Lithium Ion Batteries can be deadly..

jburr36

jburr36

Member
This thread is in response to a comment someone made boasting about how safe his lithium ion e-bike battery is. I'm like 'oh really???'

Ever hear of those stories in the news about exploding cell phone batteries? How about those laptop batteries that exploded and started fires? These batteries have are quite high in energy density than common batteries and when they get hot they release explosive vapors and caustic fumes.

Here are a few videos illustrating just how violent some small lithium ion batteries can be when things go wrong. Granted one is a test and forced to explode but the fact that they do is alarming:

YouTube - ‪Lithium Ion battery fire‬‏

YouTube - ‪Lithium Polymer Battery Explosion's (liposack)‬‏

YouTube - ‪Lithium Ion Battery Explosion‬‏

These are small cell phone and laptop batteries. Imagine if these were larger electric bicycle or even larger electric car batteries.

No technology is fool proof and occasionally it will fail from time to time.
 
I'm absolutely certain that battery technology is going to improve. Most likely improve by increasing energy storage density. Lead Acid batteries are still very common yet have been around since the late 1700s.

Gasoline engines will one day be a thing of the past. They are very inefficient in that they waste more than 70% of the energy consumed in the form of heat. My smart phone uses tiny amounts power yet has the computing power of early 70s super computers that once used dozens of kilowatts and prone to numerous failures.

Everything changes. We are a dynamic society and that is natural. The earth is always changing. The climate is always changing. Species come and go. It's natural. Some people are resistant to change and they are fun to watch too as they devolve into spontanious fits of neurotic anxiety over something they have no control over. My father being one and I occasionally make fun of him.

Having said all that just goes to show I understand and accept it. I like battery technology but I understand that energy is energy. It has potential of force. The more dense you pack energy into something the more explosive it will be when it is accidentally released. That combined with materials that are used to contain it becoming unstable in certain circumstances can only amplify the inevitable outcome.

No technology out there is foolproof. There are just too many variables that can have an effect and change the conditions and state of an object and there's no way to predict every possible contingency.

So, when another member rambled on with an elitist type attitude of why his lithium ion battery powered E-bike was so safe that he's better off than everyone else I just thought I'd share what happens when Lithium Ion batteries fail under certain circumstances. It's pretty violent.

I've never had any issue with the safety of my gas bike's gasoline tank being unsafe. I've never burned myself with it. Always used common sense caution to keep myself safe. I'm certain a vast majority of injury accidents that occur in the world are due to the lack of proper attention on the part of those involved in one way or another and not due to some sort of equipment failure which means that the vast majority of injury accidents can be avoided.

It's really our own personal responsibility to ensure that we are maintaining our motorized bikes properly so that we can operate them safely. Not only to protect ourselves but to protect others around us as well. E-bikes are just as dangerous in the hands of an idiot as a gas bike would be.
 
I believe the 2nd vid is actually a LiPo. They're used in the R/C world a lot. I treat mine like a live grenade. Always kept in a blast-proof box of some sort, always balance charged on concrete and never taken below dangerous discharge levels.
 
As long as you take good care of them, there's not much to worry about. Honestly, a NiCd/NiMh explosion will likely create more blast damage than a LiPo's relatively slow burn. It's just easier to set a Lithium battery off in the first place.
 
Only the lithium polymer type batteries that are mostly used in RC applications are dangerous..

I've dead shorted a 12v LiFePo4 battery for 2 1/2 hours (in the middle of an empty field). The only thing that happened was the batteries got really hot...

Very safe tech!
 
LiFePo4 is a bit different from Lithium Ion or Lithium Polymer, and yes, a LiFePo is a lot safer in that respect. However, had you have done that with a Lithium Ion... it would have gone up in flames.
 
Most to all batteries shown are being overcharged, thats why they are exploding, in normal charging this would never occure, the only way that it would happen is by the charger failing to cut out like they do on a normal recharge, or useing the wrong charger.

Most to all batteries that are used in the bikes and cars use whats known as a BMS by everyone that actualy has them, so if your trying to imply that the bike ones or the car ones will explode is just plain fear mongering for the sake of it.
 
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