I bought this Lenmar Battery as a spare to use with my 1D Mk III.
First copy was dead after second charge cycle. I took it back to a vendor (very reputable here in Helsinki)
This second copy worked well after two or three charges, then it started to bleed empty quite quickly. So i did not use it for a while.
An assignment outdoors (freezing cold) made me think that i need a spare to use if original is going to run out. So i put it in a Canon original charger i use regularly. I did this early in the morning while editing my previous work.
Got tired, and had to take a nap.
I woke up briefly in a pretty loud "thud" which i thought to be just some mail or something. I donīt know how long i slept before i woke up in a screaming noise which came from a smoke detector. First i thought i had something boiled over in a kitchen and took a chair to reach and silence detector right in next to our bedroom.
I did not smell a thing at the moment.
Still drowsy after sleep i realized it was not this detector which was loud but the other one in the hall so i walked over there.
That very moment i saw flames on our study room floor. There was my gym bag burnig. Flames were about 30 inch high and i saw them spreading fast right next to a pile of clothes hanging there.
The room was very dark at the moment. I grabbed a towel right next to me and managed to put down the fire. I could not breathe in there so i had to go to a next room to get some air.
After some deep breaths i went to open the windows to get rid of the smoke and check all the flames had gone out.
There was soot and pieces of burned metal foil all over the room.
Some pictures here of that unfortunate battery (or what is left of it)
Talk to a lawyer about suing. Chance may bring you an unlucky product, but that doesn't mean that one that bad should be allowed through their quality control. Usually litigation is a last resort, but when it is this bad, don't rule it out.
Ask around, with Lenmar in the thread titles, on multiple boards if anyone else has had a similar experience. Might be a single isolated incident, but maybe not ....
You were very fortunate, and it's a warning to all that batteries can become dangerous. I'm learning more & more about that after starting back into radio control where electric power has become very popular, but brings similar fires both while flying, charging & even while in storage.
Lithium-ion batteries are not toys. When a battery shows the warning signs (20% loss of capacity, will not hold a charge, will not power the device reliably, any deformations, etc.) it should be retired right away. If the battery is ever over-charged or over-discharged, it should be retired right away.
Do not try to save a battery that is starting to 'go bad', it's not worth the risk.
Also never charge the battery unattended, never use the battery below freezing and warm up the battery to at least 10C and preferably around 20C before use when working in a cold environment.
Consumer grade Li-ions are supposed to have a protection IC that stops some of these things, overcharge, overdischarge, etc. but counterfeit ICs from China are a growing problem, or the batteries may be mis-assembled or missing the IC altogether.
Also treat Li-ion battery fires as a Class D fire, it had probably already burnt through the lithium by the time you go to it but using a water or general purpose fire extinguisher on a lithium fire can make the fire worse. If all you have is a normal fire extinguisher, your best option is to try to contain the fire (stop it from spreading) and let it burn itself out.
I remember one particular speed event I was at, an electric motorbike powered by lithium-ion batteries, his second run he pushed it a little too hard and the battery caught fire halfway through his speed run. Fortunately the rider survived, but the battery and his bike, it burnt for 15 minutes and we could not put it out, just had to let it burn and stop it from spreading.
Ouch! I've had a couple batteries go bad and heat up. One was a Sony laptop battery: didn't explode but melted and warped the case. My ancient iPod Nano actually burned briefly after a small explosion that split the case open and blackened the carpet. It was 6 or 7 years old and Apple gave me a new one. Still a bad feeling and things could have got much worse.
Exactly why I would never use 3-rd party battery for expensive camera or anything else. I know someone who got burned by cell phone battery explosion and fire as well.
An Asiana 744 went down off S. Korea in July of last year, and lithium batteries are suspected, was carrying lots of electronic gear, but, as you say, highly suspected, but not totally proven.
Little known fact is that you are now supposed to cover your contacts with Li batteries when you fly, as per the FAA, probably nobody does this, and I certainly have not been stopped for it, but it is a regulation now.
Wow, that was a pretty violent explosion alright! Granted that it was a generic brand battery but that's scary. Is that not why both Canon and Nikon introduced a new type of battery for their top of the line cameras? I understood that it is not to increase the capacity but to prevent some electrical problems that could lead to similar incidents described here...
Holy Moley! Good example of why smoke detectors are a must-have for your home.
I used Lenmars in my older 1DII bodies and im my new Fujifilm X100, but I stuck with Canon for the new gen batteries in my 1DsIII, 1DIII and 1DIV bodies.
Sorry for your sake, that's a bad incident and no doubt scary as hell. This gives me pause; I just acquired a 1diii and was considering 3rd party like Lenmar for a back-up battery. Glad no one was hurt!
-Cam
EB-1 wrote:
1Ds II used NiMH, which rarely fail catastrophically unless seriouskly overcharged or shorted.
EBH
Yeah those were safer but as consumers demanded more capacity, better performance, nearly everything is lithium now.
Go onto youtube and search for 'exploding laptop' there are no shortage of these types of events.
1st party batteries are generally your best bet, but they aren't foolproof with the rise in counterfeit ICs coming out of China. Be sure to pay attention to any recalls and other notices, etc.
