{Gadgets} PSA: Your Old Gadgets Are a Fire Hazard, Here’s What to Do

[Mr.Bada]

Link : https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.howtogeek.com/795732/psa-your-old-gadgets-are-a-fire-hazard-heres-what-to-do/amp/

Who among us doesn’t have a gadget junk drawer or box on a closet shelf with some old phones? Those old gadgets aren’t just clutter, though: They’re a potential fire hazard. Here’s what you need to know.Why Old Gadgets Are a Fire Hazard

An old Android phone or three here, a forgotten about tablet or two there. It’s all too easy to accumulate a pile of old gadgets and gear that you never quite get around to dealing with.

 

Unfortunately, however, unlike old-fashioned junk drawer gadget castoffs like a flashlight or calculator, modern gear poses a unique risk: it’s a fire hazard.Why? Most modern portable electronics use lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are pretty great in most regards.They’re small, lightweight, and store a good amount of energy for their size. Without them, we wouldn’t have super slim smartphones that could go all day (and then some) on a single charge.

 

But storing a lot of energy in a small space is always a potential risk and lithium-ion batteries aren’t exempt from this. As they age and degrade, the chance of a battery failure increases.Unlike a battery failure with, say, some AA batteries jammed in the back of an old toy, the risk with a lithium-ion battery failing isn’t just some leaking and corrosion in the battery compartment, it’s a potential fire as the battery swells up and the gases (combined with the stored energy) turn the battery into a potential fireball.Not only do pictures of dangerously swollen batteries crop up on /r/TechSupportGore fairly frequently, but there’s even a whole subreddit devoted to the topic with the tongue-in-cheek name /r/SpicyPillows—a nod to the pillow-like shape of a swollen lithium-ion battery and the fire that can result from damage to the “pillow.”

 

Now, we hardly want anyone to panic at the thought of their forgotten about iPhone 5 or old MP3 player burning their house down while they’re reading this article on their lunch break.