endcap and poof... a cloud of electrical smoke hit me in the face! mod got super hot, battery was VERY hot! Threw the batt out the window, thinking that it may possibly explode. I would rather it blow up on the side of the road than in my truck! It couldn't have happened at a worse possible time either. I'm working out of town, been here a week and got another 3 weeks or so left here!!!! I'm stuck with my backup 3.7 only mod

How is the warranty at provape? I bought it November, cyber monday... so it's a little over 3 months old. What could have happened here? I'm using a tank, haven't ever had a problem with leakage before so juice getting in the mod I think is out of the question..... Any thoughts?

 

[Shortstuff116]

I wouldn't have a clue what could have happened because I've never heard of anything bad happening with a Provari before - too many safety features built in. I'm sure someone from Provape will definitely chime in here soon to assist you. The only thing that comes to mind would be a battery issue. What battery was in your Provari when that happened?

 

[slickcdb2000]

It was the one that is sold at provape, I ordered it when I ordered the provari..... 18650 AW IMR Battery

 

[Madcaprym]

wow! sorry man, that stinks!

 

[evosil98]

I'm glad your OK.

Please keep us updated.

 

[irahuff]

Hope things turn out good, thus far this is the first bad I have read about these.

 

[Penner]

First time I ever heard of a Provari problem.

 

[LegioX]

Sorry about what happened. I'm extremely surprised. I am glad you are OK though. Just to clarify, are we talking about the AW IMR 18650 1600mah battery provape used to sell?

Hrm...quiteee shocking. Makes me think I should chuck batteries after 4 months...............

Though on second thought, and purely from a Provari user point of view, I hope this was 100% a Provari manufacturing error, i.e. almost impossible to happen, than a battery problem.

The reason why is...if something funky went out with the circuitry while installed in manufacturing, that's a little more reassuring...as mistakes do happen and would be extremely rare. Unless its an over-time decay type issue...which is totally different.

If its a battery issue though I would feel possibly a bit safer, as I would from now on recycle batteries after maybe 3-4 months.



..And if its 100% the battery, than at least we know we are still as safe as we can possibly be in the vaping world using a Provari than we would be with any other mod.

 

[washvap]

Wow, sorry to hear about what happened. It's good that nothing worse happened since that could've been an ugly situation.

 

[mwa102464]

Glad nothing happened to ya slickcdb,,,,, you say you went to take a vape, ( where was your Provari ) ? is it possible the button was wedged in the on position or kept getting pushed in the on position somehow where it was ? I just ask because the Provari has a built in safety feature to shut off after 16sec so it cant stay in the on, but is possible that it might keep coming back on once it cooled down. I would have to assume it was this Batt and not the Provari. How old was the Batt ? I ask because if youve been using the same batt hard core the internal resistance of the Batt was probably pretty high. Either way no matter what happen it's good you didnt get hurt man. Lesson learned though for all. Ya have to always keep rotating Batts and getting new ones, its also good to check the internal resistance of your Batts once in a while, there is a formula to do this as well and everyone should know how to do this and check it, once these Batts get upwards of a 4 internal resistance they should be put out to pasture and replaced with new and the new Batt has approx a 1 internal resistance.

 

[Madcaprym]

If its a battery issue though I would feel possibly a bit safer, as I would from now on recycle batteries after maybe 3-4 months.

Hey let me know when you are ready to recycle batts, send them to me! I'll pm you my address! Haha no seriously hehe

 

[slickcdb2000]

I have 2 batts that I rotate, it was purchased the same time the provari was. So it was a little over 3 months old. It was sitting in my cup holder in my truck, I don't think it was possible that the button was pushed down. From now on I think I'll keep 4 batts on rotate!!!

 

[5vz]

Glad nothing happened to ya slickcdb,,,,, you say you went to take a vape, ( where was your Provari ) ? is it possible the button was wedged in the on position or kept getting pushed in the on position somehow where it was ? I just ask because the Provari has a built in safety feature to shut off after 16sec so it cant stay in the on, but is possible that it might keep coming back on once it cooled down. I would have to assume it was this Batt and not the Provari. How old was the Batt ? I ask because if youve been using the same batt hard core the internal resistance of the Batt was probably pretty high. Either way no matter what happen it's good you didnt get hurt man. Lesson learned though for all. Ya have to always keep rotating Batts and getting new ones, its also good to check the internal resistance of your Batts once in a while, there is a formula to do this as well and everyone should know how to do this and check it, once these Batts get upwards of a 4 internal resistance they should be put out to pasture and replaced with new and the new Batt has approx a 1 internal resistance.

Ya' wanna' share how to check that internal resistance with us? I think most of us can check the voltage with a DMM, but how do we check internal resistance?

 

[markfm]

Rbatt = Vdrop*(RL/(Vdrop+Vbatt))

Vdrop is the difference between open circuit voltage and the voltage measured under load
Vbatt is the open circuit voltage measured above
RL is the resistor you load the battery with (e.g., carto or atty measured resistance)
Rbatt is the battery internal resistance you're looking for

Ref: How to calculate internal resistance of a 12V/ 12 Ah battery? - Yahoo! Answers

From over at laserpointerforums, for an 18650:
75-150 mOhm - Excellent
150-250 mOhm - Good
250-350 mOhm - Marginal
350-Up mOhm - Bad

The above are milliOhms.

example: battery open circuit measures 3.7V. Loaded with a 3 ohm carto you get 3.6V. Vdrop = 3.7 - 3.6 = 0.1V
Rbatt = 0.1x(3/[3.7 + 0.1]) = 0.3/3.8 = 0.079 ohms, 79 milliOhms. This would classify as a good battery, fine condition.

You would need to measure the battery independent of the Provari, I expect. You really want to measure just the battery open circuit voltage, and the battery voltage when connected to a measured resistive load.

 

[slickcdb2000]

Ok..... So the provari is indestructible!!! Got off work today and decided I would just give it a shot and try a spare batt..... It isn't broke! The battery almost exploded in my provari but yet it still works! The spring collapsed when it malfunctioned, but other than that all is good! I must say I'm highly impressed!!! I still have to replace the spring and I now have a lavatube on the way that was ordered last night but I'm a happy camper now! Thanks provape.

 

[Shortstuff116]

Provari - "Takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'." Oh and a Timex too!

 

[evosil98]

Could you post some pictures?

 

[KeithB]

Was the wrapper on the battery damaged in any way before this happened? It does act as an insulator and any bare spots could lead to a dead short that no amount of electronic protection could prevent.

 

[Sanity Challenged]

Did you fill out the naughty battery form?
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/forms.php?do=form&fid=8

 

[slickcdb2000]

Not really anything to post a pic of, the faulty batt is on the side of the road somewhere.

I don't remember seeing any bad spots on the batt.

I haven't filled out the form but I'll look it over and post something up