Would i know if my battery was about to explode?
- Thread starter Owen Holmes
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howdy - and welcome!
typically, before a battery vents, it will get very (VERY) hot and potentially leak or vent gasses - but keep in mind, this happens due to misuse or improper storage - either putting the battery under undue strain (overstressing it by drawing more amperage than it is capable of or safely rated for - generally by running a coil build that is way too low, ohm wise, for the battery) or by doing something not smart, storage wise - carrying naked battery (not in case and/ or torn wrapper) in pocket/ bag/ purse along with metal items (change, glasses, pens, etc) that can complete circuit and essentially trigger battery to fire... i believe the rocket scientist in latest incident had a nekkid battery in pocket and dropped some change in his pocket with the battery - TERRIBLE IDEA
TLDR? with a basic knowledge of battery safety and some simple precautions, should be a non-issue... don't use battery with coils that will draw more amps than it is rated for safely (and general rule of thumb is to allow 20% buffer/ head room - if battery is rated for 20 amp cdr, keep it at/ under 16 amp pull... and if your battery(s) are not in mod or on charger, keep em in a case
typically, before a battery vents, it will get very (VERY) hot and potentially leak or vent gasses - but keep in mind, this happens due to misuse or improper storage - either putting the battery under undue strain (overstressing it by drawing more amperage than it is capable of or safely rated for - generally by running a coil build that is way too low, ohm wise, for the battery) or by doing something not smart, storage wise - carrying naked battery (not in case and/ or torn wrapper) in pocket/ bag/ purse along with metal items (change, glasses, pens, etc) that can complete circuit and essentially trigger battery to fire... i believe the rocket scientist in latest incident had a nekkid battery in pocket and dropped some change in his pocket with the battery - TERRIBLE IDEA
TLDR? with a basic knowledge of battery safety and some simple precautions, should be a non-issue... don't use battery with coils that will draw more amps than it is rated for safely (and general rule of thumb is to allow 20% buffer/ head room - if battery is rated for 20 amp cdr, keep it at/ under 16 amp pull... and if your battery(s) are not in mod or on charger, keep em in a case
never skimp on batteries - and you can generally find safe, quality, authentic batteries online (vendors like rtdvapor, illumn.com) for much less than you will spend on em at a brick and mortar location
Thank you for your response : ) another question, what are the best coils for Kanger ipow 2? i have 2.1 at the moment but on the battery it's reading 2.3 or 2.4 sometimes and the battery seems to be dying quicker than usual, i have had it nearly a year & i have to smoke it while on charge, is this unsafe?
No it is not unsafe. A 2.1ohm coil reading 2.3 and 2.4ohms is not bad, not all resistance readers a 100% accurate, so a variance like you are seeing is not uncommon. With the battery not holding charge as long as it used to, it is time to recycle it and get a new one. Maybe look at an iStick40TC, or an iJust2.
A 2.1 Ohm coil @ 2.4 VDC is drawing 1.14 Amps that's 2.73 Watts--that's pretty low (surprised you're getting any vapor at that Wattage at all) and if the battery is good should last a few days. The IPOW2 I believe is a 1600mAH (milli Ampere Hour) battery, or 1.6 Ampere hours. That's a pretty beefy battery--it should easily last all day at that coil resistance unless you vape constantly...
You may want to check your contacts and clean as required. If you have access to a multimeter and the know how, check the output of your charger NO-LOAD (disconnected from the battery). It should be around 4.2 VDC. If lower than that, your battery is not fully charging, If higher (more than 4.7 VDC) you may have been overcharging the battery and have possibly shortened it's life. I know many people recharge their batteries using standard USB ports (5.00 VDC) and while your battery will charge, that's substantially higher then the recommended charging voltage of 4.2 VDC. Also the higher voltage puts a higher terminal voltage on the battery and the battery charge indicator thinks it's fully charged sooner than if it were charged at a lower rate (rapid charging at a higher rate). Typically a rapid charge is around 60 percent capacity.
Additionally there is a factor concerning Li batteries not often known---they start to degrade the moment they're put in use. Unlike NICAD batteries there is no memory effect...they just degrade over time. Having said that a high quality Li battery should give good service much more than a year with moderate use and good care.
It's a lot to take in I know but, that's the facts generally. Most batteries allow a "bypass" so you can use it while charging. I don't know if the IPOW has that feature so check your manual and seek those details there or on-line. Maybe someone here on the forum has more details on your particular battery.
You may want to check your contacts and clean as required. If you have access to a multimeter and the know how, check the output of your charger NO-LOAD (disconnected from the battery). It should be around 4.2 VDC. If lower than that, your battery is not fully charging, If higher (more than 4.7 VDC) you may have been overcharging the battery and have possibly shortened it's life. I know many people recharge their batteries using standard USB ports (5.00 VDC) and while your battery will charge, that's substantially higher then the recommended charging voltage of 4.2 VDC. Also the higher voltage puts a higher terminal voltage on the battery and the battery charge indicator thinks it's fully charged sooner than if it were charged at a lower rate (rapid charging at a higher rate). Typically a rapid charge is around 60 percent capacity.
Additionally there is a factor concerning Li batteries not often known---they start to degrade the moment they're put in use. Unlike NICAD batteries there is no memory effect...they just degrade over time. Having said that a high quality Li battery should give good service much more than a year with moderate use and good care.
It's a lot to take in I know but, that's the facts generally. Most batteries allow a "bypass" so you can use it while charging. I don't know if the IPOW has that feature so check your manual and seek those details there or on-line. Maybe someone here on the forum has more details on your particular battery.
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With your battery the only thing you really need to worry about is the charger.
DO NOT CHARGE IT WITH AN APPLE CHARGER.
Other than that you should be fine. It uses USB charging which should work without any problems on any standard USB charger. The problem is Apple does NOT follow the USB standard. Apple chargers deliver too much power and can cause the battery to explode.
DO NOT CHARGE IT WITH AN APPLE CHARGER.
Other than that you should be fine. It uses USB charging which should work without any problems on any standard USB charger. The problem is Apple does NOT follow the USB standard. Apple chargers deliver too much power and can cause the battery to explode.
Crap...didn't know that about Apple USB (don't own/use Apple)...now I need to call my daughter and warn her. SHE uses Apple and I got her a new battery. I know she's charging it on her laptop...good call, thanks.
Hello And Welcome to ECF 
This is a pretty long Vid, after you watch how he shorts out the battery feel free to fast forward ahead to after 3:00 of the Vid
But you can See the fluid inside starting to boil out and Hear the hissing sound it makes before it pops
I only seen a couple of batteries vent and they both gave enough warning for the owners to get them batteries to a safe place before they did.
This is a pretty long Vid, after you watch how he shorts out the battery feel free to fast forward ahead to after 3:00 of the Vid
But you can See the fluid inside starting to boil out and Hear the hissing sound it makes before it pops
I only seen a couple of batteries vent and they both gave enough warning for the owners to get them batteries to a safe place before they did.
Yep, standard Apple Wall Wart outputs 2.1amps, especially when designed for an iPad. Most Ego class batteries accept max current of about 0.5 to 1 amp, 2.1amps way over that spec.
Hello And Welcome to ECF
This is a pretty long Vid, after you watch how he shorts out the battery feel free to fast forward ahead to after 3:00 of the Vid
But you can See the fluid inside starting to boil out and Hear the hissing sound it makes before it pops
I only seen a couple of batteries vent and they both gave enough warning for the owners to get them batteries to a safe place before they did.
That is a very good video for people to watch.
It shows how easy it is too short out an 18650 battery just by putting something at the top.
Most people don't realise that the positive button at the top is surrounded by a negative ring which is the top of a can which is itself negative, and the wrapper on the battery needs to be undamaged.
The action of pulling the battery from a box mod or from a charger can sometime damage that part of the wrapper.
Venting and explosions are fortunately very rare events; so rare they usually make the news despite there being hundreds of millions (billions?) of lithium batteries in service. Just about every electronic device you own has a lithium battery in it. Your phone, your tablet, your laptop, your calculator, your hearing aid, your wristwatch, your iPod, you name it. If you have a desktop computer, it has a lithium battery in it to keep the clock running so you don't have to reset the time every time you turn it off or unplug it. In almost all cases, a vent or explosion involves a damaged battery, or improper usage or storage or charging. E-cigs are particularly prone to such abuse because the users of these devices have a lot more control over how the battery is used than in most other applications-- you can't, for example, put too low a coil in your cell phone-- because the battery in many e-cigs is removable, and because the amp draw in e-cigs is normally a lot greater than in other electronic devices. The battery pack in your cordless drill has to withstand a lot of power usage but, even in a small one, it usually has 4 or more cells to divide the load.
All that said, under most circumstances, a battery will get very hot before a vent or explosion. Unfortunately, sometimes it can occur so fast the heat doesn't have time to make itself known before the damage is done. This normally occurs in the case of a dead short, in the case of an e-cig, and sometimes by a physical shock to the battery while it is charging, when it is unstable. That last can occur to any kind of lithium battery by, for example, knocking you cell off the table onto a hard floor while it's plugged in. A vent or explosion can also occur to any kind of lithium battery if the battery casing is damaged or torn or punctured. I repeat, though, this is unlikely to occur to anyone who understands battery safety and treats their batteries with the respect due such a large amount of power crammed into such a small space.
All that said, under most circumstances, a battery will get very hot before a vent or explosion. Unfortunately, sometimes it can occur so fast the heat doesn't have time to make itself known before the damage is done. This normally occurs in the case of a dead short, in the case of an e-cig, and sometimes by a physical shock to the battery while it is charging, when it is unstable. That last can occur to any kind of lithium battery by, for example, knocking you cell off the table onto a hard floor while it's plugged in. A vent or explosion can also occur to any kind of lithium battery if the battery casing is damaged or torn or punctured. I repeat, though, this is unlikely to occur to anyone who understands battery safety and treats their batteries with the respect due such a large amount of power crammed into such a small space.
I personally wouldn't want more than .6 amps...a low battery will draw all the current available. It gets quite warm at 1 amp. At 2.1 amps that battery will get hot fast. That's why ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) has barred Lithium batts from being shipped as cargo on passenger flights. When these things get lit, they can get up to 1200F and that's pretty close to the melting point of aluminum!
Hello And Welcome to ECF
This is a pretty long Vid, after you watch how he shorts out the battery feel free to fast forward ahead to after 3:00 of the Vid
But you can See the fluid inside starting to boil out and Hear the hissing sound it makes before it pops
I only seen a couple of batteries vent and they both gave enough warning for the owners to get them batteries to a safe place before they did.
Great vid...and why a regulated battery or mod is a must. If I owned a mech mod I'd fuse it at most 10 amps.
Huh, thought it was that the wall charger Provided a certain amperage, then the battery /mod drew what it needed. Also I thought that you shouldn't vape or charge from a laptop, unless it's plugged in.
I own Apple chargers in 500ma, 1A and 2.1A versions.
Perhaps the better advice would be to use a 500ma charger instead of making alarmist blanket statements.
The same issue may occur with *any* wall-adapter that is able to deliver a higher current.
Yep that is pretty much my assessment as well. I don't see the suggested explosion thing happening myself, unless the battery has zero charging regulation or safety.
Vaping while charging should only be done on devices which are designed for it.
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A battery can't draw more current than the charger is capable of providing without the charger dropping it's voltage and the current along with it. A low or dead battery will try to equalize it's charge as fast as it can, unless it's regulated... so if the charger can provide 2+ amps the battery will take the 2 amps...even if it's not good for the battery!
And vaping off the laptop battery without the charger/power supply plugged in is like leaving the lights on in your car without the engine running.
Sketchy batteeies usually get very hot before venting or exploding.
Electricity goes through all of us, and is not to be relegated to wires.
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