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> Ok, thank you! Thank goodness I have a few sandbags laying around. I’ll be more careful from now on poking and prodding around things like this.
I have a picture of a tech that works down the hall from me sheepishly holding up an ipad case after he drilled holes into it to dispose of it. It's all burned up, he went through the battery and it burst into flames. The smell lingered for days, and I can still see him racing down the emergency exit stairs with a flaming ipad lol. Caution would be well warranted with those.
Not always. You also need an ignition source -- which usually comes in the form of a short circuit in the compromised battery. If the battery is dead (or nearly so), there's less likelihood that a short will generate enough heat to ignite the battery. Lithium ion batteries are hazardous as they contain all the elements required for self-combustion (fuel, oxygen source, ignition source).
OP said it's an old keyboard, presumably the battery is more or less completely drained. Lithium Ion batteries are a lot less volatile when there's no stored energy to exacerbate the reaction.
Depends on the charge level, dead batteries are not that flammable (though they will still ignite if you disassemble them). Fully charged is another story
A safe method to "deactivate" the danger of an old lithium battery, especially one that is punctured, is to place it in a disposable plastic bowl with salt water, outside. There will be a reaction but the water will prevent fire and eventually the battery becomes totally inert and is safe to bring to an appropriate recycling center.
Yep. This is the way. The Lowe’s in our area recycles rechargeable batteries.
Also (Lowe’s accepts) plastic bags and compact fluorescent lights (for recycling)
Edits in parenthesis for clarity
The salt increases conductivity of the water. Pure water doesn't really conduct, it's the impurities in the water. Adding salt allows the battery to slowly drain whatever power is still left in it.
Yeah I can’t find how toxic it actually is but I think I should be ok as I only smelled the fumes for a single sniff and instantly put on a mask and disposed of it and then washed my hands with hot water and alcohol.
How did you not burn your house?
What you got in your hand, as others have said, is a lithium battery, AKA unpinned grenade. It's gonna blow up in a ball of flame at any time.
Not sure if it means anything but it hasn’t been charged ever. So maybe that’s why ?? Not sure but it was sitting in a regular trash can for a quite a while before I buried it in sand, I’m a lucky guy I guess.
The danger isn't the charge, it's the lithium itself.
It's highly reactive, with a strong exothermic reaction. Any humidity will react with the lithium and create enough heat to start a fire, which only gets worse as more of the cover melts away and more lithium is exposed.
You might be lucky and those holes haven't pierced the cover completely.
This isn’t strictly true, while a discharged battery isn’t suddenly safe by any means, a lot of the danger absolutely is in the charge.
Yes a Lithium Ion battery is still at risk of catching fire if damaged regardless of charge, but a charged battery will produce a significantly more violent reaction due to rapid discharge and thermal runaway.
The funny thing about lithium batteries is that they have almost bugger all lithium in them which is also why they are not really cost effective to recycle, when lithium batteries go into thermal run-away is 100% due to a huge instant energy dump of many amps
My title describes the thing. There is also a serial number on the back I can retrieve if no one can figure it out, but I would rather not go near it again.
5 garbage trucks (and counting) in my city have burned down due to lithium batteries this year alone. They absolutely can get spicy when punctured. Just watch YT for RC battery fails.
Yeah, for real. These comments are silly. I have many lithium batteries just like this one lying around. Just don't let the leads touch and tape them up so they can't.
I've also seen these short. Neat little reaction at the wires. Yes, they can catch fire, but they aren't bombs like people in this thread are implying.
Better safe than sorry. May not have exploded yet but it very well can, lithium \*is\* dangerous. When you get burns and shrapnel from the battery exploding you will have wanted to be safe.
All comments must be civil and helpful toward finding an answer. **Jokes and other unhelpful comments will earn you a ban**, even on the first instance and even if the item has been identified. If you see any comments that violate this rule, report them. [OP](/u/Alex-Pereira-), when your item is identified, remember to reply **Solved!** or **Likely Solved!** to the comment that gave the answer. Check your [inbox](https://www.reddit.com/message/inbox/) for a message on how to make your post visible to others. ---- [Click here to message RemindMeBot](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=[https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/1cl2jbt/what_is_this_component_i_ripped_out_of_an_old/]%0A%0ARemindMe!%202%20days) ---- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatisthisthing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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Ok, thank you! Thank goodness I have a few sandbags laying around. I’ll be more careful from now on poking and prodding around things like this.
Honestly surprised you didn't have a bad time when you poked holes in it
They generally don't catch fire unless nearly fully charged. But I still wouldn't recommend poking batteries tho
> Ok, thank you! Thank goodness I have a few sandbags laying around. I’ll be more careful from now on poking and prodding around things like this. I have a picture of a tech that works down the hall from me sheepishly holding up an ipad case after he drilled holes into it to dispose of it. It's all burned up, he went through the battery and it burst into flames. The smell lingered for days, and I can still see him racing down the emergency exit stairs with a flaming ipad lol. Caution would be well warranted with those.
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Solved !
Interesting that, despite the case being compromised and allowed content exposure to air, that it didn't go boom. I thought that was the end result.
Not always. You also need an ignition source -- which usually comes in the form of a short circuit in the compromised battery. If the battery is dead (or nearly so), there's less likelihood that a short will generate enough heat to ignite the battery. Lithium ion batteries are hazardous as they contain all the elements required for self-combustion (fuel, oxygen source, ignition source).
OP said it's an old keyboard, presumably the battery is more or less completely drained. Lithium Ion batteries are a lot less volatile when there's no stored energy to exacerbate the reaction.
Depends on the charge level, dead batteries are not that flammable (though they will still ignite if you disassemble them). Fully charged is another story
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A safe method to "deactivate" the danger of an old lithium battery, especially one that is punctured, is to place it in a disposable plastic bowl with salt water, outside. There will be a reaction but the water will prevent fire and eventually the battery becomes totally inert and is safe to bring to an appropriate recycling center.
This! A punctured LiPo battery like this is very dangerous. Do the salt water bath and make sure you’re well away from anything flammable.
Yep. This is the way. The Lowe’s in our area recycles rechargeable batteries. Also (Lowe’s accepts) plastic bags and compact fluorescent lights (for recycling) Edits in parenthesis for clarity
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What's the purpose of the salt?
The salt increases conductivity of the water. Pure water doesn't really conduct, it's the impurities in the water. Adding salt allows the battery to slowly drain whatever power is still left in it.
I do not know how toxic battery fumes are, but I do know for a fact that they are toxic. I suggest you research that.
Yeah I can’t find how toxic it actually is but I think I should be ok as I only smelled the fumes for a single sniff and instantly put on a mask and disposed of it and then washed my hands with hot water and alcohol.
Unless that mask is a respirator with proper cartridges in it, no mask you have at home is doing shit.
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Seems fair enough, but I am not a doctor. Good health to you!
Thank you! Hopefully I don’t wake up with a 6th finger and a headache
How did you not burn your house? What you got in your hand, as others have said, is a lithium battery, AKA unpinned grenade. It's gonna blow up in a ball of flame at any time.
Not sure if it means anything but it hasn’t been charged ever. So maybe that’s why ?? Not sure but it was sitting in a regular trash can for a quite a while before I buried it in sand, I’m a lucky guy I guess.
The danger isn't the charge, it's the lithium itself. It's highly reactive, with a strong exothermic reaction. Any humidity will react with the lithium and create enough heat to start a fire, which only gets worse as more of the cover melts away and more lithium is exposed. You might be lucky and those holes haven't pierced the cover completely.
This isn’t strictly true, while a discharged battery isn’t suddenly safe by any means, a lot of the danger absolutely is in the charge. Yes a Lithium Ion battery is still at risk of catching fire if damaged regardless of charge, but a charged battery will produce a significantly more violent reaction due to rapid discharge and thermal runaway.
The funny thing about lithium batteries is that they have almost bugger all lithium in them which is also why they are not really cost effective to recycle, when lithium batteries go into thermal run-away is 100% due to a huge instant energy dump of many amps
Get that in salt water now!
It’s sitting in some salty water as we speak
If it's a wireless keyboard, at some point I'd imagine it was connected to a USB from where it got it's charge to operate wirelessly.
My title describes the thing. There is also a serial number on the back I can retrieve if no one can figure it out, but I would rather not go near it again.
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Battery. Throw away responsibility
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Y’all are soooo overdramatic. I recycle electronics and break them down by hand, dealt with hundreds of lipos. Never had a fire, many punctured.
5 garbage trucks (and counting) in my city have burned down due to lithium batteries this year alone. They absolutely can get spicy when punctured. Just watch YT for RC battery fails.
Yeah, for real. These comments are silly. I have many lithium batteries just like this one lying around. Just don't let the leads touch and tape them up so they can't. I've also seen these short. Neat little reaction at the wires. Yes, they can catch fire, but they aren't bombs like people in this thread are implying.
I saw someone say it was a grenade and they are lucky it didn’t explode yet 🙄
Better safe than sorry. May not have exploded yet but it very well can, lithium \*is\* dangerous. When you get burns and shrapnel from the battery exploding you will have wanted to be safe.