A cautionary tale of cheap lights

[gbb]

I would like to see some evidence as to failure rates and consequential losses.

Exactly.
ecigs, laptop batteries, xmas tree lights (a neighbour of mine had a severe amount of damage done to his house by probable poor use, left on overnight and bulbs touching fabric)..Nokia phones were known to have a problem years ago, etc etc. They are nevertheless a tiny minority of problems in a huge market.
Ive read ONE story of a defective charger or battery and while its good the risks and particular failure are raised...I suspect there's some panic mongering going on.

I'd want to see some more problems (I wouldnt of course but you know what I mean)..before I would panic.

 

[Drago]

Our Indesit tumble drier caught fire the other day. Fortunately Woman was home and sorted it before it became serious.

It's barely a year old, and neither cheap nor Chinese. Be sensible and keep an eye on all your electrical gear.

 

[classic33]

Our Indesit tumble drier caught fire the other day. Fortunately Woman was home and sorted it before it became serious.

It's barely a year old, and neither cheap nor Chinese. Be sensible and keep an eye on all your electrical gear.

Trying to hard?

 

[Drago]

Yes, my Y Fronts are hard word for a standard tumble drier.

 

[accountantpete]

Our Indesit tumble drier caught fire the other day. Fortunately Woman was home and sorted it before it became serious.

It's barely a year old, and neither cheap nor Chinese. Be sensible and keep an eye on all your electrical gear.

It was in all the papers in November about how they are/were catching fire.

 

[PpPete]

I would like to see some evidence as to failure rates and consequential losses.

You could ask Boeing how many $million lithium batteries cost them in consequential losses.
I'll give you a clue - it wasn't a small number.

And those were not even cheap Chinese batteries.

 

[classic33]

You could ask Boeing how many $million lithium batteries cost them in consequential losses.
I'll give you a clue - it wasn't a small number.

And those were not even cheap Chinese batteries.

Modified casing though. Similar problems with Ni-Cads as well.

 

[swee'pea99]

Our Indesit tumble drier caught fire the other day. Fortunately Woman was home and sorted it before it became serious.

It's barely a year old, and neither cheap nor Chinese. Be sensible and keep an eye on all your electrical gear.

Truth is, it has nothing to do with cheap or Chinese. As 'KiwiMike' said in a comment at the original link:

"Every kind of mobile phone, laptop and light has a story searchable somewhere of a charger / battery exploding whilst charging. I used to work in the mobile phone industry, it's a fact of life that dirt-cheap consumer electronics, mass-produced with SFA quality control, then put into the real world of dogs/kids/idiots chewing/spilling/overcharging stuff, shoot's going to happen. And in the echo chamber that is the internet, you'll hear about it."

 

[classic33]

Our Indesit tumble drier caught fire the other day. Fortunately Woman was home and sorted it before it became serious.

It's barely a year old, and neither cheap nor Chinese. Be sensible and keep an eye on all your electrical gear.

Was it excessive fluff on the heating element?
Recall went out last month https://safety.hotpoint.eu/

 

[Julia9054]

Our Indesit tumble drier caught fire the other day. Fortunately Woman was home and sorted it before it became serious.

It's barely a year old, and neither cheap nor Chinese. Be sensible and keep an eye on all your electrical gear.

Hmmm . . . I also have one of these. It's amazing I'm still alive!

 

[derrick]

So at the end of the day they are good lights.

 

[rich p]

I bought a box of matches last week which keep catching light. They weren't even Chinese FFS

 

[classic33]

You could ask Boeing how many $million lithium batteries cost them in consequential losses.
I'll give you a clue - it wasn't a small number.

And those were not even cheap Chinese batteries.

http://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/PR20141201.aspx
"Because the APU and main lithium-ion batteries installed on the 787 represented new technology not adequately addressed by existing regulations, the Federal Aviation Administration required that Boeing demonstrate compliance with special conditions to ensure that the battery was safe for use on a transport category aircraft.
Investigators said that Boeing's safety assessment of the battery, which was part of the data used to demonstrate compliance with these special conditions, was insufficient because Boeing had considered, but ruled out, cell-to-cell propagation of thermal runaway (which occurred in this incident) but did not provide the corresponding analysis and justification in the safety assessment. As a result, the potential for cell-to-cell propagation of thermal runaway was not thoroughly scrutinized by Boeing and FAA engineers, ultimately allowing this safety hazard to go undetected by the certification process."

 

[vernon]

I bought a box of matches last week which keep catching light. They weren't even Chinese FFS

I had a friend who landed on a box of matches in his trouser pocket when he tripped up, pissed as a newt, and they ignited.

Oh how we laughed at his wild gyrations.

They were Swan Vestas if I recall. It's a scandal that they are still available!

 

[Drago]

It was in all the papers in November about how they are/were catching fire.

indeed! We hadn't seen that, but a friend of ours had and told us the score. Fortunately Indesit are giving us a new, hopefully slightly less flammable, one in the new year.