Exploding lithium battery. Beware of lithium batteries in diving lights!

[PfcAJ]

In the end, everything fails. I have lots of expensive lights that burned, flooded, etc. I do not quite see your comment as productive. And who are you, the queen of england to make generalizations like that?

lol, not a Brit, just a guy who's never had a light flood. Ever. Must be royalty to have such 'luck'.

 

[Ketch12]

Thanks for sharing your real world experience with this dive light and especially the details on the battery failure. It's very informative. Glad to hear you were wearing eye protection!

 

[black_sea]

Reading up on lithium batteries, here is an iformative video from Jill Henrieth
Rebreather Pro: Lithium Battery Fire at Jill Heinerth's House
I apologize for not immediately replying with the item SKU, spring is here and I am diving the newly identified wrecks...
Here it is, faulty contact that gave intermittent firing and leaked at 18 meters.
BT-QS66 CREE XPG-R5 180LM White LED Diving Flashlight (1 x 18650) - Free Shipping - DealExtreme
P.s. as for cheap vs expensive lights debate ...
Note that several lights I had in the $1000 range, from different manufactuters, have all given out on me before 500 dives on them...

 

[Hatul]

Jill's explosion is a totally different context as it was during charging. As far as the dive light, it looks like a new one and with an unusual shape. Can you tell if the leak was past the two O rings.

I have a number of 18650 lights, and my favorite are the XTAR D01, a modified Ultrafire W200 that takes two of these cells, and a single cell Pop-Lite.

 

[Madacub]

I have an Aquatec powered by 6 AAA alkaline batteries. I once left the batteries in for several months without using it. One of the batteries corroded a little. I cleaned up the corrosion as much as I could and replaced the batteries with Energizer alkalines again. After about 50 dives (about 6 night dives), I wanted to change the batteries. But the unit would not open. I covered it under a towel and after a lot of effort managed to open it. It opened with a loud pop of escaping gas. No leak and no corroded batteries this time. I replaced the batteries and it worked fine. I've finished diving for now and the batteries have been removed from the unit before storage.

So gas can occur with alkaline batteries and without flooding and without batteries corroding. I think :blinking:.

Black_sea: Just so I understand your situation, are you sure the light flooded? Or did the battery somehow leak and cause the corrosion? Do lithium batteries even leak, in the first place?

 

[black_sea]

There are 3 orings in the handle and one under the glass. hard to say which one leaked as I did not see water in there. After opening the light, it was filled with liquid, what was left from the gas expansion. I doubt it could be battery liquid, but not an expert in this.

 

[lucca brassi]

XTAR D01 .... famous torch (long s.....d story behind brings only headaches ) it is all clear now

 

[johnboywalton]

I think the lesson here might be to regard cheapie Chinese lights as suspicious, not lithium ion batteries.

If it were the lithium ion battery -- even just cheap Chinese batteries in and of themselves -- by implication, virtually every high energy electronic device on the market would be liable to exploding ... cell phones, iPods, laptops, hybrid cars, etc.

Been buying cheapo chinese lights online to test for possible budget backups for open water. On its first dive, one of the dealextreme 18650 battery powered lights took on water at 18 meters, unnoticed by me. It kept shining, and I could not see water when I looked at the glass. After the dive, unaware of any problems, I rinsed the light, to screw it apart for service when I got back home.

When I god back, it was hard to unscrew it, so having some bad experience in the past, decided to treat it as flooded.

I got a plumbers wrench, eye protection, gloves, thick work jacket and went to my industrial sink, and attempted to unscrew the light, making sure to point any openings away from me. The back of the light flew away with an explosive pop as the gases were coming out of the body. It left a dent in the steel sink.

There was some corrosive fluid everywhere and it was lucky to have taken the necessary precautions. The light had severely corroded in the few hours that had passed, Could have gone way sour if the liquid got on the skin or eyes.

Lessons learned - how I am going to operate in the future

Do not use lithium batteries in lights that have not been pressure tested personally.

Take all lights to maximum operating depth, without battery, to test for leak (somehow real life tests sometimes produce different results from pressure pot testing)

Stick to non-rechargeable batteries in backup lights

Use a charging box outside-the-house to charge batteries and not leave chargers unattended

Treat all lights as flooded unless proven otherwise. Disassemble with same rules as for hazmat and explosive.