Battery safety education - Only you can prevent battery fires!

[AvalancheRun]

Screw anything that isn't UL-Listed!

 

[MartsEbike]

I saw a story on local news recently about a new Mercedes Benz that caught fire on someone's driveway, the fire spread to the front of the house causing serious damage.

It was caught on CCTV and the car just exploded into flames with no warning given.

Anyways goes to show it can happen to anyone no matter what precautions you take..

'Why did our electric car parked in Spratton burst into flames?'

A family wants to know why its Mercedes caught fire despite being parked and not on charge.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

Latest news from Canada. People underestimate the safety aspect until something catastrophic happens.

 

[CincyKid]

Zen has this battery safety guide available: https://bit.ly/safe-battery-guide

 

[McApple]

I keep our Ebike batteries in a fire-rated safe, but I'm not sure if the welds would hold if there was an explosion.

 

[il Munduato]

I keep our Ebike batteries in a fire-rated safe, but I'm not sure if the welds would hold if there was an explosion.

Fire safes are designed to keep fire out.
You could potentially be creating a shrapnel bomb if the fire/expansion reaction can't vent.
These battery fires do not require an oxygen source.

 

[Slaphappygamer]

I hear those fire bags work well.

 

[il Munduato]

I hear those fire bags work well.

Those are for small RC lipo packs. No where near the same density or potential.
Li ion fires burn over 2000°f

 

[Fire_Safety]

As I have mentioned in other posts in EBR forums, it's critical that the full electrical system be safety certified to UL 2849 to reduce the risk of fire and explosion. Just having a battery pack to UL 2271 is not sufficient to address the safety of the full electrical system. Often times evaluations and testing of a battery pack are limited in scope since the end application the battery is placed in can not be evaluated or tested until the battery pack is placed into it's final application. This is what UL 2849 does, it confirms the system of the electric motor, battery charger, battery pack with BMS, electrical control circuits, and other safety critical aspects of the design of the e-bike system have been addressed.

Just going with a safety certified battery pack and not having done safety certification of the full electrical system of the e-bike system is not addressing product safety in a holistic system safety approach.

In addition, following the guidance of the fire departments to further fire protection is critical as well. FDNY's guidance which can be applied to other municipalities can be found here: https://www.fdnysmart.org/be-fdnysmart-when-using-any-devices-powered-by-lithium-ion-batteries/.