Battery safety

[Anne (fuzzy)]

I bought two 18650 Panasonic batteries a while ago from a link posted here in the forum somewhere and the plastic coating has started to slightly rip off in a couple of places and I can see the bare metal underneath. I assume it's from putting them in and taking them out of the charger.
Anyway, with all the controversy about battery safety lately, is it of any importance?
Thanks.

[Gordy]

yes Anne you are increasing the possibility of the battery shorting
I would contact the vendor and see what they have to say... the wrapper should stay intact to protect the battery and be quite resilient to wear and tear

[Anne (fuzzy)]

Oh dear. Thanks Gordy, I won't use them any more, I'll stick to the original red ones.

[dave]

I definitely agree with Gordy. The exact same thing happened to one of my batteries, which I didn't realise until it was in something. It shorted and got very hot very quickly! Fortunately I got it out before any damage was done
Mine was a cheapy 14500 battery - I won't be getting any more of those!

[HeadHunter]

surely if you carefully wrap it in insulation tape it would be fine ?

I would of thought that you just need to insulate it against shorting or maybe I am missing summat ? (not too experienced with batteries though)

[Gordy]

the only thing that worries me about wrapping it with tape is the strip that runs down the side of the battery may not be able to break properly if it needs too