Tough love for the industry's lithium addiction

[Brian G]

if your light draws 15A, and your samsung cells can only deliver 10, you're looking at a user error.

From an engineering point of view, anything that is designed to draw 15 or even 10 amps from user replaceable 18650 batteries is designed poorly.

 

[cerich]

From an engineering point of view, anything that is designed to draw 15 or even 10 amps from user replaceable 18650 batteries is designed poorly.

indeed, and we have to keep in mind that 18650's were never intended to be a consumer battery, but used in packs by manufs etc. The button top versions came later along with the chinese proliferation of 18650 driven flashlights as LED technology took off. Now we see 18650's as individual cells being used in consumer goods by the consumer, with cheap cells, poor protections, cheap chargers etc.

The light I tested,taking 4 individual 18650's is convenient, however, it can also be problematic if the user is mixing and matching cells of different capacity etc, when really they should be matched.. but real world few are going to at the consumer level.

 

[dmaziuk]

The light I tested,taking 4 individual 18650's is convenient, however, it can also be problematic if the user is mixing and matching cells of different capacity etc, when really they should be matched.. but real world few are going to at the consumer level.

I suspect most of the lights that are "consumer goods" can run off 3xAAAs rated to milliamps of continuous drain. The biggest I have is a 3-LED 2x18650 fleebay lights and in average rec diver use, what @tarponchik described upthread, I haven't had any problems so far. Though I'm not sure I ever mixed different type cells in them.

"Lipo" battery packs used in RC are designed for high drain and are user-replaceable, but it's the whole "pack" that's replaceable, not the individual cells inside.

 

[dmaziuk]

From an engineering point of view, anything that is designed to draw 15 or even 10 amps from user replaceable 18650 batteries is designed poorly.

If you make it foolproof, all that'll happen is the nature will make a better fool.

 

[Bob DBF]

So what do we think about this? I’m pretty sure these use purpose built batteries rather than the bundled 18650’s but it’s still Li-Ion I wonder what code changes were made?
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You know as well as I that code changes are not made until after there are problems and/or a body count. The word of the manufacturer and/or UL is taken that it is safe until its found otherwise.

I have no reason to deal differently with the li batteries I use, except when I am on a boat, but I feel exactly the same way about a number of other "hazards".


Bob

 

[lexvil]

You know as well as I that code changes are not made until after there are problems and/or a body count. The word of the manufacturer and/or UL is taken that it is safe until its found otherwise.

I have no reason to deal differently with the li batteries I use, except when I am on a boat, but I feel exactly the same way about a number of other "hazards".


Bob

I suspect that, as pointed out earlier there is more danger from gas lines than batteries.

 

[2airishuman]

I suspect that, as pointed out earlier there is more danger from gas lines than batteries.

Do they let you bring your gas line on the boat (or propane canister or whatever)?

What was your point again?

 

[lexvil]

Do they let you bring your gas line on the boat (or propane canister or whatever)?

What was your point again?

Reading is your friend.

 

[BRT]

Reading is your friend.

None of the boats we are talking about have gas lines.

 

[lexvil]

None of the boats we are talking about have gas lines.

It seems people don’t follow well, the main discussion in this thread is lithium batteries and the hazards associated with such batteries, on dive boats is the original posted meaning, it has somewhat drifted off course from time to time. I, while it was drifting, asked what people thought about holding massive whole house lithium battery packs to the wall of their home, as in the Tesla home system and if there had been any code changes to go along. One response was about gas in homes and every so often a house burns down due to said gas, NOTHING about boats, it was BATTERIES as the focus, I acknowledged the fact that gas in HOMES is also a fire hazard and is accepted as a low risk, time will tell on home battery packs.

I hope this clears things up but reality is someone will again not see this post or the Tesla one and make an assumption not a big deal it is very easy to get lost in these looooong threads.