e-Cig explodes in Fla. Man's mouth

[Royal]

According to this article a Florida Man had an e-Cig explode in his mouth, severely burning his face, knocking out some of his teeth, and he lost part of his tongue. The type or model of e-Cig was not known or reported.

Electric cigarette explodes in man's mouth - Health - Addictions - msnbc.com

[Jim Davis]

Bad rap for the e-cig. We're going to hear some whining about this one. I'm wondering if there will be a follolw-up.

My opinion? I'm betting it was either a mod with an unprotected battery, or a mod with 2 stacked unprotected batteries.

Remember when Roberts "detonator" turned into a REAL detonator?

[Jim Davis]

Here's one from ABC News.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/e...mouth-15649253

They say it was a battery from a "Cigar Sized" device. Sounds like a Mod to me.

[Royal]

I checked him out on his facebook page. No way to tell his experience level with e-Cigs there.
I to am guessing it was a big battery mod, possibly homemade and could have even been using two batteries in series, who knows? If so, I also was wondering whether or not he was using protected batteries?

I hate to hear about anyone getting hurt, but what makes it worse, this gives the antis some more ammo.
But in respect to that, I have also heard of laptops and cellphone batteries going awry, which uses the same lithium Ion type batteries. Sorta gives a new meaning to when you hear your kids or grandkids say, my phone is blowing up.

Yes, I remember the Detonator, went off in his pants pocket didn't it? Wasn't he also using unprotected batteries and running them in series?

[lordmage]

yes ... but from what i can recall only 4 said explosions have happened including the one reported and so far the common issue is stacked unsafe chemistry batts and unventilated device. over the whole estimated world wide 2.5 million vapers that is a rather small margin of error but antis wont see or say that.

[Royal]

The only time I ever came close to experiencing a catastrophic kaboom! Was with my Prodigy. It was a version one, I was running 2-3 volt LiPo's in series with a resister in line to drop output to 5 volts.

This near disaster happened when I first got it. The resister had been mounted in such a way that the leads were direct shorted to the tube body. It worked like it was turbo charged the first few times I used it, but that was because of the short, which in effect bypassed the resister giving me full 6 plus volts out. All went bad when that miserable excuse for a switch, which was a 15 cent tactile switch that was only rated for 50 milliamperes overheated and welded the contacts, causing it not to turn off when deactivated.
When this happened, the device started getting really hot, too hot to even hold. I quickly unscrewed the device in order to break contact, and removed the batteries. The batteries at this time were so hot, they just about burned my hands. Luckily they cooled down and did not go nuclear.

Afterwards, I fixed the problem by junking that inferior switch and replace it with a heavy duty 3 amp switch, replaced the resister and repositioned and insulated it so that no chance of it shorting out would happen again.
It was just a shame that I paid top dollar for a device that was made with the cheapest and most under rated switch money could buy.
And then only to have to rebuild the thing myself in order to have a proper working and safe device to use.

The moral of the story, don't rush a device in to production, or use cheap inferior parts. Trying to get more bang for your buck, could lead to other bangs you don't want.

[mcquinn]

If there is a vent hole in the mod it would be no more than a fizzle.I had to try pretty hard to blow a cell up from an 801 and it was not very spectacular.I am skeptical of the reports being circulated about explosions and overdoses of nicotine.I suspect it is the haters making stuff up or dredging up old stories .Other than IMR batteries mod batteries all have protection boards to prevent those things from happening and the possibility of legal action and IMR batteries are a different chemistry intended for high discharge rates.While things can and do go wrong most circut board failures result in no workie situation.

[Jim Davis]

Originally Posted by mcquinn

If there is a vent hole in the mod it would be no more than a fizzle.I had to try pretty hard to blow a cell up from an 801 and it was not very spectacular.I am skeptical of the reports being circulated about explosions and overdoses of nicotine.I suspect it is the haters making stuff up or dredging up old stories .Other than IMR batteries mod batteries all have protection boards to prevent those things from happening and the possibility of legal action and IMR batteries are a different chemistry intended for high discharge rates.While things can and do go wrong most circut board failures result in no workie situation.

I have a half dozen batteries without protection. I use them in my D905 that has a protection circuit in it. I'm leary about using them in my Protege. Roberts Detonator had releif holes, and it took a pretty good chunk of meat out of his leg. His went off in his pocket.

Nocotine OD is real. Happened twice to me. I was dizzy & nautious for a good hour, until it went away.

The reality of it is, this happens about as much as a cars gas tank exploding from static during refueling.

[Royal]

Originally Posted by mcquinn

If there is a vent hole in the mod it would be no more than a fizzle.

True providing the vent hole(s) are of adequate size to release the pressure, and the mod body is of a proper material and strength to withstand such a force. If you read up on some of these batteries, some of them are not recomended or intended to be run in series.

I personally don't see a need to run IMR's, unless I am using some of the really small versions of the popular sized batteries used in mods, and am using LR attys with them. Or if I should use one battery in a VV or VW mod.

The only batteries I ever had that weren't worth a dang, were a couple of protected CR123s, the only reason I say they weren't any good, is that they could not perform as I wanted them to. The PCB circuit would shut them down when I tried to run them in series to fire a standard Joye 510. It was just too much draw for those tiny little batteries though they were supposed to be rated at 1000mah, I somehow doubt that. In this particular case, it was recommended to use the unprotected versions, not worth the chance for me, so I only ran this mod on 3.7 volts using 1 14650 instead.

In regards to my old Prodigy V1 it has no vent holes at all, except expanding gases could possibly escape from around the gaps where the switch is mounted, and is also made of thin walled aluminum and the end cap threads are poorly machined with very loose tolerance. The switch body is made of rubber and plastic, which makes it a great source to start a fire. Once rubber and plastic starts burning it is hard to put it out. If it weren't for the fact that I was using LifePo4's it most likely would have detonated. They got hot enough to practically start a fire just from the heat, but what was amazing, once they cooled down and I fixed the defects, those very same batteries continued to work as normal. In fact, I still have them and they are still good. And I still on occasion use my Prodigy with these same batteries running in series. Allbeit, I modified my Prodigy with higher quality parts.

I have to say, the best store bought mod I have ever owned is my Precise Plus 18650. The machining tolerances are as the name implies, and the materials used being all stainless steel, along with the tarnish/arc burn resistant rhodium plating on the contacts and the design of the negatively fired switch with lock along with 3 extra large vent slots, makes it worth every penney.
I am going to buy one of those Kicks when they come out, providing they are reasonably priced, and order a couple of AW 18490 IMRs to use with it in my PP18650 just to try it as a VW mod. If the Kick ever bites the dust, or I want to go back to using a standard big battery mod, all I will have to do is remove the Kick and drop in an 18650.

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[PTJD]

Hey all not too worried about the stacked batts since I don't use that anymore but did see a YouTube video about a eGo batt explosion aftermath. Had me worried to use my eGo on a flight. Would not be good news if a batt failed mid-flight!