Trustfire chargers Blow Up?!

[popeye79]

Hello, I got my lavatube from volcanoe ecigs in December. It came with a trustfire TR-001 charger. I've been using AW IMR 18650 1600 3.7v bats from SuperTmanufacturing.

Last night I nearly craped my pants and am surprised that I didn't get electricuted.

In one outlet, I had a small heater pluged in (this is normal, as I have it turned on every night, and charge, in the same wall outlet). I then pluged in my charger to the other outlet. I inserted the battery and all of a sudden... ZAP! A large bright blinding light/spark occured. It severed the cord from the pronged part of the cord. Here is the picture...



Has this happened to anyone else?

Normally I put the battery in first, THEN plug it in. This was the first time I pluged in first, THEN inserted battery. Should this matter?

I used the battery all day today as well, it appears to be fine (though I can not charge it now).

Should I complain to volcanoe? Is this a freak occurance? Is there something I should be doing differently?

I'm a little freaked out by this, and would appreciate some input.

 

[DietSalem]

Bump for this kind gent, I use the same charger and would like to get the same answers he's asking.

 

[Nomoreash]

That's a very popular charger and I've never heard of anything like that happening. I'm by no means anywhere near an expert on the subject but I would tend to think it was more of an electrical issue than the charger. Could also have been a short in the cable where it's connected to the plug since that's where it fried.

 

[waynebrady]

That is scary.

/subscribed

 

[Huffelpuff]

Sorry that this happened to you. I've got a space heater in my office but haven't plugged it in as I know that they draw a lot of current and want to have a "dedicated" electrical outlet before using it. I've been toying with picking up a Pila charger and this may be just the motivation I needed to do just that.

So glad to hear that there was no injury to person or property. This could've been a disaster.

 

[MASTER0FDAMPF]

that looks to be the AC cord, not the charger. There is a reason not to have the batteries in the charger - The load is waiting...

by that I mean that when the charger is trying to get active (turn on LED's, charge capacitors....) it is also trying to do it's job. This means an immediate higher pull from the wall receptacle. Should that have caused this to happen? NO.

Most likely it was just a cheap mass produced AC cord with what appears to be weak insulation or just a flaw in the cable. Definately get a new cord and test the charger before putting batteries on it. I am always overcautions so I would just replace it. It is much cheaper to replace everything you own. Volcano will likely just send you a new one, especially with the recent battery scares lately.

I recently got a bad charger in a kit from TX, and they replaced both the battery it went weird on and the charger with little to no questions asked.

 

[5vz]

I wouldn't use the charger unit again either. Get a replacement everything.

I have lived in many apartments where the wiring is bad. You couldn't run a heater and anything else, the a.c. and anything else, the microwave and anything else, a hair dryer and anything else, etc.... You could only run one thing at a time without blowing out the circuit.

Don't know what happened here, but I would toss the entire unit and get a new one. Plug new unit into it's own outlet where nothing else is plugged in on a different wall that does not have a heater plugged in. (Opposite side of dwelling.) Also, it is my understanding that you should not have the batteries in the unit when you plug it in, just for future reference.

 

[sailorman]

I've had other cheap electronic gadgets do the exact same thing at the exact same spot on the cord. I think its something about how they manufacture those cords. They weaken the wire or have inconsistent insulation where it's molded into the plug. Most people don't have a spare cord laying around, and those chargers are cheap, so it probably woun't cost any more to replace it than to buy a new cord. Chances are about 99.9% that the charger is fine. They aren't rocket surgery. For curiosity sake, I'd keep it until I got the new one and check it with the new cord. There are about 10 billion of those same chargers out there and there's no telling where that cord came from or who made it.
I've got that same model and it has a jack for DC. You could test it, or even use it, with an AC/DC adapter if you have one that fits.

 

[ruet]

My mother had the same thing happen yesterday with the same charger at the same spot on the cord. I'm replacing it with a one-piece charger.

 

[Loveridden]

WOAH scary.....I have the same charger, except mine is light light gray instead of black. I always plug it in first, then put in the battery. No probs yet.

 

[Bdbodger]

I have two chargers actually and one is the same as this . I don't like it because of the closed sides and the contacts don't make good contact . I use 14430 batteries on a different charger ( Ultrafire ) but I do use the trustfire one still for 18650 batteries. Not saying for sure but the trustfire one does seem a bit cheaper in quality but don't quote me on that .

 

[5vz]

I would put in a ticket at Volcano btw. This should not have happened considering the small amount of time you have had it. I really wouldn't use the same battery(batteries) anymore if it was in the charger when this happened either.

(Don't know why hair dryer is now a link in previous post, new thing going on with the board I suppose.)

 

[sailorman]

Have you metered the battery? If it damaged your battery, you'd know it. Geeeez, I can't believe the level of paranoia running rampant around here lately. It's the cord. Simple as that. Trustfire doesn't make the cord. They buy cheap cords. One or two in a hundred thousands wasn't up to snuff and it shorted at the plug. There's nothing wrong with your battery. This happens with fans and coffee grinders and irons and toasters and all manner of cheap appliance thousands of times, every single day. Am I the only one who has ever had this happen?

There's almost certainly nothing wrong with the charger. I can think of nothing in the charger that would cause this without obvious damage to the charger and/or tripping your circuit breaker. Was the charger smoking or making noise? No? Then it's fine or it blew an internal fuse, probably the former. If you want to upgrade your charger, more power to you. There are better ones out there and it would cost as much to replace the cord as to buy a new TR-001. But this is getting ridiculous. What's next? Better throw away your heater too. And your room lamp. And the table it was sitting on..... If you want to replace something, replace the circuit breaker or fuse in your fuse box because it should have tripped. Talk about trashing batteries is a result of the same unfounded fear that gives rise to what so many around here refer to as the "nanny state".

 

[carlton]

I'd like to echo what sailorman just said. Well, except with a gentler tone.

 

[5vz]

In over 40 years of buying small appliances not one has had any incident. There is a reason why this does not happen. It's called mega lawsuit. Unless the purchaser is using improperly, there is no argument to be had on that topic. It is nonsense.

As far as outlets, that is a mere comment, no knowledge of what is happening for the OP of the thread. Personally, I would never plug anything in the same outlet as a heater, good wiring in the apartments or not. That comes from over 30 years experience with electric heaters and bad/very old wiring in apartments. Nothing should be within 5 feet of an electric heater, even if your dwelling was just built. Check with your local fire department and see how much further they recommend.

The OP stated: "I inserted the battery and all of a sudden... ZAP! A large bright blinding light/spark occured. It severed the cord from the pronged part of the cord." This would give anyone cause to not use the batter or the charger. Blinding light, spark, and plug severed from cord suggests failure, and could have been worse. Neither item is safe to use, be it b/c of a cheap cord or not. No one should be using faulty equipment. Hopefully it came with some sort of warranty from Volcano and the OP can get replacements for the the battery and the charger.

It's easy to say "nanny nation" when it is not your face, your hand, your home, or anything else. Faulty equipment has been proven here, to include a photo. The items should be replaced immediately. Call your local fire department and local battery store to verify these precautions. In addition, excessive heat can cause a battery to explode, which could have been part of the issue here, the charger just blew as it should have if the battery was too hot.

No one here knows what happened but the OP, so we can only guess.

Common sense and personal safety are far different from paranoia.

 

[sailorman]

Yeah, faultly equipment was the cause. The cord was faulty and when it was loaded, it failed right where they all fail. At the plug. The charger didn't "just blow". The battery didn't have time to get hot. there's no indication of anything but a cheap cord that couldn't handle the current draw, or possible a cheap outlet or other wiring problem in the house.

The reason this doesn't happen more often isn't lawsuits. It DOES happen. Each year, the manufacturer of that cord probably makes millions and millions of cords just like that one, for thousands of devices sold by hundreds of manufacturers. Almost NO company that sells a device or appliance makes the cord for it. If it's a cheap device, you're going to get a cheap cord. The DO have a failure rate. I've seen them fail more than a few times, usually due to damage that went unnoticed, like pinching or sharp bends as when a piece of furniture is jammed against a plug.

You're right that you shouldn't plug anything into the same outlet as a heater. Really shouldn't plug it into same circuit. It doesn't matter whether it's the same outlet or not. The circuit is rated for X amps. That goes for anything that draws a high current, including your daughter's 1000 Watt hair dryer.

As for the purchaser using it improperly, again you're right. That's nonsense. Nothing short of deliberately flexing, restricting, squashing and stressing the cord at the plug will cause the failure the OP experienced. Plugging it in the same outlet as the heater doesn't cause excessive current to flow through that cheap cord unless the outlet itself is defective. If that was the case, the OP is lucky that the cord blew. That prevented excessive current to the charger and battery. It acted like a fuse. Again, all of this should have tripped the breaker or blew the circuit fuse in the house. If it didn't, I'd be just as inclined to suspect the house's wiring as the charger or cord or, especially, the battery.

OP, have you plugged anything else into that same outlet since this cord shorted?

Regarding the "nanny state", that's a term I despise. It's used by people of a political persuasion that I have no respect for to denigrate all efforts to protect people from the greed fueled negligence of corporate entities. But I find irony in that, by over-reacting to incidents like this, the same people who tend to complain about a "nanny state" give ammunition to those who devote their lives to making the whole world safe for children and ....... So, when all cords must be min. 16 ga. with an in-line fuse and triple sheathed with unobtanium-kevlar braid ....when your $14 charger costs $60, don't complain about the "nanny state".

 

[popeye79]

Sailorman: from one Sailor to another, I think you need to take a chill pill.

I talk to airplanes for a living, I'm not an electrical genies. I know how to replace an outlet, and install a ceiling fan, and that’s about it. The same as I can change my car's oil, or O2 sensor, but that's about it. Forgive me if I'm a bit ignorant in the field of electrical safty, that's why I'm here.

It shouldn't have happened, and it scared the crap out of me. Plain and simple.

The cord still looked brand new; I never even took the twist tie off of it, because I never needed the length.

The home (and thus wiring) is fairly new, build in 1997.

The breaker never went; the outlet still works just fine.



In the future, I will not plug the heater in the same outlet with anything else (though I have a really old heater that I plug into the same outlet with my computer, printer, phone, ect ect by my desk, and never had a problem there either).

Also in the future, based on what I've read here, I will continue to plug the charger in first, and then insert battery.


As for complaining about a $60 charger? I just ordered a Pila from SuperTmanufacturing last night for $50. I'm not complaining. It's well worth the price if I can sleep a little better at night, knowing I'm a bit safer with nothing to worry about. Weather that sense of comfort is truly justifiable or not, who knows. But I'm a bid ocd when it comes to things like this, and I just want to "feel" safe.

 

[Bdbodger]

As I said before though the trustfire charger seems to be a bit of a cheap charger and maybe more than the cord . Funny though the Ultrafire charger which I assume by the symbols on it are made by the same company seems to be a much better charger . Selectable 300mA/650mA on one side . Selectable 3.2/3.7V on the other . Open sides that make using smaller 14430 batteries easier and better contacts . That is the one to carry IMO get rid of the trustfire ones .

 

[RB37]

Not sure if anyone said these already or not, but make sure you always pull the plug out of the wall, never pull on the wire to yank the plug out. I can't count how many times I have seen this happen because people pull on the cord instead of the plug itself.

NOT saying this was your issue, just throwing it out there to help those that may not know.

 

[popeye79]

Thanks Joe and CS at volcanoe. They're going to issue me a refund, and I'm going to ship them back the charger so they can see what happend.

One things for sure about volcanoe; service is always top-notch!