Warning: Exploding Batteries 260
batlike writes "It seems I have been quite lucky up to this point as I habitually leave my laptop in the trunk of my car - which is just over the gas tank (duh!) . See this article in InfoWorld by Ephraim Schwartz for details. You may want to give it a once over if you currently use lithium-ion batteries."
Not a fireball (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not a fireball (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Not a fireball (Score:2)
Re:Not a fireball (Score:2, Informative)
superacid with negative pkA..
It's just not a liquid, its a solid conductive polymer and it's not corrosive.
Re:Not a fireball (Score:2)
Re:Not a fireball (Score:5, Funny)
Did ya know that people will scatter like crazy when that happens? They jump up on the banquet tables and everything. Quite a sight.
KFG
Re:Not a fireball (Score:2)
Re:Not a fireball (Score:5, Interesting)
The scary part is that got allowed on board of airplanes after the FAA got convinced that correctly operating bateries are safe. Well... This brings up the obvious question - what about incorrectly operating ones. And what about ones that have had their short circuit protection removed? Nearly perfect bomb and perfectly legal to bring onboard passing all security checks with flying colours.
Scary...
Re:Not a fireball (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not a fireball (Score:2)
You are mistaking the lethality levels for mildly toxic lithium salts taken orally with the lethality levels for various compounds (including LiOH) coming from combustion of lithium ion batteries. Besides some of them having a much lower LDA50, they will also be considerably more dangerous because they will be inhaled.
Re:Not a fireball (Score:2)
Re:Not a fireball (Score:2)
Calm down (Score:5, Insightful)
You can't, it's often integral to the cell, so a fair amount of surgery is involved.
Nearly perfect bomb and perfectly legal to bring onboard passing all security checks with flying colours.
Oh for chrissakes...no, something that would get really hot, start smoking, and then catch fire. Ever since(and in fact before) the Valuejet incident, planes have smoke detectors and fire suppression systems in their cargo holds, so it's a moot point if it ends up in cargo vs. carry-on. The issue of toxicity is moot because that's why planes have oxygen systems that the pilot can deploy. The mask systems in the cockpits are also usually much better than the paper-cup jobbies the Cattle get.
People- Calm. The. Fuck. Down. Planes don't explode because something inside them catches fire, they don't start crashing because someone shoots a gun, yadda yadda. Cars don't explode because a battery overheats in the trunk. Stop watching so many action movies...
Re:Calm down (Score:2)
Nah. If we were using action movie physics, we'd all see that cars don't explode because a battery overheats. Cars explode because they come in the slightest contact with anything whatsoever.
Re:Calm down (Score:2, Funny)
I bet you could freak folk out with a 6 pack of beer, a stopwatch with countdown timer and a big display(use red led for backlight), gaffer (duck) tape and some spare shoelaces...
" I can explain officer. I taped the beers so I wouldn't be tempted to drink them until my stopwatch reached zero...I took my laces off to let my feet breathe and taped them to the cans so I didn't lose them"
On the other hand, it's kinda difficult to explain with a 9mm hole thru your head"
Aloha Airlines Flight 243 and first passenger jet (Score:2)
I agree with most of your sentiments, except one. The gun one. Would you be willing to sitting in the window seat, as a gun gets fired into the body of the aircraft right next to you, while the plane is between JFK and CDG?
I think it would be very cold and windy...
I'd worry more about the bullet going through a fuselage skin. The puncture shouldn't tear, but shit does happen. (Remember Aloha Airlines Flight 243 [disastercity.com] and the ill-fated DeHavilland Comet [geocities.com]...)
Re:Not a fireball (Score:3, Funny)
What? Lithium is toxic, sure. But not toxic enough for your "nearly perfect bomb" scenario.
I'll agree that batteries might be slightly more dangerous than some of the stuff that's not allowed, but I really don't think it's much of a weapon.
"By the kidneys of Allah, some of you may experience renal failure from this toxic exposure! You infidels with low sodium levels may be susceptible to a chronic degeneration of your central nervous system!"
Somehow, that just doesn't rise to t
Do they always leak? (Score:2)
Re:Not a fireball (Score:3, Informative)
Of course they don't really explode into a fire ball but rather short circuit, heat up, melt, and leak acid everywhere.
While they don't literally explode as in ka-boom, they do 'vent with flame' (a phrase the industry prefers to use) not unlike a torch flame. Thus, they have a much greater chance of causing injury or starting a fire than other battery types.
Re:Not a fireball (Score:2)
Re:Not a fireball (Score:5, Interesting)
Nope, you forgot the AC adapter in the way (Score:3, Informative)
-Your friendly neighborhood EE
Battery Joules, Stupid Electric and Hybrid Cars (Score:2)
No, a better measure of the energy the battery is capable of storing is the mAh rating. If the battery says it's rated for 1000mAh, it can supply 1000mA for 1 hour, or 500mA for 2 hours, or 10mA for 100 hours. etc.
Note that you simply cannot look at the wattage (power) available from the battery, since power is a measure of work over time. And besides, you want to know what the total energy stored in a g
Re:Battery Joules, Stupid Electric and Hybrid Cars (Score:2)
since power is a measure of work over time
Oops. Gotta never post before my third coffee of the day.
Re:Battery Joules, Stupid Electric and Hybrid Cars (Score:5, Informative)
You're neglecting the fact that a battery is not a perfect voltage source. To correctly model a battery you must put a resistance in series with the voltage source, since all batteries have a internal resistance.
That having been said.. a standard D NiCd cell can put out almost 1000amps for short periods. This is why fuses and other standard short circuit protection devices were invented. Most battery packs have at least one internal fuse, larger ones will have several to handle the possibility of intra-pack shorts.
I'd love to know the Ah specification for the battery in the back seat of the Honda Hybrids. It absolutely terrifies me to know that idiots are buying them and driving around.
Then look it up [google.com].
"a total output of 144 V and 6.5 amp-hours" for the Honda Insight... about 6.0amp/hr for the Civic. The batteries themselves are Nickel Metal Hydride "D" cells.
The batteries are time bombs, hazardous waste and chemical burn nightmares.
Hazardous waste? There are far more Superfund cleanup sites caused by leaking gasoline/oil storage than battery manufacture. Lead Acid batteries are the most recycled item in the United States (more than AL cans). 95% of the battery itself can be recycled (the plastic case is often discarded. Lithium should ideally not be disposed of in the trash, but in a LiOH battery it is pretty stable. Lead Acid does offer the possibility of Acid burns, but the dilute acid is really only a problem is it gets in your eyes.. on the skin it typically only causes irration and a mild rash. And don't forget.. the explosive potential of the gasoline in your car is equal to almost 3 sticks of dynamite.
The charging process is inefficient at best (<50%).
Not sure where you get your numbers... Lead Acid batteries charging in large strings is over 90% efficent. From powerplant to road electric cars are more than twice as efficent as burning gasoline in an internal combustion engine (more than 50% of the energy in the coal burned in the powerplant ends up moving the car, as opposed to only about 11% of the energy of gasoline). Better still if you factor the environmental/energy cost of transporting, and refining the fuel (Think of the fuel it takes to run the tanker that brings the gasoline to you).
A gasoline car will always emit the same, or more pollution during its life. Most powerplants get cleaner everyday from tighter environmental resitrictions. My electric car is powered entirely from renewable energy (wind) and is more or less "zero emmission" because of it.
How many new coal and nuclear power plants are gonna have to be built when 10,000,000 Los Angeles commuters start plugging in their electric cars every night?
Most electric cars will be charged during the evening or early morning hours when demand for electricity is at its lowest. The EPA estimates that over half of the cars in California could be electric, and no additional power generation would be required. Indeed, one company showed a prototype electric car that could be used as battery when plugged in, and provide desperatly needed peaking power to avoid brownouts.
I have actually seen a video (by Valence) of a lithium ion (cobalt) battery being driven into thermal runaway... it goes off like a torch. Not something you want to have happen, but the safety systems in the batteries themselves are excellent. There have been only a handful of battery fires in the millions of currently deployed batteries.
I realize this is slashdot.. but if you want people to believe your college educated it never hurts to do some research before opening your mouth.
Hear this, Apple? (Score:3, Interesting)
So if you buy something where you can't change the battery, expect a finite life out of it!
Re:Hear this, Users? (Score:2)
Re:Hear this, Apple? (Score:2)
Article: "Mrs. Haines was accused of assault and battery."
Moron: "Just like Apple, beating up on their iPod customers..."
or
Article: "The battery at Ft. Sumter was under attack for many days."
Moron: "Just like iPods dirty little secret, we should attack the evil Apple iPod empire!"
It might be worth noting that Dictionary.com lists the electrical-storage-device definition of battery as t
Re:Hear this, Apple? (Score:2)
Re:Hear this, Apple? (Score:5, Informative)
The 10 month gap... (Score:2)
The video campaign may not have influenced Apple to lower their outrageous $255 fee to $100 (plus shipping) but I'll bet a lot of irate customers swearing at hapless Apple tech suppo
Re:Hear this, Apple? (Score:2)
Don't get me wrong, I dig Apple, want an iPod & a Powerbook & all that. But to think that a company would leave something alone that potentially damages their reputation... well, I'll let you finish from there.
Re:Hear this, Apple? (Score:2)
You mean vandalism where the children involved filmed themselves, like that movie of teenagers trashing a nearly-complete house... or the idiots who filmed themselves shooting pedestrians with paintballs from a car?
I seriously doubt Apple took them seriously, or that their documentary of their petty criminal acts had much impact beyond a lot of endless yammering on the internet. NYC, though, should prosecute them under the local grafitti laws; pe
Re:Hear this, Apple? (Score:2)
I can buy housepaint for $15 bucks a gallon. It costs quite a bit more if I want it installed on the house. What is your time worth? How long does it take to change the battery? What are the chances of breaking the device changing it yourself?
Re:Hear this, Apple? (Score:2, Funny)
What are you retarded or did you just time travel here from the 19th century? It's a damn battery for heaven's sake not a fusion reactor control system. If you haven't figured out how to change a battery by now pay the 5 year old next door to do it for you.
Re:Hear this, Apple? (Score:2)
Re:Hear this, Apple? (Score:3, Informative)
Love the quality reporting (Score:5, Informative)
(sigh)Lucky for us they didn't require us to pay for that crap.
Re:Love the quality reporting (Score:5, Insightful)
"Long-term fuel cells that convert hydrogen and oxygen to electricity -- don't ask me how -- are a promising alternative."
Notice that he neglects to go into any basic details on fuel cells. I found this link [howstuffworks.com] by doing a google search on fuel cells [google.com].
It would have taken him very little effort to come up with a one or two sentence description.
Damn lazy journalist.
Re:Love the quality reporting (Score:2)
Seems like he went out and confir
Party Time (Score:5, Funny)
You may want to give it a once over if you currently use lithium-ion batteries."
Considering that I usually keep my laptop in my trunk, i can rest knowing that I can pull it out and replace it with some safer items like a gasoline canister, some fireworks, my blowtorch and some booze (it is new years eve, after all
You left some items out (Score:2)
Guns, cars, and booze are an American holiday tradition, although I must admit that the Arabs and their AK-47 tributes are pretty impressive. Except don't a few dozen people die every time there's a big hoopla involving firing AKs into the air?
Re:You left some items out (Score:2)
Are you mad???!!! Those might be dangerous to haul around...might cause an explosion
Three times and it's a trend? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Three times and it's a trend? (Score:3, Informative)
Li-ion batteries have controllers for a reason. When my laptop battery is charged exactly 0mAh is supposed to go in/out of the battery.
In fact my laptop battery led will blink if I take the battery out while running on AC. This kinda tells me the engineers want to make sure I keep a battery in there.
It does make me a bit weary to think I'm hurting my battery by leaving it in but really if I have to buy another battery in three years... so be it.
Tom
Re:Three times and it's a trend? (Score:2)
The advert even talks about the millions and millions of lithium-ion cells in the world.
Three incidents is cause for worry? Good grief! How many people cut themselves on broken laptop screens last year? It's a tiger in a box, I tellya!
warning: story is just a big add (Score:5, Insightful)
"Because Valence claims to offer a safer alternative"
"Currently, Valence is shipping outboard devices -- N-Charge, weighing just under three pounds"
"The next generation from Valence will be small enough to use as a direct replacement for your current laptop battery and will be available next year."
come on slashdot, infoworld, this isn't news, this is a PRESS RELEASE
Re:warning: story is just a big add (Score:2)
Well, it probably originated from a press release. But then the journalist actually went to the trouble of confirming the claims with independed experts, all of which seemed to agree that: yes there is a problem and yes Valence does seem to have a safer solution to it.
That's not actually that shoddy journalism as such go these days. The reporter actually put the facts up front and went to some trouble to corroborate them, instead of re
Re:warning: story is just a big add (Score:2)
Bleh (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's a good thing... (Score:2)
FYI they use Ni-Metal Hydride batteries.
Not too unexpected (Score:3, Insightful)
Power density (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Power density (Score:2)
(I don't buy the original claim without more evidence; a modern battery may or not not approach the power density though I'd be very surprised, but the energy density is many, many orders of magnitude below a nuclear reactor; that's why nuclear bombs based on nuclear forces are so much more powerful then chemical bombs, and the chemical bombs are themselves based on energetic reactions that are probably at least an order of magnitude more dense then the litium bat
Re:Power density (Score:2)
You were doing OK until that last word.
Re:Not too unexpected (Score:2)
Re:Not too unexpected (Score:2)
Re:Not too unexpected (Score:3, Funny)
Hello? E=Mc^2?
This reminds me of helping some high school kids with a science project that involved a cooling system for an overclocked computer. They were going to use liquid cooled by a radiator intended for a 100 horsepower engine. They became concerned about the ability of the radiator to handle the heat. I laughed, but they remained insistent.
Of course he'll say LI batteries are unsafe (Score:2, Insightful)
I guess you get what you ask for... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I guess you get what you ask for... (Score:2, Funny)
A Trend? Moron... (Score:5, Insightful)
But when I read three stories, all in reputable news outlets, well, that's a trend.
Okay, chicken little. Whatever you say. Three stories in reputable news outlets is a trend. Let's see. If .05% of the 290M+ population of the U.S. owns a laptop, that means what, 2.06 x 10^-6 % of all the notebook owners in the U.S. experienced that in the past several months (someone might want to check my math.. it's really early)? That's a trend? If that's the case, aren't you far more likely to win the lottery several times than have your laptop battery explode?
Imbecile. There's an enormous difference between something being a possibility and being even remotely likely. Sounds like those idiotic news reports networks show to get stupid people to watch ("WILL YELLOW STICKY NOTES KILL YOU? FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN PROTECT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AT SIX!!!!")
Re:A Trend? Moron... (Score:5, Funny)
well, if that's the case, at least you'll have enough lottery winning to replace your laptop when it does explode
3 stories not significant!?! (Score:2)
They're not exploding! (Score:5, Informative)
shark attack! (Score:5, Informative)
when I read three stories, all in reputable news outlets, well, that's a trend.
This reminds me of the shark attack reputable news outlets suffered a few years ago. Nothing much was happening, so they covered the ongoing tragedy of swimmers who are attacked by sharks. Yes, this may happen but I'm no more worried about my cell phone or laptop exploding than I am about being eaten by a shark.
Re:shark attack! (Score:2)
-B
Sharks with brain tumors from cell phone use! (Score:2)
Funny how certain stories will catch fire (ahem) every once in a while. If only sharks were to catch brain tumors after having used cell phones habitually, then we'd have a "trend" on our hands. Whoo-boy.
And the trend would be "People develop irrational fears over stuff they don't understand, and once they're in the grip of fear they'll perpetuate it instead of even trying to understand..." Welcome to my Southern Baptist relations' world view.
Incidentally, bull sharks do tend to be involved in more atta
Moore's law of batteries (Score:2, Insightful)
Typical geek... (Score:2)
Nice Editing (Score:5, Insightful)
You really can't go replacing important words like that. Who knows if the word "can" was to replace something like "has the small possibility to" or "can under extreme and rare conditions"...
Filling in the blank with the word "can" has the possibility of throwing the perspective out of proportion. Even later in the article it states that "explosions and fire happen 'rarely'".
And what really got me...
Long-term fuel cells that convert hydrogen and oxygen to electricity -- don't ask me how -- are a promising alternative.
So replace lithium ion batteries with a HIGHLY combustable mixture... good alternative...
Many laptops already get hot... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Many laptops already get hot... (Score:2, Funny)
PowerBook 5300 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:PowerBook 5300 (Score:3, Informative)
Yep.
? Or perhaps that was just a charging issue....
Both, actually. Apple offered a replacement program for all powerbook users - and they exchanged their LiIons to the good old NiMH's, obvious sign that the batteries were also to blame. However, LiIons don't explode just because they are a ticking bomb, they explode only due to overheating; Apple made design mistakes that led to overheating.
Sony's plant was also destroyed by fire... (Score:2)
Macworld : More PowerBook 5300 woes: battery, power, and circuitry flaws. (Product Support) : Lu, Cary
More than any previous PowerBooks, Apple's most recent high-end model has been plagued with a host of troubles. First, Apple replaced the lithium-ion (LiIon) batteries it had begun to ship with 5300-series PowerBooks (see News, December 1995) because two of the Sony-made batteries had caught fire. Now , ironically , Sony's LiIon battery-producing plant in Koriyama , Japan , has itself
AN/PRC-77 - Exploding for 30 years (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:AN/PRC-77 - Exploding for 30 years (Score:3, Informative)
That's why the experts have you make a "jumper cable circuit" by attaching the last ground connection away from the battery. In theory, the spark could ignite gases venting from the battery, resulting in an explosion.
I've never experienced such an explosion.
Re:AN/PRC-77 - Exploding for 30 years (Score:2)
Jogger died via exploding MP3 player's battery (Score:5, Funny)
But I don't watch a lot of TV news... maybe I've missed these stories:
Re:Jogger died via exploding MP3 player's battery (Score:2)
All jokes aside, I have never had problems with the batteries for my devices either. I don't know anyone who has ever had a problem. I have heard of people having problems, and the reason they have problems is that they buy "non-approved" batteries from "dodgy third world countries."
RTFM! (Score:5, Insightful)
Sir, I don't know the make of your laptop, but I'm pretty sure that if you'll read the user's manual that came with it, you'll find a passage like "do not leave it in locations where the temperature can become unpredictable or extreme - like a car trunk". Such a passage is in mine. I'd say that your horror story boils down do "if you habitually neglect the recommendations of your user's manual, bad things can happen".
Re:RTFM! (Score:2)
If one leaves lipstick in the trunk of a car it will be ruined - but it usally doesn't result in a fire.
Re:RTFM! (Score:2)
"Register within 30 days or your computer will explode!"
OEM Batteries (Score:5, Insightful)
Warning: ADVERTISEMENT (Score:2, Funny)
When is Slashdot going to start allowing us to mod entire stories down ??
Here's a good example (Score:2, Informative)
New ratings for laptops (Score:3, Funny)
That's costly (Score:2)
That's a lot to pay every 2 years to prevent a fire no?
I'll most likely still do it, but that hurts. Now when do fuel cell batteries come and save my day? I wouldn't mind popping one of those wonders in this clunky power eating thinkpad.
PS: I need a G4 powerbook! That would be sweet
OH NO! ALARMIST! (Score:2)
Warnings from Sony... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Warnings from Sony... (Score:2, Interesting)
there are some risks (Score:3, Interesting)
There could be other risks involved with different chemical formulas as well. Recall the blown capacitor debacle a year ago or so where the one cheap taiwanese company left out the ingredients to make the electrolyte in capacitors not create hydrogen gas. Gas build-ups blew out capacitors on many devices and mot
Nothing, you missed the point ... (Score:2)
You missed his point entirely. He mention the two semicon manufacturers as a way of pointing out that the "best" solution may be to make devices use less power, vs getting more power/life out of batteries. I disagree as some "power hungry" folk will always need more oomph from their systems and therefore their batteries, and having the cpu sleep to count on getting better life isn't always a viable alterna
Re:Where is it safe? (Score:5, Funny)
Dude, you don't have to worry about the battery in your laptop exploding.
In fact, you don't have to worry about owning a laptop anymore. Your battery and laptop will be removed.
Re:Prismatic lithium ion polymer (Score:3, Informative)
nice troll, looks like you're getting modded up too. pity there isn't any pure lithium present in the batteries mentioned
Re:Prismatic lithium ion polymer (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Prismatic lithium ion polymer (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, most places you have to pay extra for that.
Ford Pinto (Score:2)
If you're going to believe chicken little stories about batteries that there are a whole 3 (!!!!!!!!) cases of explosion listed, and drive a car with the gas tank unde
Aww crap, close the quotes next time (Score:2)
http://www.fordpinto.com/blowup.htm [fordpinto.com]
Preview, damnit, preview next time!