Xmas Day... Our new iPod Speakers Nearly Burned Down Our Home Avoided What Could Have Been a Tragedy 12/25/2005

Can't Believe This... (See New Update at the end of article)

We purchased the Sonic Impact i-Fusion for Xmas and played it in the morning - that evening, returning from Grandma's house, my daughter removed her ipod from the speakers that was sitting in the livingroom. She quickly retired to her bedroom. As I was turning on lights in the house, I noticed a thick layer of smoke hovering the living room ceiling (note our ceiling is vaulted - about 16 ft, so this is a significant amount of smoke). I immediately looked at our tree - it was artificial, but you never know, then I looked at our speakers and noticed that the unit's battery chassis was bubbling and smoking - as I yelled out to my daughter, so she could help me, I immediately unplugged it and moved it to our front porch - and immediately began to open windows - when I heard my daughter scream and we watched the unit (unplugged) actually burst into flames. Not just little flames but at least a foot in height! It seemed to fuel itself with the battery - we took pictures! It took four glasses of water to put it out. Believe me when I say that this fire was determined to burn the entire contents of the battery before going out. I am an electrical engineer - and thought I had seen everything, but this takes the cake - I don't even want to imagine what would have happened if we were not awake at the time of this incident. I have four children and the baby's room was the adjacent wall! Please tell your listeners to take my advice and return this item immediately to be inspected - it may not be defective, but why take that chance. The battery issue - from my experience, is an unlikely isolated incident...

I tried to contact someone on Xmas day, but the lines were closed. Now that I think about it - it seemed to be a combination of plug in and remove the iPod from the unit while its still plugged in - without the iPod there to charge - we think the battery overheated to a super heated state - and being fueled with it own battery chemicals - burst into flames - like I said - it took four full glasses to put out the fire - the unit was determined to burn until every inch of that battery was incinerated... Man that was close - BTW the smoke from the unit was that thick black type that sticks to walls - we are going to have to repaint... both the liviing room wall and the porch...

I notified Apple - have yet to hear from them...

WHERE:

Purchased at the Apple Store Crystal Court, Santa Ana, CA

Date/Time: December 25th at 7:00 PM PST

Update:

Received a call from the Sonic folks, they were quite surprised and are now trying to secure the burned unit from the Crystal Court Store in Costa Mesa/Santa Ana... Anyway, scratching the surface in our discussions - they revealed that they used Lithium Ion batteries.... Ring a bell Apple Fans? Hindenbook? Just in case:

The 5300 series is widely considered Apple's worst product of the 1995-1996 time period where the company teetered on the brink of death. Back in the day, the 5300ce was quite ahead of other laptop models at the time, but many models shipped dead on arrival, and a few 5300's used at Apple actually burst into flames due to problems with then-new Lithium Ion batteries made by Sony (earning the 5300 the nickname "Hindenbook", after the Hindenburg disaster). While no consumer models suffered this fate, Apple was forced to recall the entire product line and delay its availability while they downgraded to proven nickel metal hydride batteries.

Although the Sonic guys said they went back to the Lithium-ion, for they have the best reliability record to date; however, pretty tough to argue these photos... eh... So unless they want the iFusion to take on a new meaning, or get a hideous nickname like iBurn, or iBurst, or the new iPompei - I would seriouslly revisit the Lithium-ion issue.

A Possible Solution...

Lithium ion polymer batteries, or more commonly lithium polymer batteries (Abbreviated Li-Poly or LiPo) are rechargeable batteries which have technologically evolved from lithium ion batteries. Ultimately, the lithium salt electrolyte is not held in an organic solvent like in the proven lithium ion design, but in a solid polymer composite such as polyacrylonitrile. There are many advantages of this design over the classic lithium ion design, including the fact that the solid polymer electrolyte is not flammable (unlike the organic solvent that the Li-Ion cell uses); thus, these batteries are less hazardous if mistreated. Lithium ion polymer batteries started appearing in consumer electronics around 1996.

Cells sold today as polymer batteries have a different design. Unlike lithium ion cylindrical, or prismatic cells, which have a rigid metal case, polymer cells have a flexible, foil-type (polymer laminate) case, but they still contain organic solvent. The main difference between commercial polymer and lithium ion cells is that in the latter cells, the rigid case presses the electrodes and the separator onto each other, whereas in polymer cells this external pressure is not required because the electrode sheets and the separator sheets are laminated onto each other.

Since no metal battery cell casing is needed, the battery can be lighter and it can be specifically shaped to fit the device it will power. Because of the denser packaging without the holes between cylindrical cells and the lack of metal casing, the energy density of Li-Poly batteries is over 20% higher than that of a classical Li-Ion battery and approximately three times better than NiCd and NiMH batteries.

The voltage of a Li-Poly cell varies from about 2.7 V (discharged) to about 4.23 V (fully charged), and Li-Poly cells have to be protected from overcharge by limiting the applied voltage to no more than 4.235 V per cell used in a series combination. During discharge on load, the load has to be removed as soon as the voltage drops below approximately 3.0 V per cell (used in a series combination), or else the battery will subsequently no longer accept a charge.

Early in its development, lithium polymer technology had problems with internal resistance. Other challenges include longer charge times and slower maximum discharge rates compared to more mature technologies. Li-Po batteries typically require more than an hour for a full charge. Recent design improvements have increased maximum discharge currents from two times to 15 or even 20 times the cell capacity. In March 2005 Toshiba announced a new design offering a much faster (about 1-3 minutes) rate of charge. These cells have yet to reach the market but should have a dramatic effect on the power tool and electric vehicle industries, and a major effect on consumer electronics; especially electrically-powered model aeroplanes.

When compared to the lithium ion battery, Li-Poly had a greater life cycle degradation rate. However, in recent years, manufacturers have been declaring upwards of 500 charge-discharge cycles before the capacity drops to 80% (see Sanyo). Another variant of Li-Poly cells, the "thin film rechargeable lithium battery" has been shown to provide more than 10,000 cycles.

The lithium in a Li-Poly cell is hazardous and will react violently with water. Under no circumstances should the cell be punctured or exposed to water. (This would explain the 4 glasses of water...)

Just a thought Guys...