Sunder
10 MW
Reminder to stay safe peoples. My nightmare is that it happens when I'm not home and my wife tries to pour water on an electrical fire... Will have to tell her not to do it.
Battery charger sparks $25,000 Bayswater home blaze
- Thread starter Sunder
- Start date
Reminder to stay safe peoples. My nightmare is that it happens when I'm not home and my wife tries to pour water on an electrical fire... Will have to tell her not to do it.
Ypedal
100 TW
After dozens of bikes, and 1000's of charge cycles, i never leave the house while charging, or go to bed while charging is in progress.
Sunder
10 MW
Originally, I thought people like you were paranoid... I just put it on some ceramic tiles away from combustibles and went to bed.
I'm starting to think now you're probably being quite wise. I'm also unplugging it at the wall when I'm not charging. Who knows whether that charger was on load when it caught fire.
I'm starting to think now you're probably being quite wise. I'm also unplugging it at the wall when I'm not charging. Who knows whether that charger was on load when it caught fire.
Ykick
1 GW
For me, an important advantage of high current bulk charging is that it doesn't take so long to complete. By the time I fix something to eat and do the dishes my pack's full and disconnected from everything.
We don't really know what type of battery charger is to blame here. I've seen people do some pretty dumb stuff with laptop chargers. Allow them to get shoved under pillows and/or blankets they can become blistering hot!
We don't really know what type of battery charger is to blame here. I've seen people do some pretty dumb stuff with laptop chargers. Allow them to get shoved under pillows and/or blankets they can become blistering hot!
AussieJester
1 TW
I cant believe people are so retarded
To leave batteries charging unattended.
inconsiderate pricks, fine if its only their
House that burns to the ground, more likely
Though, surrounding houses will also be burnt.
Having just recently seen over 30 homes here in
west Oz burn to the ground in two days I'm very aware of
The devistating effects of fire. Get a freakin clue people! Learn to bulk charge and it takes less than an hour to charge, no
Need to leave chargers on all night.
KiM
.
To leave batteries charging unattended.
inconsiderate pricks, fine if its only their
House that burns to the ground, more likely
Though, surrounding houses will also be burnt.
Having just recently seen over 30 homes here in
west Oz burn to the ground in two days I'm very aware of
The devistating effects of fire. Get a freakin clue people! Learn to bulk charge and it takes less than an hour to charge, no
Need to leave chargers on all night.
KiM
.
AussieJester
1 TW
Makes no difference what charger it iz or what battery its charging!
You don't leave them on while sleeping, period.
KiM
You don't leave them on while sleeping, period.
KiM
JEB
100 W
I have placed my charger on a turn off (only) timer that I set at the begining of the charge, it is also has a just above max draw fuse in series with the charger, not to rely on the house circuit breaker which is 15amps which takes a direct short to trip right away, and it is outside of the house in the driveway, in a box to keep the rain off.
Hillhater
100 TW
I dont see why a "charger" would be any more prone to an electrical fire than any other electrical gadget..TV, radio, AC unit, water heater, fridge,...or the miles of wiring around every house.neptronix said:
If we have to worry about every electrical appliance that is "live" whilst we sleep... i wont get much sleep !
..but DIY Lipo charger ( or a HK one even !) set ups ....thats another situation ! :?
Sunder
10 MW
Hillhater said:
Chargers tend to generate a lot of electrical heat. I guess TVs and the like do as well, when they're on, but:
1. Who leaves on the TV when they're sleeping?
2. Who leaves their TV on the couch or covered in pillows? (Which I know many do to laptop chargers)
Ricky_nz
10 kW
Chargers probably aren't that much more likely to catch fire than other devices but the shear number of them means they are more likely to be a common cause.
I can count 5 chargers around my place excluding the ebike chargers.
I actually trust my meanwells (genuine) over some of the laptop chargers that have been reduced in size to get the maximum number of watts per cm^3 that run hot even when suspended in air.
I can count 5 chargers around my place excluding the ebike chargers.
I actually trust my meanwells (genuine) over some of the laptop chargers that have been reduced in size to get the maximum number of watts per cm^3 that run hot even when suspended in air.
In my general experience fixing up people's electrical gadgets, often at their homes, I tend to see chargers and other small AC adapters crammed several together closely on a single powerstrip which itself is buried inside an unventilated cabinet, or back behind a desk that has had papers and all sorts of other things (including animal hair and/or droppings) burying it, preventing airflow.
Often this is the root cause of why I was called over, as one or more of them has overheated (to the point of melting the plastic cases, sometimes), and failed. Sometimes they fail dead, no output, and sometimes the output filter caps fail and the device outputs the PWM pulses, essentially AC, of the secondary stage of the switcher inside. Those pulses can be a LOT larger voltage than the nominal output voltage of the charger or power adapter, and can do some "interesting" damage to the devices attached to them.
I expect a fair number of battery chargers fail in that way, and end up causing spectactular damage to the battery packs either immediately or over time, causing some of the various device fires we see reported (and a lot that we don't).
Pretty much everyone I've ever seen with celphone chargers just leaves them plugged in wherever they first hooked them up, and just plugs in the celphone whenever it runs low, or on some schedule. Most often that seems to be either in these overcrowded computer desk or entertainment center power strips, or some kitchen or bedroom wall outlet (usually right next to another charger for anohter similar device, often one that they no longer use, but is still plugged in after up to several years of disuse). Even at places I've worked at, there's usually several celphone chargers people brougth to work as "spares" and just left plugged into various outlets and powerstrips, and these stay plugged in and on all the time, awaiting their owners' phones to be hooked up for a random charge now and then.
Laptop chargers...yes, I've seen these tucked into chair cushions and whatnot a fair bit of the time, for those that tend to just sit down in their favorite puffy chair or sprawl on the couch when they get home from the office, where they have the other spare charger/power adapter for the thing. Most of these seem to fare far better than the celphone type in this unventilated environment, but some of them are burning hot, as in I couldnt' hold it in my hand (or in some cases even pick them up), and the fabric aroudn them is discolored from the heat.
I haven't seen any of the above actually cause a fire yet, but some of them were so hot that I expect it is only a matter of time, especially since few of the people I advised to move them to some cooler more ventilated location, or turn them off / unplug them when not in use, would heed my advice.
Then again, I myself don't turn every device off when I go to sleep, though I do usually flip off all the powerstrips for things. In my case it's less motivated by fire safety than miserliness of the dollar or two of electricity each year the idle power of the things plugged in tend to take.
Also...I still find it difficult to accept such high damage costs and home costs, because my mind is still stuck back when a pretty good middlin' house new was only $30,000, like the one I lived in in 5th grade when my parents split up.
Often this is the root cause of why I was called over, as one or more of them has overheated (to the point of melting the plastic cases, sometimes), and failed. Sometimes they fail dead, no output, and sometimes the output filter caps fail and the device outputs the PWM pulses, essentially AC, of the secondary stage of the switcher inside. Those pulses can be a LOT larger voltage than the nominal output voltage of the charger or power adapter, and can do some "interesting" damage to the devices attached to them.
I expect a fair number of battery chargers fail in that way, and end up causing spectactular damage to the battery packs either immediately or over time, causing some of the various device fires we see reported (and a lot that we don't).
Pretty much everyone I've ever seen with celphone chargers just leaves them plugged in wherever they first hooked them up, and just plugs in the celphone whenever it runs low, or on some schedule. Most often that seems to be either in these overcrowded computer desk or entertainment center power strips, or some kitchen or bedroom wall outlet (usually right next to another charger for anohter similar device, often one that they no longer use, but is still plugged in after up to several years of disuse). Even at places I've worked at, there's usually several celphone chargers people brougth to work as "spares" and just left plugged into various outlets and powerstrips, and these stay plugged in and on all the time, awaiting their owners' phones to be hooked up for a random charge now and then.
Laptop chargers...yes, I've seen these tucked into chair cushions and whatnot a fair bit of the time, for those that tend to just sit down in their favorite puffy chair or sprawl on the couch when they get home from the office, where they have the other spare charger/power adapter for the thing. Most of these seem to fare far better than the celphone type in this unventilated environment, but some of them are burning hot, as in I couldnt' hold it in my hand (or in some cases even pick them up), and the fabric aroudn them is discolored from the heat.
I haven't seen any of the above actually cause a fire yet, but some of them were so hot that I expect it is only a matter of time, especially since few of the people I advised to move them to some cooler more ventilated location, or turn them off / unplug them when not in use, would heed my advice.
Then again, I myself don't turn every device off when I go to sleep, though I do usually flip off all the powerstrips for things. In my case it's less motivated by fire safety than miserliness of the dollar or two of electricity each year the idle power of the things plugged in tend to take.
Also...I still find it difficult to accept such high damage costs and home costs, because my mind is still stuck back when a pretty good middlin' house new was only $30,000, like the one I lived in in 5th grade when my parents split up.
Sunder
10 MW
amberwolf said:Also...I still find it difficult to accept such high damage costs and home costs, because my mind is still stuck back when a pretty good middlin' house new was only $30,000, like the one I lived in in 5th grade when my parents split up.
In Australia, a median house would set you back close to 600k.
If you got change from renovating a kitchen from 30k, you did it on the cheap.
Evoforce
10 kW
I've seen things like this happen particularly when a cooling fan goes bad.
kfong
100 kW
It would be the wattage I would worry about when charging. None of your wall wart appliances will approach these power levels if you are charging more than 1C rates. I would not skimp on the quality of the charger and power supply. Make sure you also allow some head room as well. Overstressesd equipment are bound to fail overtime. I saw flames shoot out of my 3010b. When you have high current and voltages, the failures are a bit more dramatic.
kiqnkf
100 W
Have you all got smoke alarms above your ebike charging points? Easier to quell/quash smoke than express to phase two (FIRE!!) and have to deal with that..
There are plenty of painful looking funny youtube vids resulting from attempts to put a fire out....
There are plenty of painful looking funny youtube vids resulting from attempts to put a fire out....
