Man Causes Explosion in Electronics Store After Biting iPhone Battery

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rgMekanic

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A man in an electronics store in China caused the replacement battery for his iPhone to explode after biting it. It is believed that the man decided to bite on the battery in an attempt to test its authenticity or durability, possibly following the same logic as people testing if an item is made from real gold.

Honestly what can I say about this. I'm guessing we will see yet another warning label on every battery after this.

The customer is seen bringing the component to his face for a closer look, before putting it in his mouth to bite down on it. Moments after he removes it from his mouth, the battery ruptures, causing a small explosion with a brief flash of light and some smoke, with the damaged hardware flung out of the customer's grip behind the counter.
 
looks like the battery is fake.
peel off the sticker, and it's a samsung inside.
 
Kdawg said:
looks like the battery is fake.
peel off the sticker, and it's a samsung inside.
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.


It's an iPhone battery, but when you peel off the sticker it's a Samsung... until you peel off the Samsung sticker and it's an efest.
 
the basic lesson is never eat ANYTHING in China... just bring bagged chips and wait until you get to HK =p

lots of opportunities to be sickened / die from tainted / fake food and drinks in China.
 
They are LiPo batteries in phones. As a drone builder I am well aware they catch fire if damaged. We have a series of vids documenting this. You can just stab one with a knife to cause stuff like in that vid. ;)
 
PenGunn said:
They are LiPo batteries in phones. As a drone builder I am well aware they catch fire if damaged. We have a series of vids documenting this. You can just stab one with a knife to cause stuff like in that vid. ;)
Click to expand...


Any puncture/break of the seal and the battery will immediately catch fire, exhausting toxic fumes in the process.... Plus since the battery contains it's own oxidizer, it can't really be extinguished. So they basically use water to keep it cool until it burns up..... People seriously don't understand how dangerous those batteries are. Better hope you don't get knocked out if you crash an electric car and puncture one of the 6k cells in the battery pack or you're dead pretty quick.....
 
Wow....what did he think would happen?? That is just a whole new level of stupid, and I thought the idiots eating tide pods were stupid!!
 
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Chinese New Year is right around the corner, maybe he can stick one up his butt and pretend he's a Roman candle.
 
The batteries in cars are LiIon batteries and much less likely to go off when damaged.
 
I bet it tastes great.
He wont be doing that again, probably through lack of mouth.

PenGunn said:
The batteries in cars are LiIon batteries and much less likely to go off when damaged.
Click to expand...
Yeah missed opportunity lol.
 
PenGunn said:
The batteries in cars are LiIon batteries and much less likely to go off when damaged.
Click to expand...

That didn't seem to be the case with the electric car they *crashed* in grand tour S2E1..... Fireball in a couple minutes, and it was spontaneously catching fire again for the next couple days as the heat exposed more of the batteries.....
 
Nifty. All sorts of things this could work for. Hey is that a genuine glass light bulb--chow down and see. It that really a bottle of nitroglycerine pills, well chomp 'em all at once (or better be safe and use a hammer). I'm not sure that electrical cord is plugged in, hey a bit of chewing should tell me.
 
Biznatch said:
That didn't seem to be the case with the electric car they *crashed* in grand tour S2E1..... Fireball in a couple minutes, and it was spontaneously catching fire again for the next couple days as the heat exposed more of the batteries.....
Click to expand...

All Lithium Ion batteries have the potential to be dangerous if they hit thermal runaway but Li-Pos are more dangerous than more traditional Li-Ion cells for a couple reasons, they not only have less protection from damage that can cause an internal short(what likely caused this incident) but the chemistry in them is inherently less stable than other types like IMR/ICR/NCR. I do think that Li-Ion cells in cars should be isolated from the passenger compartment as much as possible and efforts made to prevent or at least slow down any fire spreading because once one goes the rest are likely to follow and they're not stopping until they run out of fuel for the reaction.

DedEmbryonicCe11 said:
Why was it already charged though?
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All rechargeable Lithium batteries should be stored with a nominal charge(~3.7v on a 4.2v cell), I believe they're supposed to be most stable in this state and if the voltage drops too low the battery will be damaged and might not take a charge anymore. Also the electrical charge in the battery isn't what causes this it's a chemical reaction that's usually because of a short that heats up a cell to the point that thermal runaway occurs, external heat sources(like another cell in runaway) can also cause it.
 
Did it blow up in his face and kill him? No? Damn, no Darwin Award for him, sadly.
 
Prisicilla said:
What was he tasting for? An authentic battery taste?
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I think he was stability testing... his teeth and jaw joint lol.
He perhaps didnt consider the side effect of cooked gnashers.

He demonstrated just how unstable these things are though.
Years ago I realised they were becoming mini bombs or incendiary devices, too much power packed into a small space with very little protection.
Ultra thin phones that can allow the battery to bend should be banned until battery tech catches up.
Even without bending this tech is sketchy to keep in an enclosed space where heat can build up, like a pocket!
It only takes an undetected slight manufacturing defect or excess heat to cause life changing injury.
 
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