Posted on by Terry White

Unexpected Fireworks!

I hope you all had a great 4th of July break and enjoyed time with the family. I’m a fan of fireworks displays, but not of the electronics kind. The above shot is actually a backup battery pack for my Nikon D80 Digital SLR camera. I keep this pack in my bag as a backup for when I’m out shooting and run out of juice. It’s great because you can use off the shelf AA batteries in a pinch. While I was in Montana, I left my laptop bag with this pack in the outer pocket in the trunk of the rental car. I guess we can say that the Energizer Bunny keeps going and going and going. Things must have gotten a little hot back there and at the end of the day when I opened my bag to grab something out of it, I saw this! Luckily it didn’t damage anything else. The batteries were Energizer NiMH AA rechargeable batteries. So you might want to think twice about what you leave in your car on a hot day, tech wise. It would have been kind of hard to explain to Hertz why their car burst into flames. Thankfully it didn’t come to that.

9 Replies to “Unexpected Fireworks!”

  1. Hey Terry – wow! Good thing it didn’t damage anything. Btw – heard that Eneloop batteries are good. Have you tried them out? Was thinking of getting spare batteries for my flash.

  2. These batteries were NOT overheated from the heat of the trunk. They overheated themselves from an mechanical defect or even an internal short inside the two bad cells. Note the normal appearance of the plastic case away from the main heat source.
    I have seen this in my own NiMH batteries.

  3. I second the statement that these were not overheated. I have had two (2) sets of four (eight total) Energizer batteries melt down two different chargers while sitting on my concrete basement floor where the normal temp is in the mid 60s. I was going to send the whole gooey (?) mess to the company CEO but never got around to it.

    What I did get around to is making sure that none of my family or friends ever buy Energizer brand again.

    Alan Anderson

  6. Too bad I just bought an 12-pack of these batteries for my 4th of July Trip. I hope mine don’t melt.

    Thanks for the heads up.

  8. I was interested to read Energizers response, particularly the line that says “This guarantee void if batteries charged by user or device”

    According to your post they were “Energizer NiMH AA rechargeable batteries”
    so how are you meant to use them if you don’t charge them?

    Are they saying that they will not guarantee it because they are rechargeable batteries?

    Perhaps it’s my being Scottish, but it seems to be that is what they’re saying

  9. I just bought the energizer compact charger with rechargeable AA NiMH’s that are promoted to last 4X longer in digital cameras. The first use was approx 45 min and I noticed my camera was getting hot. I took the batteries out and they were so hot that I couldn’t hold them in my bare hands. Be careful so your equipment doesn’t get damaged.

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