Lithium power bank started smoking. Do power banks age out?

[Owen Lucas]

I had a Aukey PB-T4 10,000mah power bank that recently started smoking while I was charging my phone.

I hear a little crackle, look around, and then see smoke rising from under the power bank. Just a little wisp of smoke, just as much smoke as when you put out a candle. I pick it up, pull out the usb cable and running towards the patio to toss it onto the lawn I notice a hole melted through the exterior plastic by the USB port with what appeared to glowing red piece of metal. I wish I took a picture of it, but we disposed of the unit quickly. Taking the load off by disconnecting the USB cable reduced the smoking and it completely stopped in the grass.

I was flying the day before while also using the same power bank in my briefcase. Man that would have been an incident.


This makes me wonder, should we dispose of old power banks? Do they age out or maybe they can't be trusted any longer with time?


I purchased in 2016, it is no longer available on Amazon: "AUKEY 10000mAh Portable Fast Charger with Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 for Smart Phones - Black
AUKEY"


BTW that little wisp of smoke stunk up the room pretty bad, a chlorine type smell, that didn't go away after a day of 3 fans running non stop. All materials nearby were run through the laundry twice. I think the carpet absorbed a lot of the smell. The room needs to be repainted and hardwood installed anyway, so hopefully that fixes everything.

 

[JavierH19]

Never heard of aukey, sounds like a knock off of Anker which I have one of the real big ones that I got in late 2016 for a cruise and it's still perfect. Always bring it on trips or and use it for power outages. I do have lithium batteries that are a decade old and they haven't swelled.

 

[dogememe]

Good luck with that smell. It’ll be stinky for a while lol. I’ve worked on repairing GPUs or other components with burnt stuff on the board and even if they sit somewhere for a few months before being sent to me the smell always infected my room for a while lol.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Never heard of aukey, sounds like a knock off of Anker

The USB chargers and power banks I got from Aukey seemed high quality and on par with Anker at the time. You can't find anything by the name if Aukey on Amazon now, something must have happened, maybe too many exploding power banks...

 

[Owen Lucas]

Good luck with that smell. It’ll be stinky for a while lol. I’ve worked on repairing GPUs or other components with burnt stuff on the board and even if they sit somewhere for a few months before being sent to me the smell always infected my room for a while lol.

The smell is the worst part of it all, it's forcing me to do a remodel earlier than I have planned ha.

 

[y_p_w]

It happens. I've multiple mophie power banks stop working and their warranty service was pretty good, although I would have preferred they didn't stop working. I also had one start swelling after the warranty was up so I just disposed of it at a recycling center. I did label it as having a swollen battery.

I wouldn't say it's good, but any lithium-ion battery has the potential to start heating up. So definitely be aware.

 

[bobdoo]

That stink may have been lithium smoke. It's VERY poisonous.

Cheap power banks use cheap, UNMATCHED cells, and that can cause fire/explosions.

Allowing the bank to discharge below ~30% can cause crystals to grow, which short through the insulator. Boom!

 

[Rand]

The USB chargers and power banks I got from Aukey seemed high quality and on par with Anker at the time. You can't find anything by the name if Aukey on Amazon now, something must have happened, maybe too many exploding power banks...

something to do with fake reviews and paid reviews IIRC.

Usually right after amazon kicks them off you get the same thing as an amazon basics brand where they copy it then promote it....

I had some aukey stuff.. including a dash cam.. they were alright not quite anker brand name but not garbage either.

 

[Owen Lucas]

something to do with fake reviews and paid reviews IIRC.

Usually right after amazon kicks them off you get the same thing as an amazon basics brand where they copy it then promote it....

I had some aukey stuff.. including a dash cam.. they were alright not quite anker brand name but not garbage either.

Wow, that is one way for Amazon to gain market share!

That stink may have been lithium smoke. It's VERY poisonous.

I'm still here but yes it smelled, I tried not to breath it in, it's insidious. I can't imagine what a car fire with a 100kWh battery would be like!

 

[JHZR2]

That stink may have been lithium smoke. It's VERY poisonous.

Cheap power banks use cheap, UNMATCHED cells, and that can cause fire/explosions.

Allowing the bank to discharge below ~30% can cause crystals to grow, which short through the insulator. Boom!

No idea what lithium smoke is. You realize, the batteries use lithium ions, right?

The electrolyte is pretty nasty and pungent. And very flammable.

 

[bobdoo]

"No idea what lithium smoke is. You realize, the batteries use lithium ions, right?"

What do you call the end result of lithium burning? Who on this forum would know what you're talking about?

The batteries use Lithium metal, and other materials. The manufacturer doesn't load 'lithium ions' into the battery. That's the result of a chemical reaction when the battery is charged/discharged.

 

[Snagglefoot]

If you check the net, you’ll find a probably find a story of a power pack burning down a home.

 

[Owen Lucas]

If you check the net, you’ll find a probably find a story of a power pack burning down a home.

There are so many stories. I guess the only thing we can do is buy reputable brands and throw out a power bank that may have been dropped or older than 5 years.

Also checking if a power bank is getting very hot when discharging might be a good idea as well.

 

[andrew_j]

Never heard of aukey, sounds like a knock off of Anker which I have one of the real big ones that I got in late 2016 for a cruise and it's still perfect. Always bring it on trips or and use it for power outages. I do have lithium batteries that are a decade old and they haven't swelled.

Aukey had decent products however was banished from Amazon for fake reviews along with a few other companies.

I still use their USB c hub with Ethernet , USB ports from 2017 for a full time job no issues.

 

[Carmudgeon]

Aukey had decent products however was banished from Amazon for fake reviews along with a few other companies.

I still use their USB c hub with Ethernet , USB ports from 2017 for a full time job no issues.

Amazon created their own monster by allowing the proliferation of "I got this free, but this is fair and impartial" reviews to take over their site for a couple years, then went cold turkey trying to stomp out the issue they made worse, if not created, themselves.

The horse had already left the barn, so to speak, and the integrity of their review system was already impacted by all those less than impartial reviews. In addition to the poisoning of numerical ratings by allowing sellers to recycle listings, so that the review ratings can be compiled with data for completely different, or unrelated products. Woe to those who look only at the stars, don't read the reviews, and never notice that the five-star ratings given to Widget A have nothing to do with the Widget B one is actually considering, which might be getting two-star reviews. But hey, it's still a 4.5-star listing, so all is kosher, right? Something they still haven't fixed to this day.

While the aim of the purge was noble, that move actually resulted in two things that weren't exactly consumer-friendly -- it drove the practice underground, and reduced the number of recognizable brand name choices, so instead of Anker, Ravpower, Mpow, Aukey, etc., what was left was Anker, and a bunch of fly-by-night third party sellers who set up storefronts with gibberish names, to fill the void.

Anker, which started out as a reputable, budget brand backed by good support, already had aspirations to move upmarket and grow the brand, was left as one of few recognizable brands, and it played right into their hands, allowing them to take advantage of the reduced competition, solidify their standing, and raise their prices. Now, Anker's stuff often carries a premium, and their reputation for support has waned.

But, they have established themselves as a promient player in the broader market, and diversified into other segments, like cameras that carried security flaws that they refused to acknowledge for months, and flat out lied about having security features they lacked. And Amazon Marketplace has become one of the largest, if not the largest, piece of the Amazon retail empire. Wins for them, at least.

As far as the smoking battery pack, the clock starts ticking on the lithium ion cell(s) as soon as they're manufactured, whether they're exercised, or not.

Not helping is the fact that lithium batteries do best when they're kept within the middle of their SoC range. Not prolonged storage at 100%, or at "zero" percent.

That pack from 2016 has already aged naturally, but if it has been forgotten in the kitchen drawer, and either/or kept fully charged, and then self-discharged to a minimum voltage, or below, pulling it out in 2024, and trying to revive it by fully recharging it does carry some risk.

Every lithum pack that has been forgotten, and left to rot has the potential to become unintended ordinace, something that most users aren't aware of.

 

[Owen Lucas]

That pack from 2016 has already aged naturally, but if it has been forgotten in the kitchen drawer, and either/or kept fully charged, and then self-discharged to a minimum voltage, or below, pulling it out in 2024, and trying to revive it by fully recharging it does carry some risk.

Every lithum pack that has been forgotten, and left to rot has the potential to become unintended ordinace, something that most users aren't aware of.

This pack was indeed left in a drawer and forgotten about. I gave it to a family member in 2017 due to power outages they were having that year and it looked pretty new when we found it in their house a few months ago after they died. It was drained probably 2 times to before it failed.

I top off all of my other packs every few months which seems like a bad idea now. I’ll have to start cycling them and then recharging / or using up to only to 80%. 3 out of 4 leds for battery charge status.

 

[nobb]

IMO any lithium ion based device not from a "real" consumer brand (eg. Google, Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc...), I would not leave plugged into any charger unattended. Alot of these Chinese electronics take various shortcuts or may omit certain safety components to save cost.

Even from brand name companies, lithium polymer battery types (as often used in "thin" devices or portable battery packs) pretty much all will physically degrade over time to the point where they start swelling due to gasses being produced. Continued cycling will risk a thermal event.

 

[Flashlightboy]

I can't say for sure but just a thought - You want to post your In Case of Emergency phone number? I'm not sure anyone will call but we'll have it.

 

[Owen Lucas]

I can't say for sure but just a thought - You want to post your In Case of Emergency phone number? I'm not sure anyone will call but we'll have it.

For what reason?

 

[Owen Lucas]

This may be extreme but I’m thinking of keeping the batteries in a small sentry concrete safe now. I have a small breifcase sized one that is unused.

If one lights up and sets the other ones on fire, I assume it’s better contained than in a drawer.