This almost puts me off buying one. What do I do? I live in a boarding house. Should I charge it in the bathroom and just seal under the door with a sausage pillow thingy, so the toxic vapours don’t go into my bedroom and kill me?
Maybe if I just charge it when I’m there and awake, it should be safe. Maybe the user in this story charged a battery when it was frozen cold, causing it to blow up.
There’s a decent chance they were charging it for too long or had a cheap model.
I don’t think charging creates toxic vapours
That is correct. LiIon batteries don’t outgas when charging. Outgassing often means a catastrophic failure is imminent.
“Charging for too long” is not a thing for any kind of lithium ion battery.
A lithium ion battery requires something called a BMS (a battery management system) which is responsible for ensuring the battery doesn’t get too hot when charging or discharging. Good quality Batteries often include multiple temperature sensors and fuses inside their BMSes so power is cut or charging halted if abnormal condition are detected.
Unfortunately, due to the popularity of these devices from escooters to e-cigarettes that use LiIon batteries, it is inevitable that some unscrupulous individuals attempt to cut corners to bring “cheaper” batteries to market that often do not contain these safety mechanisms, or less robust versions of them.
Long story short don’t buy no-name branded shit that has LiIon batteries, and don’t worry about charging it. Once it’s full, it stops automatically. Remember phones have had lithium ion batteries for much more than a decade and they very rarely if ever go bad (Barring the Samsung galaxy event). So don’t write off the tech just because some potentially dodgy battery went bad and caused a stuff article.
Additionally, I think it’s worth learning about LiIon chemistry in general and understanding what is harmful to it: high temperatures; charging under low temperatures; leaving them very full or very low for long periods of time. But really, if one purchases a good quality device, it comes with a management system that manages all these things for you. Unfortunately most people go for the cheapest option.