E-Cigarette Explodes

[LightWalker]

"A Santa Ana man in his 20s sustained burns to his face and one hand when an e-cigarette exploded while he was smoking in bed early Monday"
http://www.myfoxla.com/story/28338947/man-injured-bed-catches-fire-after-e-cigarette-explodes

I highly suspect this incident is battery related.

 

[5S8Zh5]

Better lodged to the ceiling than the myriad of painful alternatives.

 

[LightWalker]

Better lodged to the ceiling than the myriad of painful alternatives.

It is very fortunate that it didn't explode while he had it in his mouth as well.

 

[G. Scott H.]

I'm puffing on an ecig as I view this. I'd love to know the details, but details are normally in very short supply with stories like this. Regulated mod? Mechanical mod? Single cell? Multi-cell? Factory or homebrew? etc. The pics don't shed much light either (for me). I see what appears to be a fried cell that possibly had a red wrapper and an intact flat top cell of indeterminate nature with yellow wrapper. Thank God the dude heard the buzzing and was able to move it away from his face.

 

[ven]

Looks like an aspire Atlantis sub ohm tank ,will be using 0.5ohm coils if so and requires IMR or INR cells. Not sure on the device or batteries though...... .

Could have been much worse ,glad as said he had removed it from
mouth !

 

[Runt]

Unfortunately this may be something that will become all too common. Popularity of vaping increasing as it is, and a lack knowledge about cells.

I recently went into a vape store near me to check out the supply of 18650s and could see that they did not have any protected cells on display. I asked if they carried any and the guy behind the counter insisted that all their cells had protection circuits. Not that cell protection should dictate battery care but selling them to customers under that pretense seems downright dangerous.

Still curious to see what the actual cause was in this case- particularly if they were indeed IMR.

 

[Yamabushi]

Curious ... One photo shows the e-cig in pieces with a significant portion charred and twisted. Another photo shows an intact e-cig stuck in the ceiling with the mouthpiece attached to a clean white body section.

 

[ven]

Unfortunately this may be something that will become all too common. Popularity of vaping increasing as it is, and a lack knowledge about cells.

I recently went into a vape store near me to check out the supply of 18650s and could see that they did not have any protected cells on display. I asked if they carried any and the guy behind the counter insisted that all their cells had protection circuits. Not that cell protection should dictate battery care but selling them to customers under that pretense seems downright dangerous.

Still curious to see what the actual cause was in this case- particularly if they were indeed IMR.

Not too long back(2yrs) IMR cells were a rare thing in the vape world(not even sure if rare altogether being honest). But any mods be them variable volt or mec(no VV) the cells which were sold by reputable shops were panasonic A or B. Some Sanyo were also available........Great cells and up to the job of tanks/coils of that time which were popular. In the last year sub ohm coils have took off significantly in the UK to the general user. Before it was more a specialist vaping community due to home made coils etc etc. Now various manufacturers like Kanger,Aspire and joytech to name 3 have all started making sub ohm tanks and coils. Now warnings are there,caution for advance users etc etc and correct cells to be used. It is far too easy for anyone uneducated to buy this equipment and use it with wrong cell.........very similar to flashlights. Even reputable sellers of today sold *****fire branded chargers and cells!!! this was within 2yrs. Go on ebay,as with flashlights,ecig kits come with fire cells and chargers still!!

Some shop sellers are not educated or were not through my experience,in fact i educated my local shop owner a while back on cells and uses. Dont get me wrong,many are,but how many customers have used these shops with bad advice..........scary!

I have noticed in the last 6 months these reputable sellers have seen the light! Viewing on the net anyway.... They stock better chargers like i4 or efest,better cells,efest,LG,Samsung for the correct use. I am very surprised its not more common,it wont be flashlights that cause any new laws reg cells to be brought in,it will be the use of ecig imho.

On another forum(not ecig) but car forum,its amazing how many users are ignorant to whats involved. I use the harsh word due to the fact that nothing stops users spending a few minutes researching the safe use of ecigs/cells/chargers.

I remember the fist ecig i bout,tornado with built in lithium cell...........i was told "yes safe to leave on over night charging" by the owner of the shop.........This is over 2yrs ago...........how many leave their cheap Chinese ecigs on over night topping up for morning,my guess is millions of users across the world.............

Just my opinion,and some facts from experience

Unless a full investigation(unlikely as no death) it will be hard to tell what cells,if genuine,and correct use..............Unfortunately a very serious incident or worse is around the corner...........its unavoidable!

 

[LightWalker]

Unfortunately this may be something that will become all too common. Popularity of vaping increasing as it is, and a lack knowledge about cells.

I recently went into a vape store near me to check out the supply of 18650s and could see that they did not have any protected cells on display. I asked if they carried any and the guy behind the counter insisted that all their cells had protection circuits. Not that cell protection should dictate battery care but selling them to customers under that pretense seems downright dangerous.

Still curious to see what the actual cause was in this case- particularly if they were indeed IMR.

I have read about some of the batteries they use and discovered that some people modify them to run at higher amps to get bigger hits so using an unprotected ICR battery could certainly be dangerous but I thik most people who mod them know to use IMR cells.

Curious ... One photo shows the e-cig in pieces with a significant portion charred and twisted. Another photo shows an intact e-cig stuck in the ceiling with the mouthpiece attached to a clean white body section.

This quote was on the webpage: "Half of the e-cigarette ended up lodging into the ceiling" (FOX 11 photo).

 

[LightWalker]

Not too long back(2yrs) IMR cells were a rare thing in the vape world(not even sure if rare altogether being honest). But any mods be them variable volt or mec(no VV) the cells which were sold by reputable shops were panasonic A or B. Some Sanyo were also available........Great cells and up to the job of tanks/coils of that time which were popular. In the last year sub ohm coils have took off significantly in the UK to the general user. Before it was more a specialist vaping community due to home made coils etc etc. Now various manufacturers like Kanger,Aspire and joytech to name 3 have all started making sub ohm tanks and coils. Now warnings are there,caution for advance users etc etc and correct cells to be used. It is far too easy for anyone uneducated to buy this equipment and use it with wrong cell.........very similar to flashlights. Even reputable sellers of today sold *****fire branded chargers and cells!!! this was within 2yrs. Go on ebay,as with flashlights,ecig kits come with fire cells and chargers still!!

Some shop sellers are not educated or were not through my experience,in fact i educated my local shop owner a while back on cells and uses. Dont get me wrong,many are,but how many customers have used these shops with bad advice..........scary!

I have noticed in the last 6 months these reputable sellers have seen the light! Viewing on the net anyway.... They stock better chargers like i4 or efest,better cells,efest,LG,Samsung for the correct use. I am very surprised its not more common,it wont be flashlights that cause any new laws reg cells to be brought in,it will be the use of ecig imho.

On another forum(not ecig) but car forum,its amazing how many users are ignorant to whats involved. I use the harsh word due to the fact that nothing stops users spending a few minutes researching the safe use of ecigs/cells/chargers.

I remember the fist ecig i bout,tornado with built in lithium cell...........i was told "yes safe to leave on over night charging" by the owner of the shop.........This is over 2yrs ago...........how many leave their cheap Chinese ecigs on over night topping up for morning,my guess is millions of users across the world.............

Just my opinion,and some facts from experience

Unless a full investigation(unlikely as no death) it will be hard to tell what cells,if genuine,and correct use..............Unfortunately a very serious incident or worse is around the corner...........its unavoidable!

I went in to a cigarette store with a friend of mine who smokes to see what kind of batteries they had, they didn't have any batteries but they had an ultrafire wf-139 charger. :sick2:
People can buy modded vapors online too, who don't know much about batteries so these kind of incidents are inevitable.

 

[Yamabushi]

This quote was on the webpage: "Half of the e-cigarette ended up lodging into the ceiling" (FOX 11 photo).

Which seems to be contradicted by the photos. One photo shows the mouthpiece and the remainder separated with the latter as charred fragments; the other photo shows a complete e-cig stuck in the ceiling. Could be a legitimate post-incident reconstruction for photo purposes after the actual piece was removed from the ceiling.

 

[ven]

I went in to a cigarette store with a friend of mine who smokes to see what kind of batteries they had, they didn't have any batteries but they had an ultrafire wf-139 charger. :sick2:
People can buy modded vapors online too, who don't know much about batteries so these kind of incidents are inevitable.

Yes that is what is worrying,same applies for flashlights too.

Some of the sub omh guys are using 150-250W units,some with 3x18650 cells............

I sub ohm,i use 0.5 at around 20-30w so maybe 9amps ,for this i use


Any of the above,i also replace them regardless of condition annually ........

Some use home made 0.1ohm and far higher Amps.........Its certainly not something to try if uneducated ,thats for sure.

Not saying of course this has happened with this story,we will probably never know,just in general.

Yes some still have fire charger for sale!!! no doubt some will have fire cells too....

 

[alpg88]

there was an interesting comment "anybody that vapes mechanical mods knows that using a "tank" with a hybrid adapter is a pipe bomb. smh"

https://twitter.com/ChristineOnNews/status/575123538274713600/photo/1

is anyone on this site into vaping? does any one know what he is talking about? what is "tank", and what is a hybrid adapter??

 

[markr6]

Interesting read: https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/electronic_cigarettes.pdf

especially pages 3-5 (page 5-7 of the PDF)

 

[Capolini]

Glad he did not sustain more serious injuries.

Glad I quit smoking Cigarettes on 12.31.1997!!

We know the dangers of Cigarette smoking. They seem to be finding MORE dangers with the "Act of Vaping",,,and now you add other dangers because of faulty batteries, mechanical failure or whatever! :shakehead

 

[ven]

there was an interesting comment "anybody that vapes mechanical mods knows that using a "tank" with a hybrid adapter is a pipe bomb. smh"

https://twitter.com/ChristineOnNews/status/575123538274713600/photo/1

is anyone on this site into vaping? does any one know what he is talking about? what is "tank", and what is a hybrid adapter??

I know a little,but not as much as many advanced users,just basic common sense stuff.

The tank is the actual container with fluid/juice in like these

Far right tank is the aspire atlantis i own,hence it looking like the one in the pic
Hybrid adapter i would of thought for it to fit onto the mod(ecig unit/device) . Some have different thread or fittings ,so require an adapter for example.

Many comments are not ..........well educated from a quick read,for a start using protected cells on sub ohm is not an option as most require at least 6A ,many a lot more. Unless i have missed an 18650 cell rated at 35a with a pcb...............i have not :laughing:

Mec mods ,some are 26650 ,so even higher A uses,these tend to be cloud chasers and dont have nicotine in their fluid.

One advantage of sub ohm use is you get better flavour and hit,this allows users to lower their nicotine levels. So for example you use a medium 18mg nic level,by using a 0.5ohm coil,the user can get the same hit from 11mg nic fluid(example).

 

[1DaveN]

I guess my mom was right about the dangers of smoking. Don't tell her I said it, though.

 

[KDM]

Their are vape shops in my area that the people running the places know absolutely nothing about the cells that they are selling. A lot of junk quality unprotected ICR cells sold to be used in mechanical mods. These can easily have a short through either the threaded connector between the atomizer and the mod or the coil in the atomizer can short out. Mechanical mods should only be used by people familiar with the devices and the dangers. I use one everyday and love the simplicity and robust build of it. I do take preventative measures to make it as safe as possible. If people would educate themselves and use common sense a lot of disasters can be avoided.

 

[ven]

If people would educate themselves and use common sense a lot of disasters can be avoided.

+1

 

[alpg88]

thanks ven, that makes things a bit more understandable.