That was close...

[jim.cox]

Just missed a bullet last night

My wife, who is a light sleeper, woke to an acrid burning smell in the upstairs of the house

After a bit of chasing around, we found that the battery in my laptop had fried itsself and was trying to burn a hole in my desk

It had also managed to melt / burn through a plastic desk protector.

[Maha]

Any smoke detectors in the house? Our lap top is elevated off the table to allow for air flow.

[TheDemonLord]

Did you try turning it off and turning it back on again?















All jokes aside - Shit you are lucky - When the Lithium cells decide to go, it can be very very nasty!

[jim.cox]

Any smoke detectors in the house?

Several

But at the stage we found it there was no smoke - just a bad burning smell

[Akzle]

should have chucked a shorai in that thing...


o. wait on...

[mada]

Yikes.. how long do you usually have it plugged in for?

I have a cheap Chinese knock off charger so will keep in this mind for future.

[jim.cox]

Yikes.. how long do you usually have it plugged in for?

I have a cheap Chinese knock off charger so will keep in this mind for future.

Its not the charger, but the batteries. I plugged it in around 19:30 - we found it around 23:30

[Edbear]

Just missed a bullet last night

My wife, who is a light sleeper, woke to an acrid burning smell in the upstairs of the house

After a bit of chasing around, we found that the battery in my laptop had fried itsself and was trying to burn a hole in my desk

It had also managed to melt / burn through a plastic desk protector.

Maybe we should turn them off at night!

[Grumph]

When our laptop died - at around 5 years - i was told that what kills them is a failure or part failure of the power/charger plug. This can generate enough heat from higher than normal resistance to fry the part of the circuit board which accepts the power input...Replacement is only marginally economic.

You were cetainly lucky.

[JimO]

a few years ago i rolled in bed and felt heat on my face, opened my eyes and my pillow was on fire, the electric blanket controller had sparks shooting out of it and had ignited the pillow. The blanket was turned off at the controller but was on at the wall. I jumped out of bed juggling a burning pillow ran down stairs dropped it on the landing, picked it up hiffed it outside, i was half way back up the stairs before 3 of our smoke alarms went off, my wife jumped out of bed and broke her big toe on the door, my 3 boys slept through all the alarms

[YellowDog]

Sounds like a close escape indeed

The high power lithium cells fracture very easily. They don't even need to be plugged in to spontaniously combust.

A certain employers has offered $1 per day for employees to charre their work lithium cells at home, rather than at work.

No thanks