lithium fires

søndag den 6. november 2022 kl. 18.35.33 UTC+1 skrev John Larkin:

do you leave your battery powered tools, laptop or cellphone outside just to be sure?

I don't have any battery powered tools. Mo has a little whipper thing to make her own foamy coffee, but it uses (a lot of) AA batteries.

I haven't heard of fires from phones or laptops. They use relatively small, low peak power flat batteries so may be less of a fire hazard. Better thermals and maybe different construction from vehicle batteries.

Kilograms (or tons) of densely packed batteries is a whole nother story. Fires seem to be in vehicle batteries.

There aren't many cheap Chinese laptops or phones being sold here; Apple and Dell and Samsung can't take risks with bad batteries. But there are lots of cheap Chinese bikes and scooters.

søndag den 6. november 2022 kl. 19.08.51 UTC+1 skrev John Larkin:

then you haven't been listening, Apple, Samsung et.al. have all had cases with battery fires, billion dollar recalls, lawsuit

I don't, but I frequently wonder if I should.

Jeroen Belleman

We need some kind of flow battery, where the reagents are kept separated until needed. Cheap, efficient, powerful flow batteries are still elusive.

Jeroen Belleman

Don't be obnoxious.

Apple, Samsung et.al. have all had cases with

They don't make the news like the 200 building fires and six deaths in Manhattan this year from bikes and scooters.

How many cell phone fires are there per year in the US?

The best battery would use air as one of the reactants.

Zinc-air batteries do that. They have been used in hearing aids for many decades. However, they have their own problems. Once the tab that keeps the air out has been peeled off they tend to self-discharge fairly quickly. They are not generally very good at coping with high peak loads either. John

søndag den 6. november 2022 kl. 21.19.27 UTC+1 skrev John Larkin:

don't know, but

..more than 26,000 house fires, caused by faulty wiring...

..On average, seven people die in a fire a day..

so while there is undoubtedly so very bad quality batteries out there it would have to be really bad to "compete" with other sources

very clever automatic lubricator based on a zinc-air cell

Autopilot has trouble with motorcycles too. A number of riders have been run down...

Sheesh!

I've been riding pretty much year round since around 1972...

John :-#(#

Yes, and some liquid as the other.

Jeroen Belleman

The bottom line here is there is a vast variation in the quality of the lithium batteries being produced. I am sure that China can produce high-quality batteries IF they institute the proper rigorous quality control procedures. But many China producers are driven to produce the cheapest, lowest quality batteries possible. You see it in knock-off battery packs for hand tools; the cells inside have NO manufacturer markings whatsoever, and they don't produce the same energy levels. They are just CHEAP so the battery pack is cheaper than the name brand. I just checked a number of reviews today on this issue.

Yeah, I believe that test had to do with a car in front of the Tesla suddenly moving out of the lane. So the test dummy child was struck by the Tesla which did not have time to react, just like a human. Of course, the goal is not to be like humans. That's a very low bar. So far, the Teslas have far surpassed humans in safety. But that's not a completely fair comparison, considering the way autopilot is used.

That's a gasoline engine, no?

Lol! No one's being obnoxious. He's just pointing out that you clearly don't read much general news. These reports are wide spread when they happen. In other terms, "Big News!"

They make it into a few newspapers and magazines that people read.

"The driver of the Model X had his hands on the steering wheel, but was also dozing off behind it."

Sounds like the problem is, as typical, the loose nut behind the wheel.

The Teslas are actually safer than humans statistically speaking. How safe do cars need to be? Maybe you should take a look at the cars that aren't Teslas?

I used to ride a bike, until I was rear ended in DC. He wasn't driving a Tesla.

Phones top list of fires among electronic devices, says Health ...

That's minute compared to 200 building fires in Manhattan alone.

Over five years in Canada?

A 9 volt battery gets pretty hot of you short it. I wonder if that can start a fire.