I know this sounds simple and I think for the most part I buy name brand items. However, this morning in my garage I was faced with a serious fire and explosions that knocked me to my ass.
Back story: I bought two 18v batteries for my Makita drill and impact wrenches from Amazon. Not cheap, but far less expensive than the name brand batteries. I have used them for about a year with no problems up until today.
This morning while working on the bike, I took one of the batteries and put it on my Makita charger. Within a few minutes of placing it there, I heard a fizzing sound coming from the charger. I looked over and the thing was on fire with 6-8 inch flames shooting out of it. I have two extinguishers right next to the charger and another one on the other side of the garage. My first thought was to get the extinguisher from the other side of the garage. My next thought was that these flames aren't that bad, let me blow them out. The dumbass that I am, I blew them out.
A few seconds after blowing them out, one of the batteries inside exploded. I fell to the floor in the opposite direction not knowing if more were going to explode. My face was less than a foot away a few seconds before it exploded. Luckily, I had backed away and was assessing the damage when it let go. All seemed ok now, but the battery was still smoking. I grabbed the charger by the cord and hauled it out side into the driveway. By this time, my wife had come down and was standing on the front porch when a couple more batteries decided to blow. Needless to say, we ducked for cover. It was crazy and it felt like we were in a shoot out in the inner city!
For the future, all of my Li-Ion batteries will be name brand, regardless of price. That will hold true for a lot of other areas in my life as well.
Back story: I bought two 18v batteries for my Makita drill and impact wrenches from Amazon. Not cheap, but far less expensive than the name brand batteries. I have used them for about a year with no problems up until today.
This morning while working on the bike, I took one of the batteries and put it on my Makita charger. Within a few minutes of placing it there, I heard a fizzing sound coming from the charger. I looked over and the thing was on fire with 6-8 inch flames shooting out of it. I have two extinguishers right next to the charger and another one on the other side of the garage. My first thought was to get the extinguisher from the other side of the garage. My next thought was that these flames aren't that bad, let me blow them out. The dumbass that I am, I blew them out.
A few seconds after blowing them out, one of the batteries inside exploded. I fell to the floor in the opposite direction not knowing if more were going to explode. My face was less than a foot away a few seconds before it exploded. Luckily, I had backed away and was assessing the damage when it let go. All seemed ok now, but the battery was still smoking. I grabbed the charger by the cord and hauled it out side into the driveway. By this time, my wife had come down and was standing on the front porch when a couple more batteries decided to blow. Needless to say, we ducked for cover. It was crazy and it felt like we were in a shoot out in the inner city!
For the future, all of my Li-Ion batteries will be name brand, regardless of price. That will hold true for a lot of other areas in my life as well.