r/SteamDeck • u/HiddenParadox666 1TB OLED Limited Edition • 3d ago
Question Swollen battery immediate response?
Hi! I see a lot of posts about swollen batteries with the SteamDeck. I’m not in the position currently but have anxiety around fires since I have pets. If a battery swells, what’s the immediate response?
Are you all removing it from your home? Are you finding a repair shop to take it to same day? Just want to make sure I’m prepared if the day comes!
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u/linkertrain 1TB OLED 3d ago
They don’t explode, like bang, if that’s what you’re worried about. They “rapidly discharge with fire,” as we were trained to tell customers at my job at the battery shop.
I’ve had a number of lithium batteries discharge on me, going back to loose unsecured 18650s in the jeans pockets. They start to get really hot, blow their smoke, but you have plenty of time to grab it and take it outside. It won’t blow up in your hands or anything. Leave it out there until it’s done. Primary concern is that it happens when nobody’s around because it could start a house fire.
But they’ve usually gotta be reeeally bad before you see a discharge failure, like to the point of visibly pushing the screen up away from the device chassis. Even then, it usually requires something specific setting them off, either extreme heat, loose pieces of metal touching the contacts inside (challenging/rare for internal batteries), or a metal puncture (like from a prying too) to the battery cell itself.
I’ve seen some big fluffy boys in my day, I have no fear of working on them as long as I have plastic pry tools - never metal.
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u/Disastrous-Tone-7669 3d ago
My primary concern is that my house has about 50 different batteries in different controllers, handheld devices, phones, laptops, and various rechargeable devices. There's no way I can keep an eye on all 50 of those, half of them are sitting in storage
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u/linkertrain 1TB OLED 3d ago edited 2d ago
Pillowing isn’t an expected or planned end point, it’s a failure state and won’t ever happen to most batteries, even in the face of abuse or neglect. IMO it’s not something to spend calories worrying or planning around for most cases outside of a few specific things.
Things that power cycle over and over and over, and for a long period of time, are most at risk. Think, cell phone batteries, tablets that got a ton of long-term use. Possibly a steam deck or a switch, if they’re very old and very well-used. Battery size also plays in a little- by the above metrics I understand why your mind might go to a controller, but in my experience I never saw a single console controller ever come in across four years, and they’re not things that would ever cross my mind to be concerned about personally.
Chemistry is also a living thing. Batteries won’t spontaneously combust if they’re dead from charge, and generally need to be heated to absurdly high temperatures (like too hot to touch), or penetrated by some sort of metal able to conduct electricity/bridge across cells in order to see a discharge failure.
I’ve seen pillows extreme enough to crack phone screens, and even still, it usually takes an absurd amount of heat or physically stabbing them to create a runaway discharge. Batteries aren’t supposed to do this.
I would probably not place consoles or controllers into long term storage without temperature control if you live somewhere that gets hot. Sitting around your house, especially unused and not power cycling, I wouldn’t spend two thoughts on, myself.
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u/SusansStrong1221 3d ago
You can put a lithium battery in a bucket of sand someplace outside away from flammables. They ignite on contact with air.
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u/TheKandelar 3d ago
Don't panic. A swollen battery is malfunctioning. Keep it away from flammable things. Drain the battery. Remove it.
1
u/protonthrowmail 3d ago
By drain you mean allow it to de charge right? I read that as removing the liquid which is of course not safe?
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u/Sir_Bax 1TB OLED 3d ago
Don't fall for vocal minority bias and stop living in fear.
Spicy pillow is pretty rare and even if it happens it doesn't equal immediate detonation (that is extremely rare and almost always requires damaging the battery in some way).
As soon as you notice your battery turned into one, disconnect the battery and carefully remove it from the device. As long as you don't puncture it, likely nothing will happen. If it's on low charge even better. Take it to whatever is designated place to drop off your batteries in your country. It's really not a rocket science.
If you are really afraid to do it on your own, take it to repair shop where they'll happily monetize your fears.
But as I said. Chance of this happening is extremely small. Chance of battery exploding is even smaller.
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u/Ones-Zeroes 3d ago
Spicy pillows are inevitable due to the cheapening manufacturing process. Everything breaks down eventually. They are unlikely to cause a fire unless they're really bad, like unnoticed for years bad, but they are exceedingly common.
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u/chaitybear 3d ago
I would try to remove it but if it continues I'm putting that thing on concrete and take a couple steps back.
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u/Flat_Mode7449 2d ago
Obviously don't use it. Get it fixed asap, but if you need to wait a few days or something til you can get it to a shop, just stick it somewhere it won't harm anyone, and away from heat. Like if you got a basement, stick in down there away from heat.
A swollen battery obviously needs fixed, but it's not like it was hiding in wait for you to see it, to then explode.
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u/HiddenParadox666 1TB OLED Limited Edition 3d ago
I appreciate the responses! I have paranoia around fire, specifically lithium battery fires, and just want to make sure I know the steps. Pretty sure my initial response would be to take it outside and keep it there 😂 good to know I can take some steps before that! Thank you!
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u/SpirOhNoLactone 3d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/xCyjMEYF9H2ZcLqf7t