E-bike battery fires

2 in our village burnt the houses to the floor.

Personally, on a timer, daytime only and in the garage.

Personally, on a timer, daytime only and in the garage.

...presumably also not a 1000watt set up with battery made from old laptop cells bought direct from China?

Google suggests 100 cars a day catch fire of their own accord.

I have enough faith in my Specialized set up not to worry too much. It's charged many times in the past 4 years left unattended in the shed overnight

Google suggests 100 cars a day catch fire of their own accord.

Not just Hondas surely?

Not just Hondas surely?

It's my Civic duty to point out other makes also catch fire, e.g. Renault Fuego.

Not just ebikes and scooters, Glenmore Lodge had a fire caused by a headtorch battery exploding mid charge.

https://www.thegreatoutdoorsmag.com/news/warnings-after-exploding-head-torch-battery-starts-fire-at-glenmore-lodge/

Bravo sir, although they could cool things off by driving into a Ford.

Wait until we are all driving around in hundreds of thousands of cheap EV's which get made to a budget, damaged in use and never, ever inspected or maintained...

Bravo sir, although they could cool things off by driving into a Ford.

So long as its not a with bmw, that ends badly.

Bravo sir, although they could cool things off by driving into a Ford.

So long as its not a with bmw, that ends badly

...but you're okay if it's a Marina

but you’re okay if it’s a Marina

She'd regret trying it in a stingray though.

Always wanted a Pontiac Fiero grill.

Or a Firebird if you're into yakitori

All these fires, it’s a right Audi do

I'm planning to add a Tongsheng motor to a utility bike following TJ's positive experience. This fire danger reminder has me wondering what a good source of the battery would be?

Wait until we are all driving around in hundreds of thousands of cheap EV’s which get made to a budget, damaged in use and never, ever inspected or maintained…

Enough of your petrolhead anti-EV nonsense! 😉

@sl2000 I've just done the same to my hardtail and it's been ace.

I'm not sure how much the brand matters but mine is a Varstrom 48v 20amp 960wh battery if it helps. Only recharged it 3 times so far, it turns off when charged.

@longdog I think you got the battery from this listing https://amzn.eu/d/8Vj60x7?

Will do the same unless someone knows an mtbbatteries-type person with a reputation for batteries that don't catch fire.

(And thanks for updating this and the other threads - good to see real-world experience of these.)

I think we'll find that these fires are from the cheaper conversion or hub type Ebikes, left on overnight(utter crazy thing to do) So its a cheaply made charger and no real CE mark or such. Rather than your Bosch/Brose/Yamaha etc Ebike

@sl2000 yeh the seller was junstar-eu. They emailed to check physical battery size would fit in frame before confirming order and delivery was much quicker than stated on the Amazon page.

@dyna-ti

Maybe, maybe not.

My money is with your guess FWIW but it's not like properly made (as opposed to properly designed) stuff can't go wrong.

I'd expect the number of issues to rise with the rising popularity of 'e-things' and there's probably a bigger market for the lower end utility bikes that get more regular use and charging than the 'posh' full sus eMTBs used at trail centres. Anecdotally I see far more lower end e-bikes out and about being used by 'non-cyclists'

So I guess I'm saying stats are stacked for lower end utility bikes and conversions to show more issues, and their use seems to be very much on the ride.

@longdog does thay kit come with a charger, or have you had to provide your own?

Ian

A friend of mine runs an independant car repair workshop and has begun 'training' to work on EV cars.

During that training he was shown a Tesla Dealership Agreement. It stated that to be a Tesla Dealer you HAD to install a large pool (3M deep) to enable you to safely tackle any battery related 'thermal event'

YIKES!

@breninbeener yeh it comes with the charger.

During that training he was shown a Tesla Dealership Agreement. It stated that to be a Tesla Dealer you HAD to install a large pool (3M deep) to enable you to safely tackle any battery related ‘thermal event’

Lithium battery fires are hard to extinguish and can reignite hours after they appear to have burned out, I imagine that's a sensible precaution when dealing with any EV.

During that training he was shown a Tesla Dealership Agreement. It stated that to be a Tesla Dealer you HAD to install a large pool (3M deep) to enable you to safely tackle any battery related ‘thermal event’

I imagine that’s a sensible precaution when dealing with any EV.

I don't think I'd want to be the one tasked with pushing the burning car in though and by the time the fire brigade get there I suspect you may want to do the whole show room given how quick they go.

I suspect the "sensible precaution" is unlikely to be more than expensive arse covering decoration.

https://fireisolator.com/#what-is-fire-isolator
Some interesting concepts regarding EV fires on that website. A good friend is a Firefighter, the issue is the batteries stay hot for so long, so the best way to extinguish is to dump in a "skip" full of water until safe to remove.

My TongSheng powered E-MTB has two 6S Li-Po batteries under the saddle.

Now Li-Pos DO catch fire if damaged and you can't really put the fire out either (speaking from RC Car experience.)

However, although I do like to live dangerously, I've lined my underpants with aluminium foil for peace of mind.

I have enough faith in my Specialized set up not to worry too much. It’s charged many times in the past 4 years left unattended in the shed overnight

Google "specialized fire uk" (and then "specialized fire france") and then decide if your confidence levels remain the same!

I think that it is key that you continue to charge your steed well away from your house and would encourage others to always do the same.

The results from Googling 'specialized fire uk' and 'specialized fire france'suggest that siting my offices next to a furniture company with bad fuses or an agriculture company isn't a smart move.

I reckon this is one of those things that looks alarming because bikes didn't used to go on fire, but when you look at the actual causes of fires, ebikes will still be absolutely trivial, and if you separate out quality and not, even more so.

I agree in general that we're all a bit blase (er, blazey?) about lipo charging, like, I still charge my RC car batteries in a charging bag, but I charge my cheap headtorches with a chweap 18650s using a cheap USB charger and sat on my living room floor (and then attach them to my face!) It's a bit weird really.

I actually had no idea you could get fire proof explosion proof charging bags! I see some for around £20 on Amazon, I might get one just for some sort of peace of mind.

I’m planning to add a Tongsheng motor to a utility bike following TJ’s positive experience. This fire danger reminder has me wondering what a good source of the battery would be?

I've seen recommendations for

https://ebikebatteries.co.uk/product-category/ebike-battery-pack/

matt_outandabout
Full Member
Wait until we are all driving around in hundreds of thousands of cheap EV’s which get made to a budget, damaged in use and never, ever inspected or maintained…

Put yer Daily Mail away. 😉
Batteries currently being installed in cheaper chinese cars (incl entry level Tesla 3andY) don't overheat or suffer from thermal runaway, you can't cause them to combust by impact or driving a sharp object thru them, in fact they like to be abused. Whats more they're non-toxic, non-contaminating and contain no rare earth metals (before you start that one). Research LFP batteries, that's what china and other countries are putting in mass production cars now. If anything it's the expensive high end cars that still use Li-ion (I presume it's more energy dense or something)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-65629502

I hadn't appreciated how explosive the battery fires could be...I didn't think they just smouldered away but I hadn't appreciated how much of a bang they can produce.

I don’t think I’d want to be the one tasked with pushing the burning car in though and by the time the fire brigade get there I suspect you may want to do the whole show room given how quick they go.

I don't think the idea is to move a burning car, you put the fire out as normal (albeit with a lot more water), then put the wreck in the water tank to prevent it re-igniting.

I've seen a normal car catch fire just driving along, they go up incredibly quickly, a whiff of smoke and a burning smell, pull over, and 60seconds later the tanks ruptured and it's an inferno. You're not going to save a 'normal' car dealership with a 5kg powder extinguisher and a have a go attitude.