Quote:
Originally Posted by ownedbycats
On another rant: Overnight, the screen of my mobile phone started bulging a bit. I pulled it open and the lithium-ion battery had swollen up. (Turns out leaving it on the charger all the time isn't such a good idea. Now I know.  )
Thankfully I was able to track down an OEM replacement online, but it'll be maybe a week before it gets here. Hilariously, the shipping cost more than the battery. |
A few years ago I had this happen with a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). These use sealed lead-acid batteries and unit is supposed to be left on the power all the time, so the fact that it swelled was ... interesting. Thankfully it blew a fuse or something before the battery burst, but I think it must have been a close call: the battery had swelled so much the unit itself was distorted and the battery was stuck and could not be removed. I suspect the unit must have overheated (not because of load, which was only light, but because there was not very good airflow where it was situated).
Which is totally different to your phone situation, except the scare of realising that things could have been considerably worse.
I have wondered about leaving my phone on charge, because it's a minor nuisance to remember to connect and disconnect it, but I have been reluctant to leave it unattended while charging after reading various scary stories about li-ion batteries.