The Dangers of Lithium Ion Batteries - Charging Station

We hope that this video helps to illustrate the dangers of lithium ion batteries, and a potential solution to avoid them.

[@jholmes9154]

Wow! Thanks for sharing!! I'm sorry you were unlucky

[@foo2hp]

I'm sorry for your lost. At least you and your family were not harmed.

[@jeffreysebern4693]

Holy smokes Craig (pun not intended, of course...) That is horrible. I am so sorry that you are having to go through this. Thank you for sharing. Has your commercial insurance policy covered the losses or have they been another head ache?

[@cb2000a]

Never charge an Lithium battery unattended.

[@engineerable]

What brand/model of battery exploded? Was it a power tool battery?

[@HobbyOrganist]

There is danger in everything unfortunately, never leave batteries or devices chrging unattended, you wouldn't leave burning candles on the tables and shelves if you have pets and leave to go to work, you shouldn't do the same sort of thing with charging batteries or devices when not right there. Any electronics can fail at any time, automatic coffee makers have burned down houses when a 5 cent chinese made resister inside failed, and the thing caught the plastic case on fire sitting under a flmmable wood overhead kitchen cabinet. Back in the 1990s I had a small cube space heater whose fan failed in the night and it ignited the plastic case, I had a foot high flame 2 feet from my bed and dogs jumping up and down woke me up to it! After that I hd nothing but all metal units. We have guys at work who leave these batteries just left "cooking" on chargers plugged in and ON all night, on weekends, holidays when no one is there I always turn mine off when the battery is fully charged and unplug the charger.

[@supertec2023]

And in California you can't buy anything that is gas powered for home power equipment, sorry for your loss

[@chrismd00]

So biased! 100x more likely to have a gas fire than a battery fire. When was your last story about "the dangers of gasoline" fires!?

[@cactusman1771]

Gas fires are far easier to extinguish. A large battery fire is near impossible to put out.

[@HobbyOrganist]

Sure, but if the gas leaks at 3am and the water heater ignites it, its burning the house down anyway. A house here burned to the ground with a mother and 3 kids inside, one of the kids folded up a downstairs hide-a-bed or recliner, and the lamp above it had a cord get caught up in the steel folding mechanism, they all went upstairs to bed, aroud 2 AM the mangled lamp cord shorted out and ignited the foam cusions in the folding bed/recliner downstairs, it may as well have been gasoline- the fire spread so fast they never made it out alive, they had NO smoke detectors and the insulation in some walls was exposed by renovation work. By the time a passing cop noticed the smoke the entire house was in flames and he couldnt even get in the door it was so hot.

[@Turnagater]

Everyone knows about "gas fires" but not everyone knows how ridiculous hot and difficult to put out these battery fires can be.

[@chrismd00]

But there is more than 100x times as many gas fires and most people think NOTHING of the dangers. You are FAR more likely to die in a gas fire. Did you know women are 9x more likely to have a gas fire? (lots of synthetic clothes and always jumping back in the car instead of standing at the pump) @@Turnagater

[@cactusman1771]

@@chrismd00 One thing to consider with EV vehicles. The average age of one as of 2023 is 3.7 years. For ICE vehicles its 14 as of 2023. Most ICE fires come from leaking brake fluid and electrical shorts. Both common problems with age. I would wager EV fire frequency will rise with wear and tear creating more opportunities for electrical short fires over the years. Time will tell.