SHHHH.... POP - My spec-comm battery just exploded!

soarprod

soarprod

Veteran
So I was editing a project I shot this morning with my HVX and I hear a loud shhhhh...pop! noise in my office - "What the heck was that?" I look over towards the open window and see nothing. Suddenly, my battery starts smoking very faintly.

Ugh oh! It starts spewing violently, spraying out toxic gas as I remove it from the charger. Oh crap it better not catch on fire and explode in my hands! I race to the bathroom and toss it into the sink. Moments later, more pops followed by flames! Yeah, this is probably bad. Close the door. Call 911, fire dept on the way. I don't have a fire extinguisher so I race to get some baking soda. I fight my way into the bathroom filled with smoke and dump baking soda on the flames - that puts them out. Fire dept shows up and informs me on how to clear the smoke. "Stay out of the house until the smoke clears." It appears that there is no damage.

I don't even want to know what would have happened if I had not been in my office exactly when that battery exploded - everything happens for a reason! I am not going to be charging my batteries in my office anymore - I have so much data sitting on HDDs in that room. Be careful where you charge your batteries!

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I seem to be ok - I did breathe a lot of the fumes - probably very toxic. The bathroom is caked in ash.
 
OH wow! I never knew batteries could be so dangerous.

Thats scary man. Good thing you had noticed. Couldve been way worse.

I will definitely keep an eye on my batteries from now on haha
 
No, it's probably a battery issue. THere have been lots of stories in the press about exploding iPhones, exploding laptop batteries, and the whole airline TSA thing about limiting lithium-ion batteries in checked baggage anymore to prevent things like this from happening.
 
Charger is a standard panasonic charger (came with camera). Battery was used on the shoot that morning.
 
Nope, left it on for a few hours - it did start to explode on the charger. I dont know what the local number for the FD dept is in my city so the fastest way to get them is 911 - plus the fire could have spread. They showed up casually - no sirens.
 
This is just a rare occurrence with any Li-ion battery. These types of batteries no matter who manufactured them can do this from time to time. Just search you tube for "battery exploding" and see how common this is.
I would give Spec-Comm a call and talk to Andrew Hoffman. They have great customer support and they can probably send you a replacement battery.
 
soarprod,

I'm really sorry you had to experience this. I'm glad that nothing was damaged and you weren't hurt. The answer is, of coarse we're going to replace the battery for you and I'll even throw in an extra battery for the trouble.

This is a fluke for sure. We have thousands of these batteries out there and our battery is the Panasonic style battery of choice for Zacuto and Dolgin Engineering.

This is inherent in Lithium Ion batteries. Although the chances for it to happen to someone are very low, it can happen. Especially if batteries are dropped, damaged or exposed to extreme temperatures. We've made sure that we meet all of the safety regulations needed. Panasonic just recently started to put these labels on all of there boxes that contain Lithium Ion Batteries for this very reason.

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PM me your name so I can pull your file and get you the batteries out today.

I will also include a shipping label so you can send the battery remains back.

Thank you so much for letting us know about this.

Sincerely,

Andrew Hoffman
Vice President
Specialized Communications Corp.
20940 Twin Springs Dr.
Smithsburg, MD 21783-1510 USA
800-359-1858
301-790-0103
Fax: 301-790-0173
andrewh@spec-comm.com
www.spec-comm.com
www.twitter.com/speccomm
 
Well I have been in communication with Andrew over at Spec-comm - I have been very satisfied with their response and help. They are sending me a new battery.
 
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