Charging fire safety e bikes

[Jules59]

3 people taken to hospital with smoke inhalation.

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/ ... s/?ref=rss
Not a lot of detail in the report. But I guess once burning these batteries aren't easy to put out. Thermal runaway and all that.

[hemo]

The fire issues are mainly down to owner misuse during charging and during use and not understanding lithium cells . The report says alerted at 1am, this sounds like the residents have gone to bed and left the battery to charge over night a highly dangerous action to take whilst sleeping.
Having an off or water/rain can affect batteries but some folks think nothing about the consequences that could possibly apply, pretty sure most think these things are shock, waterproof etc,etc.

Recently on pedelec's forum an idiot has posted abut his battery and showed a film of it smoking with it coming out of the charger port, after a few replies telling him it is unsafe and should be left outdoors, he goes on to say ' well it charged ok and worked on the bike '.
After not really understanding anything about lithium, replies mention shorting and thermal run away to which they have no clue about.
Well this morning (it beggared belief) the poster says ' recently I had an off with the bike/battery and it and I all ended up in the canal. Sometimes one can't make it up.

[axel_knutt]

For the best part of a century, people have been used to the idea of batteries being innocuous and harmless, it'll take time for them to come to see them more like gas cylinders or petrol tanks. The only lithium battery I have is the one in the laptop, and I make a point of never charging it over night, but the idea of charging vehicles overnight is being actively cultivated. There's a difference between a car outdoors and a bike indoors, but I've not noticed anyone point it out.

There was a TV programme on electric cars not that long ago, it seems the only way to put out a burning EV without it keep re-igniting is to pick it up with a crane, and lower it into a tank of water. It'll be interesting to see them doing that with articulated lorries.

[hemo]

In one of Guy's tv series of adventures, he did a one regarding lithium fires and one idea was a fireproof tarp dragged over the whole vehicle to suffocate the flames and obviously oxygen to starve the fire, the issue of heat is the main problem though.

[Aikon]

In one of Guy's tv series of adventures, he did a one regarding lithium fires and one idea was a fireproof tarp dragged over the whole vehicle to suffocate the flames and obviously oxygen to starve the fire, the issue of heat is the main problem though.

IIRC that still had the potential to reignite 24h after being extinguished due to that latent heat.

[mjr]

In one of Guy's tv series of adventures, he did a one regarding lithium fires and one idea was a fireproof tarp dragged over the whole vehicle to suffocate the flames and obviously oxygen to starve the fire, the issue of heat is the main problem though.

In his electric car one, he tried to cause a car driving battery to ignite and couldn't get it to do so... I think they have more failsafes than an e-bike one.

Has anyone seen other reports that say what the e-bike actually was? I'm wondering if it's a kit job with a generic battery pack.

[Jdsk]

Has anyone seen other reports that say what the e-bike actually was? I'm wondering if it's a kit job with a generic battery pack.

I haven't been able to find any details.

Jonathan

[bikes4two]

Recently on pedelec's forum an idiot has posted abut his battery and showed a film of it smoking with it coming out of the charger port, after a few replies telling him it is unsafe and should be left outdoors, he goes on to say ' well it charged ok and worked on the bike '.
After not really understanding anything about lithium, replies mention shorting and thermal run away to which they have no clue about.
Well this morning (it beggared belief) the poster says ' recently I had an off with the bike/battery and it and I all ended up in the canal. Sometimes one can't make it up.

Yeh, I read that post too - he did eventually see the error of his ways but he did need a lot of persuading about the dangers - I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!

The thing is, a bike is just a utility item - and so is an ebike to most people and the possible dangers with lithium batteries are not universally known unfortunatly.

At least the wise and wisdom on the Pedelec forum educated one more person plus others who get to read that post here

[hemo]

The fact the guy didn't say anything about the battery having swimming lessons until the next day and several replies of don't trust a smoking battery doesn't help when posting issues.

[imk123]

I have been looking at building ebike for some time and have recently acquired a As New 20" Dahon folder at a very reasonable price.
My next step is to select, purchase and fit an ebike kit to this bike.

As for batteries, from what i have seen of ebike battery/charger systems I would not touch them with a 10 foot disinfected barge pole.
LIPO batter need to be properly balanced changed and from the ebike LIPO's paks I have seen they all seem to be a bunches of cells grouped to give the total output volts and charged as grouped without any proper individual cell balancing.

I fly model gliders and use LIPO paks to power them and charge the cell paks with a proper balancing charger!
I will build my own ebike power paks from similar LIPO paks and properly balance charge them.
Thus in the fullness of time when a LIPO pak fails in my set i can hopefully simply replace that pak.

Hopeful no house fire as i charge lipo's in my shed anyway, sorry for the rant but my two pence.
imk

[simonineaston]

Not e-bike but I imagine the battery tech is similar if not identical - but there's a clip on YT of a battery powered bus catching fire and burning and it's not a pretty sight. No passengers aboard, so no injuries but scary never-the-less...

[hemo]

Lipo is less safe then lion, lipo is old hat but some still use them as do I. Once mine are no longer economical to use they will be the last I use. Any lithium needs careful maintenance but most don't understand them or how to safely look after them.

[Audax67]

Just for the hell of it:

https://youtu.be/6Rs8wOkArWA

I think I'll start charging my batteries pre-ride, or the night before, and keep them in the barn instead of the house. OTOH my bikes are in the barn...

P.S. bloody scooters...

[willcee]

I understand that recently LFB gave a serious fire risk warning to Houses of Westminster not to admit Ebikes into their underground? parking area , well i think its underground, because they couldnt easily access it or put it out.
In light of all the promotion that this stupid Government is giving to the purchase and forward in their eyes ''saviour use of EV'S'' as being the end of the ICE,... someone who can shout loudly from a high roof should wise them up.... as if the fire risk, and consequential insurance costs means no car park in any city or town in the UK will accept any EV...not much wonder theres a few acres in France with lots of used EV's parked up , the motortrade doesn't want or trust them, used battery condition being the major factor, the body shops incur heavy costs either in training or equipment or contractors to make them safe before they can safely begin crash repairs, and the insurance companies haven't as of this date actually allowed a higher hourly rate to compensate the b/shops....i'm not against them, hybrids might be the way..and i've been using them and building them since '17..will

[Jdsk]

I understand that recently LFB gave a serious fire risk warning to Houses of Westminster not to admit Ebikes into their underground? parking area , well i think its underground, because they couldnt easily access it or put it out.

I don't know. It might have been a "misinterpretation":

https://ebiketips.road.cc/content/news/ ... -risk-3635

Jonathan