Rotten jobs.

[twistsol]

Last night my wife and I had the horrible task of helping my daughter's friend and neighbor board up the front windows of his house after an overnight fire. The house is still standing. but no idea if it can be salvaged. The cause of the fire is unknown, but the fire department suspects a Lithium Ion battery being charged.

[leehljp]

Long ago, I was a volunteer fireman on our volunteer fire department in my rural hometown for 3 years, and we were the fire department for our entire county. I have forgotten most of the training but the images are still there. Houses in different stages of devastation after the fires were out. There was the sadness and grief of the families for their cherished items and memories that were lost. Listening to them was all that I could do, but it was helpful for them to begin their processing of the situation. However, the worst was when a death occurred. Not often but it did happen.

Now, concerning the cause of the fire in the house that you helped board up - possible faulty "Lithium Ion battery charging". I love the long battery life of the lithium Ion rechargeable batteries, but more and more I am getting wary of lithium ions and the potential for fires. These batteries cannot be treated like normal flashlight batteries of old! Dangerous!

I have a 40V Ryobi that is 5 years old (one of the earlier ones). It quit working after the first year. Last year I took it apart and then with an ammeter, found out it was fully charged. The circuitry was faulty and I could not find a replacement circuit board for that model battery - from Ryobi or on eBay or a couple of other internet places. That battery is a fire waiting to happen. I am going to a Ryobi Direct Tool outlet next Friday (day after Thanksgiving) and turn it in - along with three 1 1/2 Ah 18V batteries that are dead. I am supposed to get some credit towards a new one, but the MAIN concern is to get the "dead" LIon batteries away from my house.

[cwsmith]

I'm sorry for you neighbor's fire. I can only imagine how they must feel.

There have been so many lithium fires that I've read about in our area, especially those with e-bikes, scooters, and hover-boards. A few of those fires have been in apartment houses!

I've read of a couple of warnings for EV owners who are told NOT to charge them while parked in their garages or close to their homes when parked in the driveway.

Personally the lithium batteries for my use are mostly in tools and electronic devices in which they are often built-in. I have a couple of power banks and flashlights that use Li-Ion batteries too.

I do not leave any of them charging if I leave the house, not even my cell phone is left unattended for more than a few minutes. I love the technology, and have personally not had a problem, the number of incidents leaves me on my guard.

CWS

[twistsol]

The inspection yesterday showed the structure wasn't compromised by the fire. The house was built in the 40's, and the fire didn't burn through the plaster and lathe anywhere and the exterior is stucco. Kitchen and Living room will need to be gutted, some windows will need to be replaced and some soffit and shutters were damaged by the fire coming out the windows. The fire department apparently used a foam to put out the fire so no water damage.

[cwsmith]

Do they know yet what type of device was being charged?

CWS

[twistsol]

I haven't heard yet.

[dbhost]

So there are multiple chemistries. Lithium Ion which is what they use in Phones, Drones and EVs can discharge a LOT really fast, there is also Lithium Iron Phosphate, which is what is used for soalr systems, RV power systems etc... they do not have the super high discharge ability of Lithium Ion but they also don't self ignite and burn forever...

[LCHIEN]

Rather than completely trust chargers to cut off, I am using timers on many of my equipment with Lithium rechargeable batteries, essentially making belts and suspenders against runaway overcharging.



A timer like this or a mechanical dial timer like this

can be used to limit the time of a charger plugged into it. Usually they will charge in 3-4 hours, I put the timer on for 6 hours so it can do a complete job and stop but eventually the power will be removed. Multiple models, search for plug in countdown timer

The electronic one I have first is probably better these days... it is ready to plug in, cheaper and easy to use, Just select whatever delay to off you want. It also has the feature you can select 15 mins, and then push repeat. It will come on for 15 minutes every 24 hours thereafter and top off your battery if you are not using it for a long time.

I use one of these timers for my branding iron - I'm always scared I'll forget and leave it plugged in and burn down the shop. So I plug it into the time and hit 15 minutes that's usually more than enough time to reach temperature, and be used. a audible timer alerts me when its had enough time to heat and to make my brand, but then I don't have to worry about unplugging it.