Battery Safety
Posted by Lars VanKessel on
Boom!
Battery safety, not being safe with batteries has scared some people away from vaping, actually saying they felt safer smoking.
Batteries are no more dangerous in your vape than they are in your phone or anything that uses the LiPo battery technology.
Regulated mods, or internal battery mods with circuit boards preventing over discharging or over charging your batteries can make them very safe, a mechanical mod has little to no safety features built in and are like hot rods in that safety features usually take a back seat to performance or style.
Batteries don't need to be in a mod to be dangerous, they can be dangerous just sitting loose in a junk drawer, a purse or in your pocket. Without proper storage or handling of a battery, it can turn into a portable flamethrower or pipebomb with little to no notice damaging property or people. There is a lot of energy stored in one of those cells. The fun starts about 1 minute in.
To prevent that kind of catastrophe from happening in your pocket it's imperative that you practice proper storage and handling of your batteries. It's also important to keep good care of your device. Some of those parts are not just for looks but keep you safe. You should never use, carry or have a mod without it's battery cover.
I use the following story, because the reporters covered it responsibly and the guy who got burned knew that it was his fault and how it could have (and should have) been prevented.
Is your battery protected?
Your battery covers should not have any tears or rips in them. A tear or rip doesn't guarantee a problem, but it greatly increases the risk of one. If you have any battery you are concerned about the cover, bring it in and we will replace the cover for no charge at all.
If you want a cool cover for your battery, download the blank image below and put whatever you want on it (that fits) and print it out. Bring it in and we'll wrap your battery with it. If you have photoshop, use this link for a PSD file and the dimensions should be perfect. Few other cool ones... The dimensions to print it out are: 65.2mm by 57.5mm give or take a few 10ths of a mm. You can also photocopy/scan a $50 or $100 bill, crop it in half print it out to those dimensions and your Sigelei is powered by rolls of cash.
** Use the thinnest paper you can to keep the wrap thin, if the paper is too thick, some mods won't accept the batteries.
Storage of batteries.
This guy in the animation below kept his new battery loose in his pocket with some change, he foolishly thinks it's the battery manufacturer's fault that this happened, because it was a "cheap chinese battery" and he's suing the manufacturer. LOL.
It's a simple electrical fact, if you connect the circuit in that battery, it will start to release it's energy. Those coins, a piece of wire, your keys or some screws or nails or any combo of the lot can create an electrical short circuit and cause a battery to explode in your pocket or purse without warning.
A silicone battery cover is 99 cents, and if you buy a battery we'll give you one for free. You think this guy would trade that incident for 99 cents now? Why not do that first and save trying to play the blame game.
Last week of April was battery safety week, and we still have some complementary (from the CVA and ECTA) battery covers left over for anyone who needs to protect a pair of batteries.
So what batteries are safe? Which one should I choose? We'll cover that in another article, but if you're looking for good, reliable battery ratings, you can't do better than Mooch.
Keep in mind, wherever you buy your battery, as of right now, there is no such thing as an 18650 battery that is more than 20 amps at 3000 mAh, no matter what is written on the wrapper. If someone is trying to sell you one, you should probably just walk away because either they don't know what they are talking about or they are trying to rip you off.
Vape safe....
Lars