Warning: Exploding Batteries

batlike writes "It seems I have been quite lucky up to this point as I habitually leave my laptop in the trunk of my car - which is just over the gas tank (duh!) . See this article in InfoWorld by Ephraim Schwartz for details. You may want to give it a once over if you currently use lithium-ion batteries."

Comments

Three times and it's a trend?

[suman28]

Considering the number of people that use these batteries and number of people that overcharge, I don't see a trend at all, just people that don't know how to use a device properly

warning: story is just a big add

[extra the woos]

so i go to read the story and...

"Because Valence claims to offer a safer alternative"

"Currently, Valence is shipping outboard devices -- N-Charge, weighing just under three pounds"

"The next generation from Valence will be small enough to use as a direct replacement for your current laptop battery and will be available next year."

come on slashdot, infoworld, this isn't news, this is a PRESS RELEASE

Bleh

[seymansey]

The article didnt give any particulary useful information, just stating the obvious. It was nothing more than a small plug for the new types of batteries that are due to be launched. And anyway, it's common sense not to leave batteries unattended in hot conditions, etc. Argh, but saying that, my NEC laptop's battery does get extremely hot during use, usually by conducted heat from the whole laptop. So did my old vaios' too.

Not too unexpected

[Bender_]

Well, any kind of high energy battary poses a kind of danger. The energy density of modern batteries approaches that of nuclear reactors. Any kind of physical damange (also heat) may release the stored energy in a quick fashion. Naturally it will be converted to enormous amounts of heat..

Of course he'll say LI batteries are unsafe

[jason.hall]

and are a "tiget in a cage." His company is marketing a competitor to Lithium-Ion!

A Trend? Moron...

[the_mad_poster]

But when I read three stories, all in reputable news outlets, well, that's a trend.

Okay, chicken little. Whatever you say. Three stories in reputable news outlets is a trend. Let's see. If .05% of the 290M+ population of the U.S. owns a laptop, that means what, 2.06 x 10^-6 % of all the notebook owners in the U.S. experienced that in the past several months (someone might want to check my math.. it's really early)? That's a trend? If that's the case, aren't you far more likely to win the lottery several times than have your laptop battery explode?

Imbecile. There's an enormous difference between something being a possibility and being even remotely likely. Sounds like those idiotic news reports networks show to get stupid people to watch ("WILL YELLOW STICKY NOTES KILL YOU? FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN PROTECT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AT SIX!!!!")

Moore's law of batteries

[shuz]

Of course Batteries have not doubled in capacity every year, but that doesn't mean that thier growth and development is coming to an end. At the end of this article the author claims that in 5 years we will not longer be able to improve on batteries. Though we may not be able to improve capacity or discharge, which I still feel is underestimating our ingeniouity, we will be able to further improve on batteries by finding new sources, find new ways of recycling batteries, or making batteries last longer(in lifetime).

Nice Editing

[Transcendent]

"When you heat this material up, it [can] reach an onset temperature that begins to self-heat and progresses into fire and explosion."

You really can't go replacing important words like that. Who knows if the word "can" was to replace something like "has the small possibility to" or "can under extreme and rare conditions"...

Filling in the blank with the word "can" has the possibility of throwing the perspective out of proportion. Even later in the article it states that "explosions and fire happen 'rarely'".

And what really got me...

Long-term fuel cells that convert hydrogen and oxygen to electricity -- don't ask me how -- are a promising alternative.

So replace lithium ion batteries with a HIGHLY combustable mixture... good alternative...

Re:Love the quality reporting

[UrgleHoth]

Not to mention that he brings up fuel cells in the article/ad:
"Long-term fuel cells that convert hydrogen and oxygen to electricity -- don't ask me how -- are a promising alternative."
Notice that he neglects to go into any basic details on fuel cells. I found this link by doing a google search on fuel cells.
It would have taken him very little effort to come up with a one or two sentence description.
Damn lazy journalist.

RTFM!

[Trurl's Machine]

I habitually leave my laptop in the trunk of my car - which is just over the gas tank (duh!) .

Sir, I don't know the make of your laptop, but I'm pretty sure that if you'll read the user's manual that came with it, you'll find a passage like "do not leave it in locations where the temperature can become unpredictable or extreme - like a car trunk". Such a passage is in mine. I'd say that your horror story boils down do "if you habitually neglect the recommendations of your user's manual, bad things can happen".

OEM Batteries

[Detritus]

One way to avoid problems is to only buy batteries that have been tested and approved by the device's manufacturer. Many of the reported problems with catastrophic battery failure can be traced back to no-name or counterfeit batteries that are missing crucial protective circuits and features.

Calm down

[SuperBanana]

And what about ones that have had their short circuit protection removed?

You can't, it's often integral to the cell, so a fair amount of surgery is involved.

Nearly perfect bomb and perfectly legal to bring onboard passing all security checks with flying colours.

Oh for chrissakes...no, something that would get really hot, start smoking, and then catch fire. Ever since(and in fact before) the Valuejet incident, planes have smoke detectors and fire suppression systems in their cargo holds, so it's a moot point if it ends up in cargo vs. carry-on. The issue of toxicity is moot because that's why planes have oxygen systems that the pilot can deploy. The mask systems in the cockpits are also usually much better than the paper-cup jobbies the Cattle get.

People- Calm. The. Fuck. Down. Planes don't explode because something inside them catches fire, they don't start crashing because someone shoots a gun, yadda yadda. Cars don't explode because a battery overheats in the trunk. Stop watching so many action movies...

Re:Calm down

[Anonymous Coward]

As is pointed out, the chance of actually causing real damage to a plane is small, though you could cause some disruption. The danger is that if enough of the public starts to get the impression that by creative use of a paper clip you can turn your laptop battery into a grenade, eventually, someone will feel like they need to take action to address this "threat".
A normal passenger isn't a threat, even if they have a knife (or even a gun) because they are mostly concerned with getting where they are going in time for their meeting and what the in-flight meal (if any) is going to be. Even a problem passenger (ie. drunk) isn't much of a threat, disruptive yes, but not a threat. A criminal/terrorist passenger is a problem, because they have other things on their mind that don't involve the plane getting where it's going on time and in one piece with the passengers unharmed. It has nothing to do with his baggage or what's in his pockets, it has to do with intent and motivation (if motivated enough he could be stripped naked and still be a threat).
Unfortunately, since we don't have a reliable and acceptable way to screen for intent, we screen for tools that might be of use to someone with criminal intent, and that often has as much to do with perception as actual usefullness or danger.