Observation Regarding Battery Safety

[schuff]

So about 4 months ago I began working in a vape shop because I am an electronics nut and wanted to assist people to quit smoking.

My specific role / reason I was hired for the business was to help out the people that were interested in learning how to build their own coils since I have a few years experience. So of course I preach battery safety, explain resistance, show ohms law calculators etc. to everyone I assist in building coils for. After helping a ton of people I quickly noticed after giving them the essential info at first about 80% of them ran with it and are always coming to tell me about some new mod, new build, battery etc. and they research everything down to the tiniest detail. Most of them are showing me their builds on ohm meters and taking about airflow, watts, wide bore drip tips and the whole nine yards.

I say all of this because the people that I see every day with drippers that are "cloud chasing" are almost always taking battery safety into account.

Unfortunately, then you have the other side of the business. We have the customers with ego styles and passthroughs using 2 amp output powerbanks, 12 volt DC converters with 1 amp outputs, Galaxy note 3 1 amp chargers etc. in place of the chargers made for their devices. Even worse they get a cheap quality charger that is not intelligent and leave it on there for 12 hours.Then people sound horrified when ego style batteries explode.

I'm not saying we shouldn't preach battery safety to the cloud chaser's at all but by my observations of seeing a multitude of vapers everyday we should place a huge focus on educating the ego user more. I have much more concern with a user holding a god know what brand 13700 battery in their hand and then hooking it up to a 2 amp powerbank than I do a user firing his 0.3 ohm coil of with a high end IMR battery in his mechanical.

 

[Baditude]

I happen to agree with you. I read of more battery incidents with eGo batteries than I do of the replaceable rechargeable batteries used in mods. Statistically, more of these eGo battery incidents occur during charging.

Emphasis should be given in the vape shops to use only the recommended eGo chargers and only the appropriate USB wall adaptors. No computer USB ports or car USB ports - these can give either too little or too much current for the charger or battery.



It should also be recommended to only charge batteries while at home monitoring the battery while charging. Charging should take place on a flame-resistant surface (ie stove top, marble countertop, metal baking pan, pyrex baking dish).

Any battery which feels warm to touch should be discarded and put out of use.

 

[DeliciousClouds]

No computer USB ports or car USB ports - these can give either too little or too much current for the charger or battery.

That's.. A little odd. As far as I understand the USB standard, a device attached to the USB port will 'tell' the USB controller how much power it needs, and will get no more than that. Care to elaborate a bit?

Also, a USB 2.0 port will not pump more than 500mah into a battery as that's the limit of the port itself. But the USB 3.0 ones may be more 'dangerous' in that regard. I think the limit of that is 900mah.

 

[schuff]

That's.. A little odd. As far as I understand the USB standard, a device attached to the USB port will 'tell' the USB controller how much power it needs, and will get no more than that. Care to elaborate a bit?

Also, a USB 2.0 port will not pump more than 500mah into a battery as that's the limit of the port itself. But the USB 3.0 ones may be more 'dangerous' in that regard. I think the limit of that is 900mah.

You are correct in the power output of USB ports but there are exceptions and these are the ones people need to be careful about.

Most desktops, laptops and tablets on the market now have a charging port. These ports are capable of up to 2100mah charging. Most 12 volt to USB chargers you find in the truck stops are 900mah chargers because that has been the standard for smart phones for awhile now. This is possible because they are using the 5V DC convertor as a capacitor to store the extra energy and cycle the charger to speed up charging.

It's all fine and dandy when you have a smart phone or tablet plugged in and it has software designed to recognize it's charging and not allow overcharging. However, it's a completely different story when you plug in a kanger EVOD, vision spinner, Smok Kear etc. that come with a 300mah charger that have no software interface to control the rate of charging.

 

[AlB53]

my kid is going out of town at the end of the month, she has vision spinners and might want to charge them in her car while she drives, what should she use in the 12v plug to be safe?

 

[schuff]

my kid is going out of town at the end of the month, she has vision spinners and might want to charge them in her car while she drives, what should she use in the 12v plug to be safe?

Very good question that I get a lot and my suggestion is go to walmart, truck stop, bestbuy etc. and pick up an inexpensive car lighter to outlet convertor. Then use the designated charging cable and outlet adapter the battery came with.