Samsung Galaxy S4 Phone Explodes. Destroys Apartment.

[onehandle]

It's one thing if your phone bursts into flames and cooks up your leg-meat real bad, but that's nothing compared to losing your whole apartment in an inferno. That's exactly what a Hong Kong man claims happened to him while he was just plugging away at Love Machine (an app, not a euphemism) on his Galaxy S4.

According the owner of the phone and apartment—identified only as "Du"—he was simply minding his own business when the phone's battery went out with a bang. Startled by the loud pop of the apparent explosion, Du quickly flung the handset under the couch, which promptly spread his fire problems from phone to home. And while the explosion was minor, the ensuing inferno did some real damage. Fortunately he and his wife escaped unscathed.

Du claims the phone was not charging at the time, and insists that the phone, battery, and charger were all official Samsung gear. But considering everything is burnt to a crisp, it's going to be tough to tell how much of Du's story is true. But if you just happen to find yourself with a flaming phone you just have to fling, maybe it'd be wise to aim for the sink.

http://gizmodo.com/an-alleged-galaxy-s4-explosion-completely-destroyed-thi-950471846

[backscatter712]

1. This isn't unheard of with mobile phones. Rare, but not unheard of.

It's more likely to happen when people use el-cheapo 3rd party batteries - they aren't tested well. Lithium ion batteries do store a surprising amount of energy, and this makes lithium ion batteries fussy - they have to have built-in microcontrollers that regulate how energy goes in and out of them when charging and discharging. If you charge or discharge too fast, or overcharge, you could get a thermal runaway. In short, your battery bursts into flames and cooks off like a Roman Candle.

Other things that increase the risk of an exploding battery: physical abuse could damage the battery and make it more likely to explode. Overheating the battery (say by leaving it in a hot car in the sun.) Normally, actual explosions are very rare - the battery's microcontroller and sensors are designed to check for this sort of thing - if it gets too hot, the microcontroller shuts it off before it gets to Roman Candle temperatures. If it gets banged around, the microcontroller may detect the damage. If the battery swells, there's a band that acts as a sensor, that will break and cause the battery to shut off. These sensors and such may not always be present in the el-cheapo batteries, though they almost always are in OEM batteries.

A more infamous example of thermal runaway in lithium ion batteries happened in the Boeing 787 Dreamliners. Rather embarrassing for Boeing.

[tridim]

2. Flaming Galaxies and electrocuting iPhones...

Thank jebus I have an HTC!

[backscatter712]

3. My LG Nexus 4 has been good to me. n/t

[Lizzie Poppet]

4. "Du quickly flung the handset under the couch."

Perhaps not the best move...

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. My G3 started heating up

It wasn't charging, so I picked it up to see if the plug was in securely, and then immediately dropped it on my desk because it was hotter than a frying pan. I took the battery out of it ASAP and left the case off so that it would cool down. Threw the (aftermarket, backup) battery away and ordered a new backup from Samsung.

[Enrique]

6. just be sure to have a fire extinguisher handy whenever you use it.

then you don't have to worry about anything