Does a vented battery have a certain smell?

[conanthewarrior]

Hi everyone.

Let me explain this strange question, as it probably seems very odd.

Quite a while ago, an incident happened to me, but someone mentioned juice getting onto batteries in another thread and it reminded me.

I own a Copper Victoria Bamboo JA clone, and around 6 months ago I did have a problem, that must of been my fault.
I had set up the mod with my SS velocity, took a few hits, then put the mod down on a table in my room, and went upstairs for a while to do some tidying up.

When I came back to my room, I realised I was very lucky there had not been a fire. My velocity had scorch marks on it, the drip tip adapter had melted and the drip tip was fused to the RDA, and I can not get the RDA open. I still have it to remind me what can happen when things go wrong.

When I opened the mod, the inside was covered in what I assume to be electrolyte, before when I put the battery in it was dry. The thing is though, this liquid actually smelt like juice, but the mod is not a hybrid and I know the RDA was almost dry.

Due to the immense heat and scorch marks, I can only imagine the battery had vented. I am not sure what caused this, one thing I can think of is the JA has a rather wide top contact, and I had mistakenly not left enough insulator out and this caused the positive to bridge to the negative causing a short.
This is one thing I can think of, but then the mod would of had to fire, so I am not 100% if this was the cause. I retired the JA after this incident.

So, my main question is, does electrolyte have a sweet kind of smell too it? If not, I am really unsure how so much juice got inside the mod. I am near certain it was a vent though due to the state of the RDA when I came back to it, I just thank god it did not go into full on thermal runaway.

The only other possibility I can think of is the locking ring was not fully locked when I placed the mod down, which resulted in auto firing and the heat from this caused the melting. This does not explain the liquid in the mod though.

I realise whatever happened must of been my fault though, and any ideas to what actually happened back then would be great. I didn't post when it did happen due to fear of ridicule, but would like to get to the bottom of what did happen back then.

Thank you all, Conan.

 

[conanthewarrior]

I thought it may be best to add some images to this, of both the velocity, and the mod, as this may help get to the bottom of what did happen. The same build is in the velocity, I can not get it open.

This is the velocity, from the top and sides. You can see the marks on it, and also where the drip tip has sunken and stuck to the RDA.

This is the JA, the top of the mod does have a scorch mark, but not the inside, which makes me wonder if indeed it was a vent or a long autofire.

This is the top contact, which I thought may of bridged to cause a short, but I am not so sure now looking at it.

Any ideas if it was an autofire, or a vent would be helpful. I will not be using the mod again, just in case. I have plenty of others I can use, and if it was a potential problem with the mod I would not want to risk things. It was likely my fault though I do know this.

EDIT: I put this in the battery junky section, as I thought it was likely a battery issue. I am not so sure now, so apologise if this is the wrong section.

 

[Whiskey]

I think only those that have actually had a battery vent, will know, I am VERY happy to say I have no idea. From your discription I'd say if it isn't vented , it's awfully close, trash that battery NOW

Ps, you posted in the right area

 

[aspr]

I thought it may be best to add some images to this, of both the velocity, and the mod, as this may help get to the bottom of what did happen. The same build is in the velocity, I can not get it open.

This is the velocity, from the top and sides. You can see the marks on it, and also where the drip tip has sunken and stuck to the RDA.

This is the JA, the top of the mod does have a scorch mark, but not the inside, which makes me wonder if indeed it was a vent or a long autofire.

This is the top contact, which I thought may of bridged to cause a short, but I am not so sure now looking at it.

Any ideas if it was an autofire, or a vent would be helpful. I will not be using the mod again, just in case. I have plenty of others I can use, and if it was a potential problem with the mod I would not want to risk things. It was likely my fault though I do know this.

EDIT: I put this in the battery junky section, as I thought it was likely a battery issue. I am not so sure now, so apologise if this is the wrong section.

What was the condition of the battery wrap? Did it have any rips or holes? Did it fit snugly in the mod?

 

[conanthewarrior]

I think only those that have actually had a battery vent, will know, I am VERY happy to say I have no idea. From your discription I'd say if it isn't vented , it's awfully close, trash that battery NOW

Ps, you posted in the right area

The battery was taken straight out of use, and I wrote on it in permanent marker so I did not accidentally use it again. I have a lot of batteries I use, and mods, but this may of been the only time something bad happened. I kept it for this reason, although will never use it again.

I am glad it was the right area .

What was the condition of the battery wrap? Did it have any rips or holes? Did it fit snugly in the mod?

The battery did not seem to have any rips or tears from what I remember. I was actually surprised at its condition after the obvious heat that occurred. The only reason I think it may of vented is as when I come back to the mod, and saw the damage, I opened up the mod. There was a lot of liquid inside, which I assumed was electrolyte from inside the cell. It smelt very sweet though, almost like a sweet E-liquid.

EDIT: Looking at the battery, there is no rips or tears in it.

I do still have it in my ottoman, I wanted to keep it even though I would never use it again. I usually throw away batteries, but as I thought it could of vented (and hopefully, the last ever if it has), I kept it.

 

[BigNasty]

Once you have a battery go critical you will never forget the stink.
Had more than a few cellphone batteries go critical and a couple actually explode, one started a fire the other scared the holy fuck out of an entire store full of people when it popped.

 

[Jimi D]

Looks like the locking ring wasn't locked when you left the room. Been there done that.

 

[GorGon27]

Unfortunately I know this. It smells like sulfur, rotten eggs. As it is Sulfur Dioxide that occurred when it hit the air. The residue is a White crusty powder. Someone actually passed away from breathing this. The sad story is on the flashlight forum. It is also powerful enough to send a Mech Mod shooting a Football fields length. Not to scare, but battery safety is very serious.

 

[conanthewarrior]

Thank you @BigNasty and @Jimi D for your answers.
Sorry to hear you have had a few phone batteries go this way, did you figure out the cause to these incidents? They sound very scary.
It definitely was not a bad smell- it smelt very nice actually. Now I am very puzzled how the mod was dry, but when I came back to it the inside was literally soaked with this sweet smelling liquid. I know for a fact it was dry when I put the battery in, and I had put the mod down after taking a few hits before leaving.

(EDIT: @Jimi D , when you accidentally didn't lock your locking ring properly, did something similar happen to you, or did you notice immediately? )

It does seem quite likely then that I mistakenly thought I had turned the locking ring fully, but had not. The button on that mod is quite a short throw to fire, and I could of not fully locked it. I would of thought I would of noticed the mod firing though, unless it was locked just enough that it didn't at first, but it did after a little while.

Unfortunately I know this. It smells like sulfur, rotten eggs. As it is Sulfur Dioxide that occurred when it hit the air. The residue is a White crusty powder. Someone actually passed away from breathing this. The sad story is on the flashlight forum. It is also powerful enough to send a Mech Mod shooting a Football fields length. Not to scare, but battery safety is very serious.

Sorry to hear you know this smell too. There was no crusty powder afterwards, just a liquid. I do still have the battery, I remember I wrote on it though 'Vented' as I thought it had. I never was going to use it again, just wanted to keep it as a reminder.

As I understand from datasheets though, there are different levels of failure, from a level 1 leak to a level 5 explosion. I assumed it could of been a level 1 failure and leaked, but from all of your descriptions it doesn't seem this is likely.

I understand battery safety is very important, and I try to promote it myself, offering advice on the matter such as conditions of batteries, not carrying them loose, and also amp load calculations. I never expected to have an incident myself, but unfortunately this did happen. I do only have myself to blame though, and can only put that down to being human. Stupid, but human.

I guess I will never know what the liquid was, which has me baffled. It must of been autofiring for quite a while though to produce the heat from the looks of things. I was out of the room for around a hour and a half-two hours, and by the time I did get back the mod was completely cool.

 

[GorGon27]

Of all things the liquid could be vapor. It is sweat from the heat of the chemical reaction. if you find that much later it is then a white crust as it cooled and is just the remaining electrolyte once it hits oxygen. When i said a football field that would be a level 5. that scenario will very easily kill a person. i am very safe but these are not the safest things on the planet. They are not stuffed Teddy bears. So there is always some inherent danger. people should be aware of this though. I wish batteries of this type came sealed in a package with a warning.

 

[wally]

Yes they do have a bad smell we get them at work venting all the time by careless handling and they do have a very bad smell. When we get new people they don't remove battery properly they vent and the rest of us run lol.

 

[conanthewarrior]

Thank you all for your helpful replies.

It definitely seems it would of been a nasty smell then if it did vent. I am almost certain now it must of been firing from me mistakenly not locking it fullly, and putting it down.

The liquid could of been from Vapour, the only thing odd there is I remember I had just finished taking a few hits, when I drip I tend to put enough in for 4 or so pulls, then put the mod down. I need to redrip before using again, so am not sure how the sweet smelling liquid ended up everywhere.

That may always be a mystery, and one I hopefully never have to come across again.

 

[conanthewarrior]

Ok, I have worked out it was almost definitely juice.

I did not expect it to be possible though, due to the type of top connection for juice to get in, but today I am vaping a sugar bear flavour, using a different mech but with a similar large top contact. My friend gave my a large 100ML bottle, and I did accidentally over drip.

It was with a different RDA too, but when I opened the mod there was juice on top of the battery. It was not like months ago, but it was inside the top of the mech, but this time I could take a smell and recognise it as the juice. I didn't fill up over the juice well, but a bit more come out than usual due to the bottle size.

From this, I am very sure it was juice that was in my mod when this happened- and the damage to the RDA was from me not locking the mod accidentally.

 

[conanthewarrior]

OK, today I noticed it again, and I managed to grab a picture.

I have completely disassembled the mod I am using (not the one shown here), and it does seem to be juice. I also took apart my RDA, and cleaned everything dry, as there was juice around the pin.

I have changed to a clear juice today, so if it did happen again, I will see a clear juice. I am hoping giving everything a good clean was enough though, as it has only happened twice with my new mod, and only in the past few days. When the RDA was new it did not happen, although I notice the bottom screw had become looser, which could of let juice through more easily. After reassembling the RDA I ensured the positive screw was secure, and hopefully will have no more leaking issues.