A few years in the past, the Samsung Galaxy Notice 7 gained notoriety when its batteries caught hearth in a collection of incidents. There’s been a gradual stream of comparable, although remoted, incidents ever since. Nonetheless, regardless of the high-profile protection of batteries gone fallacious, the overwhelming majority of Li-ion batteries are protected.
The chemical response that happens inside a lithium-ion cell is advanced, however as in any battery, there is a detrimental and a constructive electrode. In lithium batteries, the detrimental is a lithium-carbon compound, and the constructive is cobalt oxide (although many battery makers are transferring away from cobalt). These two compounds trigger a response that’s protected when managed and delivers power to your units. When the response will get uncontrolled although, you find yourself with earbuds melting in your ears. What modifications a protected response to an uncontrolled response could be any variety of issues: extra warmth, bodily harm throughout use, bodily harm throughout manufacture, or utilizing the fallacious charger.
The three fundamental guidelines which have stored me protected (to this point) by testing dozens and dozens of batteries are:
- Keep away from low-cost cords, chargers, and outlet adapters.
- Make certain batteries aren’t uncovered to extreme warmth (over 110 levels Fahrenheit).
- Recurrently examine batteries for indicators of injury.
Avoiding low-cost wall-outlet adapters, cords, and chargers is crucial. These are your almost certainly supply of issues. These chargers you see on Amazon for $20 cheaper than the competitors? Not value it. They in all probability obtained the value down by skimping on insulation, leaving out power-management instruments, and ignoring the fundamentals {of electrical} security. Value alone isn’t any assure of security, both. Purchase from respected firms and types.
Then there’s warmth. An excessive amount of of it might probably trigger all method of issues, each when it comes to discharge and when it comes to security. Keep away from warmth, and take note of your batteries after they’re charging. In case your gadget will get overly sizzling when charging, this is usually a signal of issues. Equally, watch out for any swollen, bulging, or in any other case misshapen batteries.