Electric Danger of Lithium Ion 18650 - Battery Fires Exposed - Possible DIY Solution

He talks about the dangers of 18650 batteries while taking a torch lighter to one.... great job buddy, really upping the safety factor there!

I'm an Electromechannical Engineering Technologist. I have designed many 18650 Lithium-ion Power packs for 6 years now. Did lots of research and tests on them.............and I have to tell you, I'M STILL SCARED OF THE DAMN THINGS!!!. I have seen the damage they have done to property, machines, People, laptops exploding at airports and business meetings...etc.

should have put the plastic ring back on there... Just saying...

So two main problems I saw with your video. the thick wire wrap you used does not properly let it dissipate heat. all batteries have a nominal operating temperature. different chemistries of batteries have different levels. if the battery stays at or above that threshold you risk permanently damaging the cell or it vents or catches fire. also you shouldn't have double wrapped it with your wrap and the original it came with. way more plastic to hold that heat. 2 you removed the plastic insulator ring. that ring is a thick piece of plastic designed that if the battery wrap were to be damaged, that thick tough ring should stop anything to lay across and short it out.

Put one of these in the same pocket as your car keys and you may go to the emergency room or worse. Thanks for showing how easy it is to short out. I think disposing of the battery once the protection starts to wear away would be best for people using these in portable devices.

So glad someone else knows about this. I had a big Smok X Cube, which unfortunately uses 18650's and you need to get the fast discharge versions too. The big problem is that the X cube can't self charge, so you regularly have to remove the batteries and put them back in again. After 5 days of having one, I'd encountered what a big short was. The battery housing was so tight that it scraped off the protective ring of the battery and shorted them. This resulted in what I can only describe as a firework flying round my living room. I got burns to my hip which have left a scar and the living room needed to be redecorated. Back on real cigs again now. ahhhhh....much safer.

Appreciate the informative nature of the video, although I'm sure you've heard this many times before this is NOT a design specific to the 18650. This is the design of almost all cylindrical cells for the last couple of decades. You can verify this by taking apart a standard household AA alkaline battery. It does seem kind of strange though with the lithium cells on the market now capable of delivering more than enough power to damage themselves and surrounding cells before discharging you'd think the design would have been improved by now.

Good attempt at making the 18650 safer, but you should have re-installed the ring insulator before you used the heatshrink. Hopefully you can still accurately indentify the positive ends after you wrap them with shrink.

What got me is the title of the video claiming to make them safer, but in said video you dead short low-drain (probably ICR) to show the neg-pos thing. Even a quick dead short can cause venting. And, I think there is more danger potential with using a wrap that insulates the heat in the battery. If someone has enough know-how to make a battery pack, I am pretty sure they know about the positive and negative post and definitely know not to tamper with or remove the wrap. If the thicker heat shrink only fits your purpose, since you say you'll be using it in a go-kart with adequate airflow to keep them cool, I think the video should reflect that the wraps will work for situations like that, It's not making them safer for your audience if they're not using them in the same way.

I was also naive thinking that the positive and negative were only on the opposing ends until just recently I noticed sparks when I plugged a 18650 with a worn coating on the positive end to my e-cig. The battery started leaking right away. I'm glad that I found out this without a more sevear accident! Great vid! I agree that the insulation on these is way too thin and prone to wear off with just normal plugging and unplugging of the battery!

Very informative, thanks for the advise. I got myself some good shrink tubes to wrap my batteries.

So now, how do you distinguish the positive and negative terminals? The scratching really isn't too much of an issue, the "dangerous" part is protected by the little plastic ring you removed. But I gotta say, the black does look a lot better :)

Great video. I thought the same thing about the entire barrel being negative. I am glad someone took the time to take one apart and show it. This video should be required viewing for anyone who is undertaking a DIY project using 18650's. Makes me rethink spring contact battery holders for these cells as well.

great video and teaching on safety regarding the 18650 lithium-battery. Wow all you have to do to make them safer is to heat shrink (wrap) them.

You are placing a thicker, more insulating layer which prevents the batteries from cooling as efficiently.  Heat dissipation in a battery, particularly Lithium, is important. While I agree that having the terminal so close is an odd design, battery designers, in general, are well aware of what they are doing... Laptop battery packs are generally well soldered and nowadays have a very low failure rate.

Lets work with flames on a battery, to make it safer. :D

I saw your whole video and confirm its informative and "safe" , even without the added comments (which still are good addition). Your points are clear for the general audience so please ignore the senseless comments below.

this very thing caused me to have very severe 3rd degree burns on both my legs that required skin grafts.. Those of you criticizing this man and have never been severely burned keep doing what your doing im sure you will see why he posted this sooner or later.

The plastic ring and heat shrink are perfectly adequate. Unless you hold your soldering iron on for too long and melt it. Your dealing with 4.2v at the most,it's not going to jump the gap by any means and those with the new heat shrink wouldn't fit in a 18650 torch anymore.

Thanks for this, really helpful!