KABOOM!

[RLT]

No, not another lithium battery venting..

When I opened the door to my pickup truck this afternoon, there was stuff scattered all over the inside... A white cup shaped disc of metal near the accelerator pedal, bits of black plastic and white paper all over the place.

My first thought was; "Oh, Crud, someone broke into it again.... and REALLY trashed it this time.!".
Checked all the good stuff;.... still there, , and no windows broken (well, sort of no windows broken).. Whew.

Inspecting closer, I finally figured out that a can of that compressed air stuff (for cleaning keyboards, computer fans etc.) had gone kaboom....

OK, I know better than to put a pressurized can on the dashboard, or front seat of a car, especially during summer... However, the day wasn't that hot... maybe 85 maximum, and the sky was at least partly cloudy all day long.... and the can was in the back seat, under some other stuff.. But it still failed structurally, blew the bottom out of itself, blew the lids off of a few other things and shredded part of a roll of paper towels.

I wish I had one of those super high-speed cameras like thy use on Mythbusters watching it closely so I could understand exactly what happened....

Because, you see, the can didn't explode... it IMPLODED.... Or maybe it exploded, but due to the instantaneous release of pressure, maybe the superchill made the metal shrink, and flatten itself. ??? I dunno.

Here is what I found:

And this isn't one of those thin aluminum cans... this is a steel can, about twice as thick as a typical can... I can't crush it anymore with one hand, (And I'm pretty good at crushing cans one handed... lots of practice daily)...., although I can sort of bend in the convex curved side a bit.

Discovered a bit later that it did sort of break some glass.... a week or two ago some speed demon flipped up a piece of gravel and cracked my windshield, about 3 inches worth, .. well that crack is now about 10 inches long.... I don't know if it was due to just the pressure, or if the bottom of the can (which I found on the floor just under the original chip /crack) hit near the old crack, and lengthened it due to impact.

Well, at least it didn't happen when I was driving; woulda scared the heck out of me, maybe caused an accident....

Hmm... that also explains the bang I heard earlier this afternoon... Thought someone's car backfired or something.

Word to the wise: Don't leave pressurized cans in your vehicle

 

[marty]

Don't leave cigarette lighters on the dashboard of cars in the hot sun.

 

[oatnet]

That is a fascinating result! Another possibility - the escaping gas turned it into a rocket that impacted sideways, crumpling it?

-JD

 

[RLT]

...That is a fascinating result! Another possibility - the escaping gas turned it into a rocket that impacted sideways, crumpling it?

Well, there is an abrasion along the side there (you can see it in the second photo, near the top of the can, so I guess it could have been... But the can itself was still pretty much where it was where I put it, and still under some stuff... It was only the bottom that obviously was a projectile. But who knows?

 

[Dauntless]

So I had not one but TWO spray cans erupt in the backseat of my truck. Not from heat, in fact over Christmas while I was out of town and came home to paint on a door window, a door, the back of the seats, the carpet---Oh, the CARPET! It melted.

Don't know what touched off the first, I assume it caused the second. Citrus oil didn't get it out, acetone didn't get it out, but danged if the carpet has never set or hardened. (Thermal reactions don't "Dry.")

 

[RLT]

So I had not one but TWO spray cans erupt in the backseat of my truck.....t---Oh, the CARPET! It melted.....

Well, that sucks. At least mine only had some sort of evaporating, pigmentless propellant in it.

 

[Hillhater]

Many years back, I had a can of Pepsi slip out of a shopping bag and hide unnoticed under my drivers seat....for several months,
Eventually, on a hot summers day during a long drive over some bumpy roads , it rolled forwards and hit a sharp edge of the seat mount....and went off like a wet firework !
It fizzed and hissed for what seemed like several minutes whilst I desperately tried to figure out what was happening under my ass and bring the car to a stop without panicking !
One vaporised can of hot Pepsi makes a hell of a sticky mess !

 

[RLT]

....One vaporised can of hot Pepsi makes a hell of a sticky mess !

Yeah, I had a six pack of Coke stashed away in a shed for a couple of years before it finally gave way.

And recently I've had two cans of Monster.. still inside the cardboard box .... develop leaks while riding in the back seat, too. Those cans are not much thicker or stronger than aluminum foil.

 

[dogman dan]

What happened to the can was it depressurized so fast when the bottom blew off, that the inside pressure was less than one atmosphere for a millisecond or two. So the air pressure, even at 7000' crushed it instantly. Instead of the air rushing back in the hole , it equalized the pressure another quicker way.

 

[kfong]

We were on a ski trip, car pooled to the airport on a cold week of winter, someone left an unopened can of pop in the front seat, not thinking much of it. When we got back the whole roof had been plastered with it. Luckily it was a company car. As we were driving and the interior started warming up. We were dripped on with the sticky mess.

 

[RLT]

What happened to the can was it depressurized so fast when the bottom blew off, that the inside pressure was less than one atmosphere for a millisecond or two. So the air pressure, even at 7000' crushed it instantly. Instead of the air rushing back in the hole , it equalized the pressure another quicker way.

Sounds reasonable to me.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Metal-Can-Implode

 

[Dauntless]

....One vaporised can of hot Pepsi makes a hell of a sticky mess !

Yeah, I had a six pack of Coke stashed away in a shed for a couple of years before it finally gave way.

The real joy of that stuff it that it bakes on HARD. It's almost like powder coat. Once you let it go solid in heat, it's found a home.

 

[babyhughie]

That is crazy.. I would be investigating to see if u can file a lawsuit against the company.. Luckily in your case no one got hurt.. But what if u had a kid in the back seat when that thing went off?? It could've done some real damage. Or even if it went off when u were driving causing you to get into an accident?? I'm not sure if you would have a case but if I were you I would contact a lawyer to see.. Things like that shouldn't happen and can be very dangerous..

 

[marty]

That is crazy.. I would be investigating to see if u can file a lawsuit against the company.. Luckily in your case no one got hurt.. But what if u had a kid in the back seat when that thing went off?? It could've done some real damage. Or even if it went off when u were driving causing you to get into an accident?? I'm not sure if you would have a case but if I were you I would contact a lawyer to see.. Things like that shouldn't happen and can be very dangerous..

Yes lawsuit Every leaking can needs a lawsuit. During my celebration of winning my last lawsuit over some fizzing pop, I opened a bottle of champagne and the cork pop into my eye. Here we go again

Seriously - Don't store sealed containers in places where they can freeze or get real hot. or Do store sealed containers in places where they can freeze or get real hot so you can win money with a lawsuit if something goes wrong.

I try not to buy aerosol cans if there are alternatives.

 

[RLT]

Nope, no lawsuits from this guy. Not a big fan of lawyers, and even if I was, the company can afford more and better ones than I can. (no puns intended)

Wasn't even complaining that the can blew up... Was just sharing the interesting physics effect, and perhaps a warning to people who never thought about every day things that can have undesired effects in certain situations.

 

[dawrench]

1 can of soda, 3 very cold nights. I'm just glad I found it before the 4th night.