Fire History

[Tawpie]

A local RS-HT went up last night... nobody hurt fortunately. Asking permission to pass on details.

[Tawpie]

1 hour ago, Tawpie said:

A local RS-HT went up last night... nobody hurt fortunately. Asking permission to pass on details

Details...

Wheel was an Rs-HT, probably first gen, was used daily for deliveries. Mileage 7373. Owner started losing range, and battery wouldn't charge all the way... 100% for a long time, then 85% then 69%. Owner decided it was time to replace the batteries so the sides were removed and the packs unplugged (wheel unplugged too) planning a battery swap the next day. Wheel was not left near a heat source. About 12 hours later (early morning, owner was awake), it self ignited. The fire alarms went off, the left pack had started on fire. It was leaned against a wall and caused a lot of damage to the wall and carpet.

I don't know how the fire was extinguished, but do know that everyone made it out fine and I'm pretty sure the building did not burned down.

Edited February 6, 2022 by Tawpie

[Greg X]

burned 5 inMotions v10 and v10f, to update statistics on 1st page

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mykajobdy7m9lh2/20180916_052136.mp4?dl=0

 

Edited February 6, 2022 by Greg X

[redsnapper]

30 minutes ago, Greg X said:

burned 5 inMotions v10 and v10f, to update statistics on 1st page

 

@Greg XAre you saying that 5  of your machines have burned in 5 separate incidents? Sweet Lord! Do your regular wheeling routes include an undersea portion?

[Asphalt]

5 hours ago, Greg X said:

burned 5 inMotions v10 and v10f, to update statistics on 1st page

Could you please provide dates to these fires?
Also, if possible, could you provide links to the original reports?

[jiraff537]

Hi i am from Russia 🇷🇺 

add my case of EUC fire to your statistics:

 

5 feb 2022 Gotway Nikola 100V 1800Wh

Half of my house was burned- photos and videos from here and down below: https://t.me/monokoleso73/16062

there is russian language, but you can use google-translate.

[Miko.cz]

1 hour ago, jiraff537 said:

Hi i am from Russia 🇷🇺

Hi, sorry to hear that
(and thank you for sharing. Btw. Im unable to open and read it without installation of Telegram)

[alcatraz]

1 hour ago, jiraff537 said:

Hi i am from Russia 🇷🇺 

add my case of EUC fire to your statistics:

 

5 feb 2022 Gotway Nikola 100V 1800Wh

Half of my house was burned- photos and videos from here and down below: https://t.me/monokoleso73/16062

there is russian language, but you can use google-translate.

Did you notice a change in charging time or available range compared to when it was new? 

[Asphalt]

18 hours ago, jiraff537 said:

Hi i am from Russia 🇷🇺 

add my case of EUC fire to your statistics:

 

5 feb 2022 Gotway Nikola 100V 1800Wh

Half of my house was burned- photos and videos from here and down below: https://t.me/monokoleso73/16062

there is russian language, but you can use google-translate.

Here’s some of the Google Translate from the Telegram thread:

===================

Nikola caught fire
 My house is on fire
 Everything is a miracle of a diva in 10 seconds there was smoke on the entire floor - it's impossible to breathe.

The temperature was so high on the floor that all the plastic above a meter melted and flowed literally in three neighboring rooms and the hall.

🆘 Guys, need help:

 To clear the burnt room from the fire, come at any time, any hands will be for joy.

 (Bring dirty clothes that you don’t mind taking, but I have a lot of dirty clothes now)

 Plan: Peel the plaster off the walls, throw burnt furniture out the window, remove and saw the wooden floors.

 The tools have already started the work of her lot.

 

BEFORE FIRE chronology:
 (I will clarify if I do not describe something right away)

 Was 100% charged
 Disconnected from charging.

 (We rode at night with Petrovich two days ago, the snow didn’t get inside the light, I cleaned it from the snow, I drove it home vertically in the car, I arrived, I put it vertically so that the water was glass, it didn’t charge.
 At lunchtime the next day, it dried to dryness - I put it on charge by the evening it was charged up to 100% - the charger was disconnected from the wheel.

 27-30 hours passed and a sonic boom, a whistle and the sound of a salute cannonade.
 I ran past the room with the wheel - there the glow did not come up to 3 meters, ran down the stairs to the 1st floor, took a fire extinguisher and could not go up to the second floor - black acrid smoke to the floor, you can’t see a damn thing.
 And all this in less than 20 seconds.
 And it goes on bangs and whistles

 Nikola 1800Wh 100V

 The cause of the fire is not known to me from the marriage of the Chinese to xs what.

 The wheel has not been modified in any way.

 Perhaps you need a metal cabinet with a strong bolt and pressure relief holes, or put it on the windowsill and the shutters inside are strong so that the explosion breaks the glass and falls on the heads of passers-by.
 Perhaps a long chain through the handle will help - drag it around the house, but it needs to be unwound in advance through the entire apartment towards the exit - the time will be less than 20 seconds

[Paul A]

Nothing being done by Gotway about fires.

Seems to be just waiting for person(s) to die from a Gotway fire.

Then there will be discussions of what should have been done to ensure it never happens again.

Truly sorry, lessons learnt, condolences to family, changes will be made, etc...

[Asphalt]

3 hours ago, Paul A said:

Nothing being done by Gotway about fires.

Seems to be just waiting for person(s) to die from a Gotway fire.

To be fair, Begode did release the RS Resolute with fire-resistant LiFePo4 batteries, but no one bought it.

The market has signalled to Begode that they're willing to risk fire in return for cheap performance.

[Boris Lämpel]

6 minutes ago, Asphalt said:

To be fair, Begode did release the RS Resolute with fire-resistant LiFePo4 batteries, but no one bought it.

You could not nor cannot buy it...

Edited February 10, 2022 by Boris Lämpel

[supercurio]

10 minutes ago, Boris Lämpel said:

You could not nor cannot buy it...

To my knowledge, it was only offered as replacement to someone who RS caught fire.
And this person refused because of the lower capacity.

[RagingGrandpa]

37 minutes ago, Asphalt said:

Begode did release the RS Resolute with fire-resistant LiFePo4 batteries, but no one bought it.

Perhaps you meant the EX2 LFP (which has been cancelled)?

RS:RS does seem to exist... 

[Paul A]

How is it that Ewheels is responsible enough to contract another party to assemble battery packs and implement a recall.....

 

How is it that other EUC manufacturers do not seem to have such a high fire rate.....or change their names.....

 

Gotway is unable to change supplier?  Improve quality?  Implement a recall?  

[RagingGrandpa]

5 hours ago, Paul A said:

Nothing being done by Gotway about fires.

There have been no fire reports yet from the new-design Gotway packs (48X, 50E, M50LT). Changes were made; not "nothing being done."

Sadly, there are a lot of old 900wh M50T packs still out in the world, and some percentage of them are likely to burn. 

If you'd like to discuss the concept of recalling old EUC's, please let's do it in an on-topic thread such as below, separate from this recordkeeping topic.
https://forum.electricunicycle.org/topic/25541-begode-900wh-battery-recall-options/page/7/

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by RagingGrandpa

[Funky]

20 minutes ago, Paul A said:

How is it that Ewheels is responsible enough to contract another party to assemble battery packs and implement a recall.....

 

How is it that other EUC manufacturers do not seem to have such a high fire rate.....or change their names.....

 

Gotway is unable to change supplier?  Improve quality?  Implement a recall?  

To many expanses for that ordeal.. Keep pumping "time bombs" are cheaper, same time getting income of revenue. They simply don't care..

Gotway fans can defend their lovely company.. Doesn't change fact they are impotent.

When pigs fly they will change something. (Recalls.. etc.. Exchange for fixed product)

At least there's one positive from gotway, they make "cheap" wheels, so.. Other companies that are WAY.. better make them cheaper also, but same time WAY.. better product.

Edited February 10, 2022 by Funky

[Tawpie]

13 minutes ago, Paul A said:

How is it that Ewheels is responsible enough to contract another party to assemble battery packs and implement a recall.....

They are an unusual supplier. Sure, they want their customers to be safe, everyone wants their customers to be safe. I'm guessing they don't want to be in the liability chain and they don't want to drop the Begode line so the best path is to take care of the problem themselves.

eWheels backing up their commitment to customer safety/happiness with their own money is precisely the reason I have zero problem paying their markup and won't shop anywhere else for a wheel or parts (unless their parts warehouse burns down and I need a spare tube). Their willingness to take a huge financial hit is "walking the talk", and I for one am absolutely blown away by this attitude. I still can't quite believe they're taking this kind of care of their customers.

[Paul A]

A lithium fire, in an apartment building, at night when residents are sleeping...

Grenfell, UK.  Many others with similar cladding around the world.

[GothamMike]

26 minutes ago, Paul A said:

A lithium fire, in an apartment building, at night when residents are sleeping...

Grenfell, UK.  Many others with similar cladding around the world.

Grenfell was horrific. MGM hotel fire in Vegas was equally horrible.

I used to bring my EUC into the YMCA locker room, but he locker room is so deep inside the building, it's just too risky if it caught fire when I was not nearby. I now leave my EUC chained by the front door (and hidden AppleTag on the EUC).

 

[mhpr262]

On 2/10/2022 at 4:39 PM, Asphalt said:

 

The market has signalled to Begode that they're willing to risk fire in return for cheap performance.

I think we here on the forum and the guys on the EUC subreddit who know about Gotway's/Begode's spontaneous self-combustion issues are just a small minority of EUC riders. Most riders and buyers of new EUCs will never visit those places and are most likely completely unaware of the danger. Which makes it even worse.

[bracky72]

I purchased this product.  Do you think such a thing can possibly help?  I’d like to see a video of a 2700 pack going off in one.

 

 

 

[RagingGrandpa]

6 hours ago, bracky72 said:

I purchased this product.  Do you think such a thing can possibly help?

It's better than nothing!

But please let's discuss preparedness in our existing topics for fire safety, and not in this recordkeeping thread.

https://forum.electricunicycle.org/tags/fire safety/

[Mango]

Gotway Nikola Plus 100v burned up not more than 3 days ago in Olympia, Washington, USA. Based on Instagram post, wheel was last used 3-4 days ago and stored at 97v, unplugged.

Username: deadmanfloatspnw

https://www.instagram.com/p/CaQ3LvDF7sU/?utm_medium=copy_link

[alcatraz]

What is it with these early 900Wh packs? I don't understand how we haven't figured it out yet, somehow.