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Hi,
My Anker lithium battery pack is not cooling after charging.
It had been sitting discharged for a while ( couple of months?) and was totally flat. I put it on to charge.
Its charged, but that was 3h ago and it's still noticeably hot to touch. 38C according to the thermometer. Its sat on a wire cooling rack and is cooling down now.
I'm about concerned it will catch fire over night.
Any suggestions for what to do with it?
In the bin- the bin is a big standard plastic wheelie bin full of rubbish. I don't fancy my chances putting that out if it catches fire.
Middle of the patio? About 1m from anything, but 1m from a wooden kids kitchen on one side and a soggy tree on the other.
The rest of the garden is wet but drying out, there's no hard standing that doesn't have vegetation within 50cm.
In the kitchen on tiles. The family sleep upstairs, Seems a bad plan.
Garage- the roof is fireproof plaster board, but it's directly under my bed room.
Any suggestions?
Middle of the patio sounds like a plan to me. Definitely not inside the house or garage anyway!
Do have a metal bucket or similar to put it in on the patio so at least any possible fire would be directed upwards rather than sideways?
In a bucket of water?
Seriously - in a empty saucepan on the patio.
Float it in an ice cream tub in a metal bucket of water on the patio. If it catches fire it melts the tray and safely sinks into the water. Good luck!
+1 on nowhere near the house.
If it catches fire it melts the tray and safely sinks into the water.
Where it promptly explodes sending shards of flaming lithium everywhere.
Lithium+Water= Bad JuJu
Thanks!
I've stuck it in a lidded saucepan on the patio.
No water as I am a science teacher and have been sticking the alkali metals in water and collecting the hydrogen they give off for the last 20 years😱🔥🔥🔥
This is the video I was shown in class about 1995 that I still use now
It was cool to touch, but I've got no interest in having it in my house if it might catch fire. For £20 I'll just replace it for peace of mind.
What do I do with it when it's cooled? I doubt the battery collection boxes at supermarkets are the right place for it.
My (plastic) rubbish bin still seems a terrible plan both for fire and for the environment
Thanks for the video @simondbarnes
I'm even happier it's outside.
Now I only have to worry about the phones, laptops and everything else that has a lithium battery in the house!
From the video "Finally, by submerging the battery in a bucket of water, the firefighter effectively extinguishes the fire".
Based on the dumping of Tesla's in water tanks when they started smoking!
For safe disposal gently discharge it through a small bulb, leave connected for a day after no light emitted. Check with a multi-meter that it holds 0V. Then strip the wires and twist them together, the short circuit maintains the 0V (safe) state.
No water as I am a science teacher and have been sticking the alkali metals in water and collecting the hydrogen they give off for the last 20 years
Back in 1970ish I had a summer job at school part of which was stocktaking in the labs and disposing of "surplus" chemicals. This was done by me and a lab tech sitting in a fence lobbing rocks at jars on the ground a few feet away.
I was also in a little group of friends who were building computers (well devices the size of large shoe boxes using discrete components soldered onto veroboard which could add and subtract binary numbers). We needed a room to work in and as our grammar school had just become comprehensive and combined with a secondary mod just down the end of the playing fields we were given the keys to an old store room down there. The place was stuffed with jars of lovely things. We initially had fun dropping lumps of sodium down the sink and then progressed to taking stuff along to the long jump pit (it seems a safe environment) to carry out further experiments. One day we produced a massive orange cloud which drifted across the campus and a mate set his shoes on fire trying to stamp out a phosphorous blaze. We decided it was a good idea to pack it in.
Was it genuine anker battery, or did you buy it from wish.com for a fiver?
No idea if it was genuine.
I was given it when I did a day's deliver roo riding about 6 years ago. Its been fine until now
Fire service would probably drop by if you asked. They'll have the latest info and no doubt have kit that they want to try, definitely worth a go for free
PS non-emergency number is here... https://fireengland.uk/your-fire-and-rescue-service/find-your-service
Where it promptly explodes sending shards of flaming lithium everywhere.
Lithium+Water= Bad JuJu
There isn't any lithium per se in Li-ion batteries; it's all in the form of salts. Li is wildly reactive and would immediately be LiO anyway on contact with air.
By the same token, be terrified of your baking soda and definitely don't put that anywhere near water. Cakes exploding everywhere. And bananas, which unbelievably contain potassium.