Exploding Charger

[alvoram]

Got my charger for my lavatube, finally, today, after waiting since it was apparently shipped on Saturday.

Blew up as soon as I plugged it in, not happy, just lucky it didn't do anything to the batteries, or trigger them to explode.

Now I have to wait until they've received it back, and sent a new one, no idea how long that's going to take

Having a really bad morning.

[Karma]

Oh no

what make was it Alvo?

[Roger]

What charger was it Alvo?

[alvoram]

It was an unbranded one... Looks exactly the same as some places sell with their lavatubes, which is why I picked it, everywhere was out of TR-001's at the time, now LF has them back in, and for the same price as I paid for this one after discount too

anyway, looks like the one pictured here.

www.apolloecigs.co.uk/product_p/atube.htm

[womble]

I've seen so many bad reviews and stories of cheap chargers, I went and got a good one. I would humbly suggest you do the same, if you mean to keep at it.

[alvoram]

I am going to call LF later and see if they can ship me the TR-001 today, so I've got something for the weekend, I certainly won't be using this one again, even after they've replaced it, I'm not that clued up on Li-Ion batteries, but I think we were lucky it didn't cause the batteries to go up, which would have been a lot worse, I think. Not going to try my luck again.

[Anne (fuzzy)]

Oh hell. Whatever next

[vereybowring]

You see loads of that style charger on ebay and they can be got for as little as a pound.
Really not worth the money as you unfortunately found out.
I got one free with something else and it fell apart before I even used it.

Stick with a decent branded charger, Xtar from safercigs are the latest darling.


Also when you do get a working charger monitor the batteries that were in the dodgy one carefully (don't leave unattended).
Any signs of anything odd yank them - just because they appear to be unscathed doesn't mean they are unscathed.
If you have a multimeter check their voltages before and after a charge.
Also excess heat on the batteries is not normal - my batteries stay cool even on charge.

[Perpetua]

O lord Alvo . . . thank goodness no one was hurt and you were around when it happened.

I can only echo Verey's very sound advice . . .

[alvoram]

Thanks for the advice bowring... unfortunately I can't afford to spend £16 on an xtar right now, don't get paid until next week. My problem is patience, I got a good deal on the LT, so wanted to use it as soon as possible, the only people with the trustfires in stock (at a reasonable price) when I ordered were in China, so I went for this one, as it was apparently a UK seller, and I didn't want to wait for it to arrive from china, pure impatience... had I waited a few days, LF got them back in stock, and I could have had a tr-001, today, for the same price I really should be more patient.

[vereybowring]

Fair enough, the tr001 is what I use currently its just the xtar's Daz has in are better chargers.

As for the batteries, just be careful.
It was most probably the charger that was faulty as they tend to be at fault more commonly than batteries.

A faulty battery could technically short out a charger - is what I meant to say in the last post hence telling you to check them with a meter. If the battery voltage reads above 4.2 volts or under 2 volts its probably goosed. Same goes if the reading is unstable where you get a reading but it keeps flickering to zero (protection circuited batteries "flicker" when the circuit is operating to stop faults).

Last thing you want is to get another charger only to have it get disagreeable on you too because one of the batteries is knackered.

Would be quite rare for this to be the case since the better charger should detect a shorted battery and refuse to charge it - but better safe than sorry.

[bluemagnum]

I always swore by the TR-001 charger till last week when a new one I had at home blew up in the wife's hand. She hadn't even put the battery in and it went bang, frightened the living daylights out of her.

[Gordy]

i used to use the trustfire TR001 but then got one of these xtar £12.50 from ebay and its so much better... its construction feels more solid and it charges quicker and the batteries dont even get warm ....cant recommend it enough... i know its twice the price of the TR001 but if you factor in the UK cable then its not so much more to pay

[alvoram]

I already ordered the TR-001 from LF, they were fantastic and are shipping it today for me. So kudos to them for that. But now everyone seems to be saying they're just as bad

As for the battery, It was a new freebie that came with the charger, and may well have been at fault. So I checked the voltage, 4v, and steady, have put it into the mod to check, and the same voltage, and steady. I haven't fired the mod up yet, as in I haven't vaped on it. But because I have no charger this is the only battery I have with any charge in it, so it's very tempting, lol... But I want to check with you guys first, with the voltage being steady at 4, would you 'give it a go?'

I've just decided btw, that I don't want a replacement, so I won't be sending it back, instead I'm going to open it up and have a loook, if I find anything interesting I'll post some pictures, maybe it can help others make better choices than me.

[Gordy]

the TR001 isnt a bad charger for the price... there are stories of them going wrong but we have to realise that there are alot of them in use so thats to be expected