INVESTIGATOR 563

ACCC to investigate safety of 'extremely volatile' lithium-ion batteries

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-09/ ... /101755446

A heads up on possible issues with lithium batteries catching on fire. Not new news I suppose, but a timely warning of the possibility that your gadgets might not be all that safe . As more and more of us are probably using Lithium batteries on stuff on our boat that’s a good place to start. Anyone got a lithium house battery in their Investigator?

I for one, after reading this, won’t be leaving my drill batteries on charge in the workshop overnight.

Marvin, the Paranoid Android, signing out.

My mates a fire fighter and he has said the amount of jobs he’s been to has gone way up due to lithium batteries. He advised me not to leave my electric scooter on charge over night.

Next time you’re speaking to him ask if he’s attending fires caused by home solar batteries ??

I’m being bombarded with solar companies trying to flog me a heavily discounted battery to go with my panels. I largely suspect this is because they bought 34 container loads of the burgers that are about to be superceded by newer technologies and they are gunna get stuck with the T model stuff Not interested yet, but quick comparisons with what’s available show the nickel based batteries are advertised as “no fire risk” or low anyway. I note that does not form part of the hype for the lithium ones or the other types.

Where there’s smoke…..

Thanks for bringing up this safety topic Ozzie, they seem to be causing some house fires (and opened a pandora's box ) Everyone, from kids to elderly, has a lithium battery of some sort these days. It's made me want to hold off a bit longer on the larger applications for Li batteries. One good point from the story - install a smoke alarm near any Li recharging areas.

The ABC news story is interesting, especially what the fireys are saying!
Here is something from NSW fire dept https://www.fire.nsw.gov.au/page.php?id=9389 (keep those smoke alarms serviced! humans can't smell smoke when asleep)

(Also don't use Lithium batteries under an ICE cars hood, ie. very hot environment)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evghqj3SWPE (Report near end of video)

They don't like being overheated, overcharged, wrong charger.. etc Never leave them charging unsupervised eg overnight when asleep. Unplug when fully charged. Don't recharge close to flamable stuff like curtains. Once they are on fire, Lithium battery fires are very hard to extinguish with ordinary methods (best to disconnect power source). Finally proper disposal important, dont just chuck it in the wheelie bin (starts fires at the tip) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-14/ ... /101647204

It seems like it's often user error when recharging them. Or the rare manufacturing defect leads to them "firing up".

For my Investigator battery i will be happy sticking with my tried and tested deep cycle Lead acid. (the extra ballast is also good)

Just a quick rant, but more of a heads up. We have just payed out a substantial “service” fee to have our 3 year old roof solar panel system cleaned and inspected. Part of the ongoing warranty requirements. Just pointing it out to anyone thinking of upgrading to home solar. Given the bad press lately of solar components catching fire on the roof, I was not complaining until I got the bill. Two blokes less than an hour, very expensive as a percentage of the original discounted package. I’m sure it’s in the original paperwork, haven’t bothered to check. But it was never stated in any of the promotional stuff. I hose them regularly but old mate used a long pool pole and brush. Leco said never used detergent as it can cause corrosion and never pressure clean them. I know they do work more effectively if clean. But this clean was a mandated service requirement. The electrical components all checked out ok.

Anyway, a heads up. If your buying and they tell you how long till you recover your costs hit them with how much maintenance costs because that extends it by quite a while.

Quite a while.

Yes Ozzie, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch unfortunately. If they don't get you coming, they sure will going.
Unfortunately these lessons are hard learnt and always from within the back pocket. What more could they possibly do other than a visual inspection and a clean. Hardly any time required for that.

Wow Ozzie that's a bit of a rort.

We got solar 5 and 1/2 years ago and thankfully no conditions like that.

Ours is mounted on a 40' container in the back yard, so easy to clean with an extendable pole and soft pad. I do it every now and again when I think of it. No, when my wife reminds me. Definitely makes a difference to yield when its clean.

The rebate is negligible so we just focus on using discretionary items during sunlight hours. But we are not overly mean, we use aircon and heating (reverse cycle) to keep us comfortable. No battery.

Wife just did some quick calcs and we are many thousands in front of where we would have been without it. And we had to pay a couple of grand extra to have it installed down the back - trenching, sub-board etc.

Thanks Geoff. I’m going to look into the matter further. I may after checking the original paperwork on our panels write to the ACCC for an opinion on the company’s approach. I’ve had a few people say after hearing my beef that they had no such conditions on their panels. I won’t be doing it again. I’ll report back here on what I find out. I think word of mouth is important on such stuff and as I don’t use social media this is one way of warning people. Much the same as my Gumtree scam warning.