Which Samsung phone models are exploding. Smartphone grenades: why gadgets explode and how to avoid it

We are all in danger, each of us has portable bombs at home (in our pockets, at work) that can cause serious harm or even death. And it's all about the dangerous assembly technology, which has become a standard for the whole world and does not frighten society at all.

Li-ion battery

Today we all use a lot of different devices and technical innovations based on lithium-ion batteries. This is a type of electric accumulator that differs from other similar energy carriers by its versatility, high energy density and unpretentious maintenance.

Despite their positive characteristics, such batteries pose a certain threat. Batteries of this type can explode, damage or destroy property and, worse, cause serious injury or even death.

Nevertheless, lithium-ion batteries are widely used in various areas of human life. This type of energy carrier can be found in cars, airplanes, and most importantly, in smartphones and tablets, which the majority of people use on a daily basis, on an ongoing basis. Roughly speaking, as mentioned above, the entire modern society carries with it which can be activated in case of an oversight, by an unfortunate accident or due to negligence of the manufacturer.

Possible Causes of Battery Explosion

Lithium batteries have been tested over time and are considered relatively safe if all the manufacturer's recommendations are followed, but how often does someone even ask for instructions? Any violation can have dire consequences. For example, a sudden change in temperature, which is one of the most common reasons why batteries fail. In this case, the lithium-ion battery begins to generate gas, the battery becomes much puffier, and in rare cases a leak can be detected. Both the one and the other symptom is the reason for the immediate cessation of using the device, disconnecting the battery and its proper disposal. In addition to changing thermal conditions, there are a number of other common causes of battery explosion that are worth focusing on.

Physical impact and artisanal repairs

Any damage, bending, or shock can cause the battery to heat up excessively, inevitably causing an explosion. The same goes for punctures that often accompany repair work.

"Jack of all trades" often resort to repairing everything and everyone, without seeking help from professionals. Perhaps a new experience is even great, people develop their skills and save money, but when it comes to lithium batteries, you should forget about your "skill", because you cannot disassemble and repair lithium-ion batteries. The same applies to small "tents" located in shopping centers and responsible for the repair of various kinds of electronics.

Overdischarge and wear

As ironic as it may sound, even if you leave the lithium-ion battery alone, it still remains dangerous, as it can use up a critical mass of charge. Usually, in such cases, the battery simply fails and stops functioning, but human stupidity, courage has no boundaries. There have been many attempts to bring a fully discharged battery back to life by simply charging it (with or without a functioning device). In either case, the battery can close, instantly heat up to the combustion temperature and ignite.

Just like the old cabinet can fall apart at any moment, the old battery can overheat. With use, it wears out, loses in volume, and certain parts are damaged. The time will come when physical changes to the battery will require replacement.

Galaxy Note 7 scandal

The most global battery collapse (in the mobile market) happened in 2016, along with the release of a smartphone from Samsung. Until the now iconic date, a phone battery explosion was seen as a rare, unlikely accident. In the summer of 2016, when more than 35 cases of Galaxy Note 7 smartphone explosions were reported in the media during the week, everything changed.

Note 7, by the way, was received very positively, the device pleased absolutely everyone, but, trying to overtake the competitors, Samsung miscalculated and seriously substituted itself. By early September, officials from the Korean company announced that they were launching a global campaign to return defective gadgets. The phones were offered to be exchanged for the same model, but supposedly from a new batch. Less than a couple of days later, the situation repeated itself on a new scale. People began to contact Samsung even more often, cars began to burn, property deteriorated, people suffered, receiving serious burns. At some point, the Koreans backed down, deciding to stop selling and assembling the phone.

Causes of problems with Galaxy Note 7

More than six months later, as of January 2017, the company did not give any clear comments about the incident. Many analysts and people familiar with the company's operations say that the company's engineers are unable to reproduce the explosion in a laboratory environment.

Independent organizations are inclined to believe that the explosion is due to problems with the power controller. The complex (dense) design of the smartphone, which includes a curved display, caused two parts of the battery: the cathode and the anode to come into contact, which, in turn, led to excessive heating. The lithium battery always tends to rise in temperature, this is normal, but the manufacturer had to attend to the fact that at some point, the smartphone was deprived of power. Unfortunately, it did not happen. And, no matter how careful users were with their Samsungs, battery explosion has become a massive problem, affecting everyone without exception.

Implications for the company

To understand how such an incident turned out for the company, it is enough to put yourself in their place. What will the consumer think of a product that has suddenly become a laughing stock and a threat to life? Most likely to avoid. But one thing is the reputation that exists today, tomorrow it is not, and the day after tomorrow it is again, another thing is the real facts. The company suffered losses, and quite serious and tangible for the mobile division - $ 22 billion. The phones were remotely denied the ability to charge to avoid further explosions.

At the moment, the phone is not in production, the company is investigating and it can only be hoped that the explosion of the Samsung Note 7 battery will serve the Koreans a lesson that will make them stronger.

IPhone Explosion Cases

Despite its special position in the smartphone market and the minimum defect rate, even an "apple" smartphone can turn into an impromptu bomb. One of the most recent cases was the explosion of a new product from Apple, the iPhone 7 smartphone, which one of the fans allegedly ordered on the Internet, and received an already blown-up gadget.

There was no confirmation of the spontaneous ignition of the iPhone, and this case was attributed to the usual fanning of rumors. Fortunately for the owners of fresh smartphones from California, the iPhone battery explosion was just one of the few, caused by improper use (in this case, excessive physical impact), and not a massive problem.

Other reported cases of iPhone explosions were the result of a short circuit due to third-party use.

How to avoid an explosion?

The simplest thing that any user can do is to look at the instructions at least once in their life and find out how dangerous the battery in a smartphone is, and what kind of care it requires.

You should always strictly observe the temperature regime, do not leave the smartphone in direct sunlight for too long. You cannot independently remove the battery in smartphones where this option is not provided by the manufacturer (we are talking about gadgets with a monolithic body).

Give preference to devices that have at least some name, time-tested, avoid the impulsive purchase of the most "top" new products.

The main thing is to understand that an explosion of a lithium battery is real and very dangerous, if possible, do not leave gadgets on charging unattended, who knows at what point the technologies will fail and a fire will occur.

What's next?

Now, in terms of technology, lithium batteries are the cheapest, while the most energy efficient option for mobile devices and other electronics. Naturally, this type of battery is still a priority.

They may come to replace them Despite their scary name, this type of battery is completely harmless to humans, and the gadget will be able to live on a single charge several times longer than it is now. Unfortunately, development in this area is going on rather slowly and there is no need to expect any progress in the near future. Perhaps the explosion of the Samsung Note 7 battery will not be in vain and will force engineers working in the field of information technology to hurry up.

The phone itself will never explode, the battery that powers it, which is now most often a lithium-ion battery, can explode.

The number of cases of explosion of gadgets, in which such batteries are located, has increased over the past years so much that lithium-ion and simple lithium batteries have been recognized as dangerous cargo, and since the beginning of 2016, the International Airlines With this, the batteries of gadgets can be carried with them in the salon, however, they must meet certain conditions: have a lithium content of up to two grams and a power of no more than 100 W / h.

How does this happen?

Canadian scientists from the CLS company asked the question, what happens inside the battery at the moment of the explosion? They managed to look inside the battery and published their observations in the Electrotechnical Society of Canada. It turned out that everything happens due to a short circuit inside the power source: the lithium of the anode (the positive electrode of the battery) reacts with the electrolyte. The battery begins to warm up, the material from which the cathode (negative electrode) is made is connected to the process, and after the battery heats up to two hundred degrees, a sharp release of oxygen, carbon dioxide and other gases occurs. The battery swells. Often the matter is limited to this, but in some cases the process goes further: oxygen ignites due to temperature, a small explosion occurs. This is dangerous for a person, first of all, by burns and minor injuries, and for the environment - by fire. There have been cases when, due to the explosion of the telephone, cars and furniture in apartments were on fire. Eyewitnesses say that phones not only burn, but also "boil with chemistry" and can damage other devices or wires that are nearby. But why do they explode?

Charger

Scientists from the Institute of Solid State Chemistry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk) believe that an explosion of a lithium-ion battery can occur for several reasons, including because of a charging device.

The battery can be damaged if you use an unsuitable charger when charging the phone. Different manufacturers make battery electrodes from different materials and their charging speed is different. Some batteries can withstand charging at an increased speed, while others, alas, cannot. If you connect the battery to an outlet using a more powerful "charger", it may be partially destroyed: if the current is higher, the unsuitable material heats up and the battery breaks down. Outwardly, this may not manifest itself in any way, but later the battery explodes.

Chip failure

Another reason is the failure of the device, which is obliged to monitor the charge level on the gadget. This is a tiny chip that monitors the charge level and does not allow the battery to exceed it: if it is exceeded, it simply turns it off. He will do the same when the phone overheats. But if the chip is out of order, expect trouble.

Mechanical damage to the battery

The researchers concluded that most often phones or smartphones explode due to mechanical breakdown of the battery. Breakage can happen imperceptibly - you dropped the battery on the floor while disassembling the device, or your child "played" with it. To break the integrity of the battery inside, it is enough to try to bend it - and breakage is guaranteed. According to statistics, several smartphones caught fire after their owners got into an accident or even just fell off their bike. There is a known case when a smartphone caught fire in the cabin of an aircraft: the owner dropped it on the floor in the passage and stepped on.

Canadian scientists also warn about damage: during the experiments, they saw that the destruction of the battery begins from those places where there was at least the slightest violation of the integrity of the electrodes.

Manufacturing defect

Most often, consumers do not know where, who and at what particular factory makes the batteries that are equipped with gadgets, and the manufacturer sometimes strives to save money and buys cheap products. Minor damage caused by an incompetent worker, violation of technology, small particles of metal or other components trapped in the electrolyte can all cause an emergency.

How can you avoid this?

The measures are simple: you need to use only the charger that comes with the phone, handle the battery with care, do not drop the phone, pay attention to the charging speed: if it suddenly accelerates, then the battery is out of order.

You have to pay attention to the temperature of the phone: if it gets very hot in a short time, then this is a bad sign.

It is necessary to carefully put the battery cover back in place: if it is difficult to fit into the grooves, it may be that your battery is already swollen and it is dangerous to use it.

Unfortunately, the evolution in the field of rechargeable batteries is very slow. The safest Russian scientists consider lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, but such batteries are not made small for some reason.

The most serious accidents with telephones in our country took place in Primorye, where a telephone caught fire in the hands of a schoolgirl right in the classroom (the child got burned hands and feet and was hospitalized) and in Novosibirsk, where a crane operator's phone exploded on the ground.

On Monday, October 10, Samsung Electronics announced that it would suspend sales of its Galaxy Note 7 phones, prompting all owners of these smartphones to turn them off immediately. According to the press service of the company, Samsung asked operators and partners in those countries where the official start of sales of the smartphone took place, to stop the sale and exchange of Galaxy Note7 during the investigation, which the Korean manufacturer is conducting in close cooperation with the regulators of these countries. According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, it was also decided to suspend the production of these smartphones.

Announcement at the registration desks of the Aeroflot company. Photo: Gleb Bryanskiy / TASS

Since August 19, when sales of the Galaxy Note 7 started, more than 70 cases of this smartphone have been recorded in the United States alone. It got to the point that air carriers refuse to carry these smartphones even in their luggage. The failed launch of Samsung's flagship product was exacerbated by news of exploding washing machines from the South Korean manufacturer. There was even a joke on the network that this is how Samsung is entering the arms market.

A month ago, the manufacturer already approached the owners of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones with a recommendation to turn off and exchange their devices as soon as possible, since there is a threat of overheating and fire. The problems that arose were attributed to defective batteries. As the company explained, as a result of a rare manufacturing error, a short circuit between the electrodes is observed in some batteries. In September, Samsung assured users that smartphones offered as replacements for defective smartphones are being thoroughly tested to ensure that there is no threat of battery overheating in the future. The fault in the batteries has already been found - a subsidiary of Samsung SDI, which is the main supplier of batteries for the Galaxy Note 7. At the moment, the purchase of batteries from this company has been discontinued.

The crisis was exacerbated by complaints of overheating and burning of devices, which were received during the first recall in September - i.e. the manufacturer's warranties did not work. After that, the three largest US cellular operators AT & T, Sprint and Verizon refused to sell the new smartphone Samsung Galaxy Note 7. A similar decision was made by the German company T-Mobile. It is possible that the dealers' demarche led to the global recall of the new model.

It is noteworthy that most of the information about the recall of the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge was published on the Samsung website, intended for users in the United States - a hotline was opened for consultation and an offer to change your smartphone with a possible bonus of $ 25. The Russian site Samsung does not contain any hint of a total recall of the latest models of smartphones. As the press service of the company told "Utru", this is due to the fact that the official sales of the flagship model in our country have not yet begun.

The recall of all Galaxy Note 7 devices could cost Samsung at least $ 1 billion. High hopes were pinned on the release of this model, as the new product was supposed to consolidate the success of the South Korean giant in the smartphone market, shown in revenue growth in the second quarter of 2016. Samsung smartphones have confidently squeezed Apple products, but the success has been greatly marred by the crisis with the Galaxy Note 7. And all this happens at the time of the release of the new generation of iPhone.

Not gadgets in general, but new products that have now come to the market and have successfully become popular among people.

In particular, today we will talk about samsung and apple mobile phones.

Surely, many of you have seen on the Internet, or in the news of the first channel, terrible things that happen because of new expensive gadgets.

As it was shown just a couple of weeks ago, samsung gadgets explode quite often, in connection with which a car caught fire, burns, fright and just unpleasant news for any of the owners of the exploded smartphones.

Which phones often explode, this question has become quite popular on the Internet and now I will try to make some selection of gadgets and companies that missed something in their developments and made a fairly large number of defective devices and put them on the market.

Now, I just want to express my opinion on these problems and I would very much like to hear your opinion on the explosions of gadgets in the hands, pockets, or on the charging stations of their owners.

Now, the situation for samsung has worsened and their brand new galaxy s7 began to explode in large quantities, which forced the company to withdraw the entire series from sales in stores. Yes, a big blow to the company.

It is clear from the video above that even replacing the batteries with new ones did not lead to solving any problems. Phones exploded as well as explode.

What is their problem? Purely my opinion - poor quality food controllers. But, as an option, it may be a firmware defect, not the correct synchronization of the processor, or maybe it is just a defect that every company has, only the defect rate turned out to be catastrophic for a whole line of smartphones.

What do you think about it?

Also, recently, with the arrival of the new apple iphome 7, there have been cases of explosions from this company.

It is clear from the video that new items are also susceptible to explosions in pockets and on chargers. If you believe this video, then according to the data of one guy, his phone exploded due to charging with an adapter from an Ipod, but was this the reason for the explosion of the battery, or something else?

Also, there is a case when a schoolgirl's iphone exploded and began to melt right in her pocket during the lesson, in the back pocket of her jeans. The girl was saved from severe burns, but still, what happens to the equipment.

Also, in the course of writing the article, I had another opinion.

Galaxy7 and iphone7 combine water resistance. Perhaps this is one of the factors of the explosions? Perhaps the battery is not ventilated, thereby causing overheating and an explosion in the future?

What do you think about it? Imagine being pushed into a plastic case, into which neither water nor air simply gets in, in general, nothing gets to you. How long can you last like this? I think no.

Well, I have several positions on this. Perhaps the company begins to save on its new products, because you need to be a leader and offer new items at affordable prices, thus companies simply start to save money and buy wholesale components from dubious wholesalers.

It is possible that all these explosions really occur in new products due to a full vacuum, because batteries tend to heat up, and if there is no air, then it is quite problematic for them to release heat quickly. Respectively - battery overheating and explosion.

Also, there is a possibility that gadgets explode due to some kind of mechanical impact. An example would be long-term use, and we all know that if you use a gadget for a long time, then the back cover over the battery heats up very much, after which shoving it into a pocket, where the phone does not have sufficient heat transfer, and also gets some deformations, which due to its thicknesses are now very easy to obtain.

My dear friends. I would like to hear your opinion on similar situations with brand new gadgets. Also, you can discuss which phones often explode, in addition to these devices, which were in today's article.

Well that's all for today. It was interesting just to write my thoughts about this problem, which received publicity on the first channel of Russian television.

I wish you all good luck with your gadgets, long charges and reliable batteries. Thank you for your attention, I look forward to your comments on the article.

What company is your mobile phone? I have an Iphone and probably this is the most reliable assistant that I have had and for sure I will not return to either windows phone, and even more so not to android.

Now the network and television are flooded with reviews of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 - why does a smartphone from this well-known company explode and, in general, is it true?

Indeed, the long-term rivalry between the Korean Samsung and the American iPhone this time ended in a practical defeat for the Koreans. The new flagship Galaxy Note 7 turned out to be a bomb in the literal sense of the word. And many fans of the famous brand now want to know: why Samsung explodes and what to do?

What is the problem with Samsung Galaxy Note 7?

So, August 2016 saw the explosion of thirty-five Korean Galaxy Note 7 from Samsung right in the hands of users. And by the end of the month, the bulk of pre-orders, in particular from Russia, had been suspended. And even a day later, information appeared about a complete stop of the production of defective models. This is a difficult situation for our Korean friends. What is the next…

And then - more. The first days of September were marked by the termination of sales of samsung galaxy note 7 in ten major consumer countries and the beginning of a large-scale campaign to withdraw prepaid orders and replace the sold devices. In Russia alone, almost a thousand people managed to order a new explosive flagship laptop 7.

Why are Samsung smartphones exploding? Maybe this is an act of terrorists or the intrigues of competitors? By no means - everything is much more trivial. The problem lies in defective batteries that are too capacious.

The company, of course, having suspended sales, immediately began a thorough investigation of cases of spontaneous combustion and even battery explosions at Galaxy Note 7. Safety first! Yeah ... I wonder if the family of the Korean, who died in 2007, from the explosion of the LG phone, will believe in this. His lungs were torn apart and his spine was broken. Of course, Samsung has nothing to do with this, but trust falls in general to any smartphone.

Come on, if a similar incident took place somewhere in a third world country, at the "left" manufacturer. But Samsung is the leader in the smartphone market. According to statistics, almost every fourth person in the world uses a smartphone of this brand. And even less - and the security is at the proper level. For now…

So, without leaving the topic - why are Samsung Galaxy blowing up? At first, the company tried to place all the blame on non-original chargers. Rave! People always charged their phones than necessary. And manufacturers are well aware of this. And what kind of original can we talk about if Samsung does not produce charging blocks on its own, ordering them from other manufacturers. Moreover, many companies even have a contract for the production of smartphones with the same charging connector.

Yes, and all chargers, in principle, do not have such serious differences - these are standard 5V and 2A. Yes, no doubt there are devices for faster battery filling. But even in them, only the voltage rises, but not the power.

Moreover, all modern smartphones are equipped with a special controller. If the model does not support fast charging, it will not happen. Additionally, they do not allow overcharging - which is extremely critical in this case.

It follows that a working device will not allow harm when charging, no matter what device it is connected to. And here the first defects were revealed - the very controller could fail. And the Samsung Note models from the first batch did not have them at all!

Due to overcharging, the electrolyte in the battery boiled up and a large amount of gas was emitted. Naturally, the pressure in the smartphone body instantly took off to a critical point - and now it is a real micro-explosion, with fragments of the body flying in different directions. A real time bomb. Put it on charge, sit down and wait until "arrives". This is some kind of diversion! You can imagine - like this I bought a smartphone for my 12-year-old daughter, and he exploded, pouring over her with a hail of fragments ...

The iPhone, for example, often has a different problem - theirs.

And if it only exploded when charging. So, no - sometimes they fly away right in the hands. How can this be explained? Why do Samsung phones explode after recharging? There is a completely true version. The fact is that the battery in the seventh Samsung does not withstand overheating at all, and when the temperature of the processor in the smartphone rises, it explodes! This is probably why the series of explosions occurred in the summer month. I can quite believe it.

Or maybe the situation is just escalating here and you shouldn't take it seriously? Everyone will decide for himself how to react. But let him know that lithium from a smartphone battery, when ignited, reaches a temperature of 1339 ° C, and hot splashes fly in all directions, capable of burning even quite hard surfaces, not to mention human skin. In addition, the likelihood of fires has now increased significantly. And fragments of the shell can damage the eardrum or even the carotid artery. The consequences of such damage are not hard to imagine.

How not to explode with Samsung Galaxy Note 7?

Why the Samsung Note explodes is understandable, but now what to do? The surest remedy is not to use smartphones or leave your home at all. It's safer this way. And those who do not want to resort to such radical methods should get a wireless headset for displaying messages. But in general, living in constant fear that your electronic pet may explode at any moment is somehow not reasonable.

Those who fly often should think about a special thermal container in which a potential "saboteur" will hide during the flight. Also, Russian companies do not recommend turning it on during the flight, and even more so not trying to charge it. And in general, now, probably, you will have to wear head armor ...

The danger came from where it was not expected. And it will not be Alkaida or EGIL that will blow you up, but your own smartphone! But I am glad that the warning applies only to Samsung Note 7 models purchased before the second of September and then outside of Russia. After all, there were no official sales of this batch in the Russian Federation. That is great!

And so, Russian aviation simply does not catch up with fear - it takes into account the experience of American colleagues. There, one of the frivolous Yankees, Samsung began to smoke right on board the liner at Louisville airport. Why frivolous - yes, because this citizen was aware of the marriage and simply exchanged the old model for a new one. Which did not prevent him from disembarking from the plane along with the rest of the passengers right before departure. And why did he not please him? Do you want some Korean exoticism?

P.S. Samsung surprised not only Note 7 smartphones. And the question of why Samsung washing machines explode has also become relevant. True, reports of the explosions of Asian washing machines come mainly from the States - now, probably, they will see shoals of Korean "bombers" everywhere. So this year the company's products have become the most “explosive”. Although, for example, it has established itself as an excellent device!

Although, I want to believe that the brand will restore its reputation. After all, his products have always been distinguished by quality and reliability.

Youtube video - "Note 7 on fire: Samsung recalls Galaxy flagship":