Having knowledge about Lithium-Ion batteries is the theme for this year’s Fire Prevention Week.
Key points surrounding these batteries is to look for safety certification mark, such as UL, ETL, or CSA, charge them safely, and recycle responsibly.
Lithium-ion batteries are now in many items from laptops, tablets, and cellphones to scooters and bicycles.
New Philadelphia Fire Department’s Captain Jim Sholtz says there are warning signs if a battery is not working properly.
“Such as your laptop is not charging any more, or it’s not holding a charge, or you notice that the battery compartment is hot. Our drone batteries, you put them on a flat surface they’ll kind of rock from the swelling. The biggest is they just generate heat beforehand. Sometimes they’ll start to off gas but it’s something that you’re not really going to smell.”
Sholtz recommends a few battery fire prevention steps.
“Don’t have your phone sitting in direct sunlight in your car that’s probably the biggest thing same with tablets, and then when you charge them charge them with the cord that they came with. All these cords have different power levels they send to your device and if you over charge them, they’re at risk for catching fire.”
When it comes to proper recycling of lithium-ion batteries, there are designed sites and one in New Philadelphia is at the Lowe’s customer service desk.
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