The battery no longer works but I’ve kept it plugged in and used it for streaming music at work the last few years. Today it’s in an infinite loop of rebooting and I noticed the glass popped out!

!spicypillows@lemmy.world are the best.

iPad with an inflation kink

Unplug that and very carefully dispose of it according to whatever laws apply where you live. That’s an insane fire hazard.

From what I see in the Internet, your battery is on the edge of exploding, bursting into extremely hot flames, and/or releasing toxic gases. You should unplug it and stop using it.

I see a few things indicating that an Apple Store may replace the battery (or swap the device) for free, but others saying the might charge you a the same as they charge for a battery swap.

Here are some links:

https://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/What_to_do_with_a_swollen_battery

https://mactech-solutions.com/beware-the-bulging-battery-and-what-to-do-if-yours-expands/

A puncture can cause the battery to swell, vent gas, or catch fire. If you have a punctured battery, store it in a fireproof container in a well-ventilated area. The gas that these batteries give off if punctured is toxic and flammable. The fire that can be produced is considered Class B, so keep a Class ABC or BC fire extinguisher on hand in case of fire. Contact a local hazardous material disposal center or e-waste facility to see what disposal options are available in your area.

Source

That's mildly inflaming.

Yep. That thing needs to be outside far from any flammable structure and material NOW.

thought it actually exploded from the title. this is just swelling and it's actually pretty common. doesn't seem mild so you should definitely replace the battery though

Brilliant design. It opens itself once you need to change batteries.

It’s fine don’t listen to these cowards. Sleep with it in your bed, it will keep you warm on cold nights.

One of the most stressful times I've ever had at a job was when I was disassembling old tech to remove hard drives and batteries like this one, particularly when my boss wouldn't understand that inflated batteries are a huge fire risk and are very much pressure sensitive.

After hearing all of that he picked one up as if it were some phone and tossed it around in his hands looking at it all over meanwhile I'm trying to simultaneously tell him to stop that immediately because of the fire risk I just told him about and simultaneously create distance between us in case it does go off.

Knowing what I know now it would have been very fitting if it popped on him, injured by his own stupidity and inability to listen when people are telling him what to do or what not to do. Eventually he put it down then I had another stressful month or so waiting for a proper disposal method to be implemented.

Did you try turning it off and back on again?

Oh man.. a laptop of mine once did that.

It was an Alienware laptop, and fuck that bastard was expensive when we bought it.

I keep wondering if there's some specific condition that needs to happen for them to be dangerous. Once had an old phone that got all puffy and decided to test it by shooting it with a bb gun but got no reaction 🤔

The closest place to me that accepts hazardous batteries without being paid is over an hour away from me.

So the spicy pillows I have are contained in a metal waterproof container that's buried under bricks in an unused section of my driveway. At least if they go, they go without taking out my house or anyone else.

That’s better. Ideally move them into a bucket or more of sand. I don’t know how it would work for batteries, but explosives get more dangerous when put in a container. Sand is better because it can absorb a lot of thermal energy without catching fire. Any non conductive non flammable material like that should work.

Also I’m not an expert on this stuff. Go find and listen to one.

Well, it's not sand exactly but I had a lot of spent casting silica on hand.

It's basically a dirt filled metal ammo box under a pile of bricks. Even if it was unable to relieve pressure through the seals (no idea, but waterproof rarely is also airtight especially for internal pressure) I'm not concerned with an explosion. Although to be clear, the gasses produced by lithium can absolutely cause a sealed container to rupture.

The bricks are quite insulatory by themselves, the dirt was just so it could absorb moisture a bit better just in case, and if it all does explode, the weight of the bricks will keep it from hurting the garage door 30ft away. I don't believe there is any danger of hitting the road with anything should the worst happen.

Ooo spicy pillow

Toxic gasses really undersells the danger. Most common rechargeable batteries (when compromised/exploding) release a gas that can melt your eyeballs and lungs, but doesn't do so immediately. Seen some terrifying cases of people thinking that since nothing burned down when the thing exploded, and the smoke/gases didn't make them cough or gag then they're fine.

A week or two later they go to the hospital for severe respiratory issues and find out the inside of their lungs is just fucking sloughing off.

My last job I had to pull HDDs from the all in one Mac desktops.

If the screens had been removed to upgrade the hardware previously, it was a major pain in the ass to remove because the adhesive to reattach them was much stronger than the OEM.

So, knowing how to do things properly, I asked where the heat gun was. My boss said, "You can't use a heat gun. Just hit the screen with a hammer until it comes off." I had already been hit close to my eye by flying glass from removing them normally at that point, and they didn't provide eye protection.

That's when I said they had a choice. I'd be using a heat gun, not removing the screens, or having a discussion with the safety office. It was my last week (90 day temp), so my boss said, "Fine, I'll do it myself."

your house could go poof too.

Good job standing up to unsafe bullshit in the workplace. It's never easy.

The bulging battery on its own isn't (much) more dangerous than a normal one. The problem is once the device splits open, the battery is no longer protected and much more likely to get accidentally punctured. A regular battery combusts when punctured, and the bulging battery would vent that gaseous content (which IIRC is Hydrogen) and then combusts, which makes for a larger initial fireball.

I used to deal with puffed batteries a lot and went through some basic training on safety and how to ship devices with them for repair. We only ever had one battery fire, it was a from a normal battery, and it happened when someone shoved a t-pin through the headphone jack of an iPod touch because they thought it was a reset pinhole.

I've never understood why it is that so many companies make trying to get proper tools to actually do the job you were hired to do is like pulling teeth. That same job I mentioned never wanted to buy me a proper screwdriver set because we had a lot of random junk coming through which could potentially include screwdrivers.

Convincing management took showing them how many computers I had to pass on because the random screwdrivers I can find will basically never include the dozen or so sizes of torx bits, triangle bits, square bits, or random other security bits that those computer used.

My proposed solution was to get one nice screwdriver with a nice varied set of bits meant for computers so that this one purchase can cover as many computers as possible and do it well. The set that I proposed would include 100 or so bits (overkill, but they're not expensive so why not), would include a nice screwdriver that could reach deep into weird spaces, and would cost about $30-$40. The benefit would be that it would allow me to work on hundreds of dollars of machines every day that were otherwise being wasted.

After literally months of me asking about it on the regular, they came back with a $10 harbor freight ratcheting screwdriver with 10-20 bits that was too bulky to get recessed screws.

I know that frustration. I ended up bringing my own 100 piece security bit set because they had the same mismatched screwdriver issue.

I even tried to bring my own heat gun, but was told I couldn't use it because the employer can't be responsible if it breaks.

Like, it was a $10 HF heat gun. I couldn't care less if it broke because it was a redundant one I bought because I couldn't find mine.

But my boss didn't like me very much because I had my degree, and was smarter than her (not a high bar to clear).

I was only able to do it so brazenly because my employment had a set end date, and I had already been hired full time by the department of my career. It was just a temp job to supplement after Musk killed my previous company.

Cut it open for free energy. The power companies hate this one simple trick.

Dry sand is important. Wet sand turns a metal fire into a metal fire fountain.