Lithium battery fireworks

[Stephen Tashiro]

There are numerous YouTube videos showing lithium battery fireworks from e-cigarettes, cell phones, and laptops. (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Em8MO3eTo ) Are lithium batteries for power tools safer?

[David Bassett]

... Are lithium batteries for power tools safer?

Possibly. There are several chemistries, the most common has the "vent with flame"* failure mode, but others fail safe(r). Also, with proper charging & monitoring electronics you shouldn't have most of these failures. Given power tools are larger and (slightly) less cost sensitive than most of the consumer electronics they should be able to afford & fit better designs.

* the battery guys are always emphatic Li-Ion batteries don't "explode", they "vent with flame". Of course, if you seal them up in e.g. an aluminum flashlight tube, you just made a pipe bomb which will explode quite well.

For more consumer / hobbyist battery information I suggest searching CandlePowerForums those guys put great effort into avoiding explosions while driving batteries well beyond spec (aka abusing) and have done a bunch of research, including which tool battery packs use which chemistries, so the safer cells can be harvested.

[Bill Dufour]

The Telsa which caught on fire while the guy was driving it...turns out he shot it with a gun while driving then sued Tesla who gave him a new car in exchange for his burned out hulk. Tesla took the battery apart and found the bullet and the bullet hole and then asked for their car back.
Bil lD

[Wade Lippman]

The Telsa which caught on fire while the guy was driving it...turns out he shot it with a gun while driving then sued Tesla who gave him a new car in exchange for his burned out hulk. Tesla took the battery apart and found the bullet and the bullet hole and then asked for their car back.
Bil lD
I found that really hard to believe, so I googled it and found you are right.
They settled a lawsuit out of court without disclosing the terms.

[Frank Pratt]

I found that really hard to believe, so I googled it and found you are right.
They settled a lawsuit out of court without disclosing the terms.

The guy that intentionally drove his Bugatti into a lake to collect insurance was not as lucky. He claimed an animal ran in front of him & made him go off the road. He didn't think of the fact that when you drive a Bugatti down the highway & others are around, they are probably going to be recording video of it. So insurance was denied, he was found guilty of fraud & served time in prison for his efforts. The totalled Bugatti is still his though.

[Bill Dufour]

I saw on the news that two people have been killed by exploding e-cigaretes. The batteries catch fire and explode and throw shrapnel.
Bill D

[Brian Elfert]

A lot of e-cigarettes are imported by companies that don't have the resources to do full safety testing on the batteries. They assume the Chinese manufacturers are doing the testing, but they are unlikely to be doing much testing.

The major power tool companies are likely to do lot more safety testing of batteries. I have zero worries about using my Makita, Ryobi, and Dewalt lithium batteries.