Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 64 total)
  • ** DX (Bastid) Charger Catches Fire **
  • Padowan
    Free Member

    My DX (Bastid) light charger caught fire this morning. I was out of the house at the time, having put the battery on charge before nipping out. Came home to find what you see below. Doesn't seem to have killed the battery, and luckily it burnt out it's own power supply so didn't burn the house down. Now need to source a replacement charger, but in the meantime if you own a Bastid, I'd not leave it charging unsupervised.




    psychle
    Free Member

    dang… that could've been nasty!

    monkeychild
    Free Member

    How weird. Last night I was thinking how hot the charger gets and that I wasn't happy about leaving it unattended due to the chance of it catching fire 😕 This isn't good at all will be charging it at work methinks (plus free leccy 😆 )

    simonfbarnes
    Free Member

    I don't leave any LiPo charger unattended…

    grumm
    Free Member

    Shit mine is left plugged in at home – forgot to unplug it before I left. 😯

    *awaits 'wouldn't have got that with a Hope' comments 😛

    mrchrispy
    Full Member

    that's my one concern about the DX light.
    Didn't stop me ordering one though, just going to make sure I'm about when its charging and there is a smoke alarm in the same room.

    Stoner
    Free Member

    same as sfb, I leave no Lithium technology charging untended.

    Pook
    Full Member

    When you say Bastid, what exactly do you mean?

    Not an out of the box dx?

    Padowan
    Free Member

    Yep, an out of the box DX (Magicshine) bike light.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    "I leave no Lithium technology charging untended."

    the long winter evenings must just fly by…

    HTTP404
    Free Member

    I leave no Lithium technology charging untended.

    Laptops?

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    I leave no Lithium technology charging untended.

    Why not? Surely the charger should be able to look after itself?

    Stoner
    Free Member

    When I say untended I mean I dont leave one going and leave the house, or leave one charging overnight.

    Even top brands have problems with faulty batteries and overheating chargers.

    http://www.v3.co.uk/vnunet/news/2162968/apple-joins-dell-recalling-8m

    And when a Li-ion battery fails it might not necessarily just short and stop charging, we've all seen the Youtube vids of them when they go pop.

    simondbarnes
    Full Member

    Cheap stuff in poor quality shocker.

    Pook
    Full Member

    why bastid?

    Stoner
    Free Member

    Cheap stuff in poor quality shocker

    Apple, sony, dell?

    cheap indeed.

    mrmichaelwright
    Free Member

    i leave them in a pyrex bowl if i'm out of the house and they are charging

    Stoner
    Free Member

    good idea MRMW. Might try that.
    Do you put a lid on too? Obviously with a bit of a gap for venting…

    hora
    Free Member

    Send it back and ask for an amended replacement?

    simonfbarnes
    Free Member

    Surely the charger should be able to look after itself?

    and nicely unplug itself when doom threatens ? Actually it's the cells that are most dangerous, but several of my chargers do get very hot in operation and it would be possible for them to fail in such as way as to short out the battery pack and ignite that too 🙁

    MrAgreeable
    Full Member

    My Hope make a very faint squeaking noise when it's charged, like a hyperactive hamster on a badly-oiled wheel. I'm guessing that this is due to some additional cooling technology that you don't get when you buy bargain-basement shod. 🙂

    mrmichaelwright
    Free Member

    no, got the idea from a mate who has RF helicopters. I've had a few laptop power supplies go bang but they are all thermally protected so highly unlikely to catch fire. cheap light chargers are a different kettle of fish all together

    Stoner
    Free Member

    I wonder what Battery-pro Smudge's opinion is on the matter?

    hora
    Free Member

    My Hope make a very faint squeaking noise when it's charged

    Have you checked with Hope about this!?!!

    Ps. Arent mobile phone charges one of the biggest causes of house fires?

    paulrockliffe
    Free Member

    What voltage is the pwoer supply in Hong Kong? I don't have an adapter to plug mine into the mains, but I do have a 240v to 110v transformer from an old american Sony amplifier that has the same output as the charger for the light needs. So I've been charging at 110v instead of 240v. Can anyone advise if this is likely to cause a) longer charging times and b) cooler charging temperatures?

    Would a circuit breaker be advised for this sort of charging?

    mrmichaelwright
    Free Member

    My Hope make a very faint squeaking noise when it's charged

    a lot of wall wart type chargers make a barely audible squeak or buzz.

    takisawa2
    Full Member

    I use the DX P7 torches.
    I'd never leave a pair of the 18650 cells charging unattended.
    Always do them at work where I can keep an eye on them.

    Jamie
    Free Member

    How long you had the light Padowan? If i remember right earlier lights, well the units, had some QC issues that were rectified. Wonder if the batteries have undergone the same changes.

    *has 2 lights being shipped to him and a touch worried now*

    parkedtiger
    Free Member

    Yep – my charger did exactly the same the second time I used it. DX replaced it; it took about six weeks from my first email to the charger arriving.

    Edit – in fact…looking at your images again, the burn out was around that same resistor and capacitor.

    clubber
    Free Member

    I've had a lumicycle charger go into meltdown too…

    MrNutt
    Free Member

    I'd never leave a pair of the 18650 cells charging unattended.

    +1

    personally I charge mine in the bath.

    RopeyReignRider
    Free Member

    erm, why are they called "Bastid" ??

    just wondering like..

    ChunkyMTB
    Free Member

    Maybe they have added a modification to the charger. I know there is a demand but there have been some delays from the supplier to DX use lately.

    hilldodger
    Free Member

    why bastid?

    I think it was Trout's term of affection, not meant as a slur but more in the sense of 'bastid little DX light, it's unbeatable at that price' 😉

    Jamie
    Free Member

    Also i suppose it is worth bearing in mind this is the first one to go up in flames (kinda) i have heard of.

    Padowan
    Free Member

    El Presidente!

    How long you had the light Padowan? If i remember right earlier lights, well the units, had some QC issues that were rectified. Wonder if the batteries have undergone the same changes.

    I've had the light a couple of months now. When it arrived I opened it up and it seemed to have the modifications that came after the original comments (thermal paste etc) so I think it's one of the updated ones.

    I can't be ar$ed to send it back to DX for a replacement, I've got some Sony camcorder chargers that are the same voltage and current, designed for Li batteries so I'm going to lop off the charging cable from the burnt out charger and solder it into one of the Sony ones – added benefit is that the Sony charger has a 12VDC input so I can charge it in the car without using an inverter!

    Jamie
    Free Member

    For the record does anyone know of a UK supplier of the same type of charger? Or is the cable that goes into the battery proprietary so the mod Padowan suggest the only way?

    montylikesbeer
    Full Member

    As many have posted I am always "around" when charging my DX (don't go off to the coast for the weekend that is)

    The 'tronics are what they are, just be cautious I say

    retro83
    Free Member

    Mr Agreeable, care to open it up and see what the squealing is coming from?
    Sounds like a capacitor to me

    Gribs
    Full Member

    A friends bastid charger set on fire the first time he plugged it in. I took it apart and it just appeared to have shorted out. I think he's still taking to them about sending a replacement charger rather than having to send the whole lot back.

    My own one has been fine but I don't leave it charging when I'm out of the house.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 64 total)

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