While sitting in the family room next to our Christmas tree, I was using my iPad tablet that was plugged in to maintain its charge when it literally “fried itself” in my lap. It happened so fast and within SECONDS all the smoke detectors woke up screaming. The volume of foul, acrid smoke filled the first floor family room (15’ ceiling) before I could even get up and into the kitchen and it’s door (30’) to throw the hot tablet out into the snow. Thank goodness it had a leather case that I could barely handle to get it out of the house. It took me +\-20 seconds max, seriously, to get to the door and be able to toss it to the snow. I had absolutely no warnings until it started to sizzle and crackle. How it could generate soo much smoke in soo little time still amazes me.
Yikes! I am waiting to hear back about the iPad’s age etc. But is this a known issue? Could aging battery do this? What other possible causes?
He has emailed friends/family: Don’t leave it overnight while charging or plugged in. Never leave, period, when charging.
Interesting, but they talk about preventing a fire only in context of working on a battery. Is there a device maintenance procedure to minimize battery fire?
Probably not charging to 100% would be safest (80% max).
I’m mainly curious if this iPad was being charged with a genuine Apple charger or an aftermarket one? That could make a difference, though usually I hear of the charger bricks themselves catching fire, not the device. Device fires with Apple products are quite rare.
I’d say being mindful is more important than maintenance. Use a protective case to protect against drops and impacts that could bend or flex the battery. Only use high quality chargers. Avoid fully charging and discharging the battery as much as possible. Don’t leave the device unattended when connected to power. If the device gets squeezed or compressed in any way, have it inspected by a reputable repair service. If any swelling, smells, or unusual heat buildups occur with a device, stop using it immediately and dispose of it safely and properly.
Apple has all my photos and recorded interview statement. They are to get back to me on Friday so I’ll see what they say.
The brick looks fine and it’s the one that came with the iPad. The wire most likely not made by apple as unit is I think 12 yrs old. Ive replace numerous charging wires because the insulation breaks at both ends. Original battery.
I told him to be wary of cheap cables, recommending Apple and Anker as reliable. And passed on the helpful comments here.
This remains a sore spot with Apple for any equipment you expect to keep for more than a few years. There are multiple factors at play, but there is simply no comparison in cable lifespan between Apple and other reputable vendors, like Dell.
Not a big deal compared with a device fire, but it is a real pet peeve of mine.
@josehill highlighted something funny there: the typo actually points out the root cause for Apple’s thinner-thinner-thinner cables not lasting long. Sir Jony!
True. So let’s also say that where a device is used—for example, in a hot and humid climate—is another thing to be mindful about. But don’t iPads have a thermal sensor that allows iOS to shut down a device if it gets too hot or cold during use? A runaway battery might happen too quickly but I’ve experienced my phone shutting down when in an uninsulated jacket pocket in winter weather.
I’m sure he’ll follow this for the rest of his life, but the chances of this happening with Apple devices with no warning (like a battery swelling) are extremely low.
That is not the case with products that use cheap lithium-ion batteries, particularly the bigger ones like scooters. They’re extremely dangerous, to the point where universities ban students from keeping them in dorms, and local fire departments attribute numerous structure fires to them.
I had this old wallet TILE (yes the Tile company) that had died. I wanted to see exactly how flammable these Li batts. are. I put it on a steel shelf outside and hit it with my blowtorch for maybe 2 sec. And boy did it flame fast-The fire was unbelievable. Wow. No wonder why the airlines don’t want them in the luggage.
Yikes! In 2023 I did some work with the Fire Safety Research Institute of Underwriters Laboratories, in particular helping with a symposium they held on Li battery dangers. This was aimed at educating firefighters and mainly focused on ebikes, scooters, cars, and industrial battery installations, but your description sounds exactly like Li battery thermal runaway. The huge amount of acrid smoke is a common trait, as is incredible heat. These people intentionally cause batteries to fail and the link below has some scary test footage.
They did not address phones and other small items, but the principles are the same, with battery damage being the #1 cause of failure, followed by things like junk batteries and junk chargers. My thinking is that the risks with small items are minimal, compared to those others, but it’s worth following the same rules about not overcharging, using certified parts, replacing after possible deformation or if the battery is obviously damaged.
Don’t forget, however, that every device with a rechargeable lithium battery has a battery-management chip that controls its charging.
You can leave your phone connected to a power brick 24x7 and it will not overcharge. The battery management chip will cut off charging when the battery is full. It will also prevent charging if the battery get too hot or if it drains below a minimum threshold.
This is very different from old-school nickel-based rechargeable batteries (NiCd and NiMH), where cheap chargers often just run voltage directly to the battery without anything resembling a controller.
Okay, but it would seem that sometimes this protection doesn’t work correctly–at least for some types of devices. My elderly dad and stepmom use iPhones and iPads all freakin day and asked me just last week about battery safety. I basically said not to worry much about those devices, they are designed to be safe, etc. Perhaps the iPad that started this discussion had been damaged in some way that affected the battery. But that could happen to anyone.
I’m an Android user and experienced multiple “fat battery” episodes with my previous phones. I only began to notice when the fingerprint sensor on the back stopped working because the case was pushing apart! I replaced those without incident. Since then I’m more careful abut charging cycles (charge to 100% but don’t go below 30%) which is also supposed to improve run time.
Batteries can fail for a wide variety of reasons. But it’s very unlikely that your habits of when your connect your phone to a USB cable is going to have any impact.
Bulging batteries, like we’ve all observed at times, seems to be mostly a function of age and chemistry. Especially if there is no physical damage.
For those of us who hang on to older devices, it’s worth checking on them periodically, especially if they are stored out of sight. I recently visited a family member, and they had a drawer with a few old iPhones and laptops. There was a MacBook in the drawer with the biggest battery bulge I’ve ever seen. If it had caught fire, it would have been a major, major problem.
Update from my brother: “Apple is replacing my iPad with a new A-16 model. I’m fine with that, it has same functions as my melted one but current to the models standards. Old =32g new 128g”.
When he picks up the new iPad he plans also to replace his old PC with a Mini.
Even if it’s not a fire hazard, you want to wipe an old device before recycling it. But if the battery has completely died, this may be a difficult challenge.
I recently went though some old devices in order to wipe them, and got many different experiences.
My 2nd-gen iPod nano had a completely dead battery. Would turn off immediately after removing the USB cable, even after charging for hours. I was able to do a “restore” from my Mac, to wipe it. It’s now in my e-waste recycling box (and will eventually be brought to Staples or an Apple store or some other place that recycles devices).
My 2nd-gen iPad was kept on a charger, so it wasn’t too hard to wipe - I just used the system settings to erase it. Although it works, it’s too slow to be useful, so is in the e-waste box now.
My iPad Air2 was not kept on a charger, for years. So that battery was very dead. But it did eventually charge and turn on after a few hours. After that point, I could wipe it. I’m actually using this for some light gaming today. (It used to be my wife’s iPad, but she replaced it with a much newer model a long time ago.)
My 4th generation iPod Touch also had a very-dead battery. After plugging it in to a charger for several hours, it powered on, but wouldn’t boot beyond the Apple logo. In order to wipe it, I had to use DFU mode.
But my Mac (macOS 15) couldn’t restore it from DFU mode. I’d repeatedly get an error message saying that the device restarted and is no longer in DFU mode.
Following a tip from a web site, I tried to restore it using iTunes on a Windows PC. That worked. So it’s finally been wiped and is now in the e-waste box.
I ran into a similar problem a few months ago with a ten year old Amazon Fire tablet. One day it started to boot, and then it went black, never to boot again. I did all the usual troubleshooting to try to bring it back to working condition or verify that it truly wasn’t booting, to no avail. In the end, I decided that the combination of deregistering the device remotely and dropping off at Amazon for recycling was sufficient from a risk persepctive. I admit I would have been more nervous if it were a currently supported device, rather than an obsolete one. Had it been a currently supported device, I probably would have made the effort to disassemble the unit and destroy the storage unit and motherboard myself.