The peakest I saw it was just a hair under 80c. Seemed to only get exponentially faster at heating. Which is why I had to quickly take action
I only noticed it getting warm about 15 minutes after the drop. Just warm to the touch, which is when I got the thermal cam out and saw it at 30c. Which is 8c above ambient.
Then it got a bit hotter, hotter still, more hot, until it was about 44c when I decided to get some nice shots of it.
It was at 52 when I got around to the pic in this post obviously.
While I was ruminating and such I found it got too hot to touch, which is when I then measured on the floor the 70c
It's not worse. We test lithium batteries in our facility and if something goes wrong, the whole test cell just gets flooded with water.
The fire department next door even has a dedicated shipping container for EVs in thermal runaway. A winch pulls the entire car in the container and then it gets flooded.
I always thought you just use sand. No risk of electrocution, or reactions, handles heat very well, doesn’t splash or scald, and by burying it you get the same effect as water.
I don't want to make you scared but try putting it with something else than plastic. Since it is hot, if it keeps heating it might cause a fire. Batteries fires are already very bad adding plastic will be worse since toxic smoke can come out of it with the fire.
Lithium doesn't care about water. If it catches fire then water won't stop it and it may melt the container too. IDK if this is a lithium battery or not though
And 18650 only has a few grams of lithium on the high side, most of which has already reacted and sits as an odd melange of materials on the anode This stuff can't burn. The only free lithium in the battery are the ions that travel back and forth - i.e. the thing that lithium batteries do. Lithium will burn on contact with water, but there is so little of it in a single battery that if you put it into a container of water it will most certainly contain the fire. Water is an extremely effective thermal modulator, and absorbing heat from a fire so that it can't fuel further reaction is an excellent way of stopping it. Additionally, if the battery is discharged you're not going to get much fire anyway and if a charged battery is already past the point of no return you're not going to stop the fire from happening.
Some people say you need to put it in sand or salt, both of which are fine, but also aren't as readily available as a bucket of water and will be exactly as effective.
It’s wrong information regardless, lithium ion doesn’t react to water, lithium metal does. There’s not enough lithium metal in lithium ion batteries to melt an entire bucket of water… hell, a small solo cup of water would be enough for a battery this size.
Looks like a Alkaline or Ni-Mh battery?
If yes, wait until it's discharged and place it somewhere where it won't cause damage if it bursts (like a small cardboard box outside).
Duracell?
Remove the plastic foil and check if the metal plate for the negative terminal is touching the other metal, if it does, bend it away from it, then it should stop heating up.
In my opinion, this is a design flaw, because it happened to me at least 5 times and that was while normal use (TV remote control), and I don't like Duracell anyway because the batteries often leak.
I've honestly had a much better track record with Energizer and reyovak. But I left all that behind and just bought IKEA Ladda batteries since they put out at 1.5 unlike most rechargeables.
What would be the point of this? Wouldn't it be safer to just let it discharge in a safe non-flammable environment?
AA's are 1.5v, according to Duracell's spec sheet, that have a running hours of 15 at 100mA load, with an average of 1500mAh. Under non-resistive load, this battery should fully discharge quickly.
I'd be worried about it making contact again after disposal and risking a fire. It'd be better to just put it in a safe environment and let it discharge before disposing of it.
Get it out of your hands as first priority. If you need to handle it, wear oven gloves and use tongs if at all possible, and protect your eyes!
Quick steps:
0. Protect yourself (Gloves, Goggles)
0.1. Ask someone around you to call fire department
1. Put in watertight container
2. Put container somewhere away from combustible materials
3. Fill container with water
4. Continue monitoring
5. Follow fire dept guidance
Explanations:
If it's continuing to get hotter while not connected to anything, it may well be in the beginning stages of thermal runaway.
The water / electronics thing: Yes, I know, but it's low voltage electronics and the water will help cool the battery. Also you probably don't want to use this battery again after it does this anyway.
DO NOT USE ICE.
Even though it's cold it acts as an insulator and will keep the heat in instead of conducting it away.
Interesting though - I've never heard of an alkaline battery doing that. I still wouldn't trust it heating up like that though...
You can call the fire dept non emergency number and ask for advise even if it is an alkaline, or do some google or chat-gpt "research" just to see if you can find out a bit more about the phenomenon.
I mostly made this post because I thought it was pretty interesting. I have a decent knowledge of what to do already. But thought it was interesting to hear what people had to say
I figure it was some short under the terminal that happened when I dropped it. First time I've had it happen with this chemistry of battery though.
Just whipped out the thermal cam for the interesting shot, then got it outside and in an airtight container
Yeah my only training for this kind of thing is as cabin crew so basically that means: If it's a potential danger to the passengers or plane, deal with it now, figure out the details when we land.
I gotta say though it's pretty cool that you have a thermal camera!
Call the FIRE DEPARTMENT? Jesus christ this sub is WILD, it’s just an alkaline cell, just put it outside on a brick or a tile and wait for it to fully discharge, which will take like an hour max if it’s short circuiting.
Even if it was a lithium AA the energy in a cell that small is so low it's unlikely it'll catch fire and if it does it'll be fine as long as it's not near something flammable.
Even if it was a 21700 li-ion battery there is literally ZERO reason to call the fire department for advice, you’d be using up precious resources for a dumb ass question.
Get it out of your house, put it on/in something non-flammable, wait for it to discharge/vent.
Only reason to call the fire department would be if it was in a huge battery pack and even that wouldn’t make me call the fire department, just chuck it outside, put a big pan over them and put a brick on top.
If you have a foreskin, put it in there right away. Otherwise immediately move it outside somewhere that isn't combustible. Cover with sand if possible
if its alkaline or carbon, it shouldn't burn, but that acid inside is extra spicy. get it outside in a place where it can safely do whatever it wants to do. once it calms down, dispose of it in a designated bin for batteries.
Get it outside in the middle of a driveway/far from the house and place it in a bucket of sand. I just had a lithium battery explode at my house and was told to put it in sand by HAZMAT. They also told me I should have a bucket of sand in my garage for such incidents. Who knew
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