Brand new MTen3, charging first time IN MY HOUSE, started smoking, burst into flames...

[Magnusanti]

This just happened last night.  Here is the video. https://youtu.be/qcrMTAX8PCg

Brand new MTen3 84v from Euco. Hadn't even ridden it yet, was charging it for the first time. I was watching TV with my son with the MTen3 (gift for him) charging on the floor next to us. It quickly started making a violet hissing sound and billowing smoke. I IMMEDIATELY picked it up and managed to get it onto our front lawn. Burned my hand in the process. Within about 10 sec of it starting to smoke, and with a few seconds of me placing it on our lawn, it BURST into flames. There were several explosions like the one in the video until the fire department arrived to put it out. I had two fire extinguishers, but couldn't put out the main fire, but instead focused on the flaming rubber and plastic that were being sent all over the place from the explosions.

I don't even know what to do right now. Who to call about this. If I wasn't in the room when this happened, or worse, asleep, we would have lost our house for sure, and possibly our lives. I've seen EUC catch fire on Youtube, but didn't think this was an issue, also this hadn't even been ridden yet!  This has really turned our family off EUC's, which is really sad because I love riding mine, V8F.

[Chriull]

Great nothing more than the burned hand happened (hope the burn is not too grave).

Begode has some real bad statistics on fire hazard by now ;(

Although there are not only "real fires" in this count...

BTW - is the charger still alive? As in this post is a report of a faulty charger delivering too high voltage, which caused a wheel to burn.

[Magnusanti]

9 minutes ago, Chriull said:

 

BTW - is the charger still alive? As in this post is a report of a faulty charger delivering too high voltage, which caused a wheel to burn.

The charger has been burned as well.

[OldFartRides]

Sunofabitch ! 
+ one for glad this isn’t a tragedy story.
 Guess I’m going to have to bump that secure outdoor storage/ charging station project up the to do list.

I have an old metal cabinet stuffed full of electronics ( music machine came out of a bank that played hourly chimes and Xmas music) that I often wondered why I drug home....time to gut it and repurpose.

There’s another good use for a wheel leash. One I hope I won’t have to use it for.

[Meserias]

please post this on FaceBook as well ....
people must be warned about low quality Begode wheels these days....

[shellac]

The other side of the story is the wheel is from EUCO, who just this last weekend had a major fire which we still don’t know the cause of. 

It’s been radio silence from them which is weird. Nothing on their website or social media. Was the cause of the fire a Gotway wheel or something else? Should they have been issuing recalls on all their recent Gotways?

Wtf EUCO?

 

Edited May 20, 2021 by shellac

[ElectriQ User]

The best advice at this moment: stay away from gotway/begode wheels. The low quality battery packs can kill you and your family. There was/are too many Begode wheels on fire...

[Magnusanti]

25 minutes ago, shellac said:

The other side of the story is the wheel is from EUCO, who just this last weekend had a major fire which we still don’t know the cause of. 

It’s been radio silence from them which is weird. Nothing on their website or social media. Was the cause of the fire a Gotway wheel or something else? Should they have been issuing recalls on all their recent Gotways?

Wtf EUCO?

 

This scares me.  To think there may be other wheels like this out there.  My wheel arrived on the 17th, two days after their fire.  We were VERY LUCKY I happened to be sitting next to the wheel when it started smoking.

[RagingGrandpa]

My take:

The safest EUC is the one you already own.

(Assuming you didn't modify it electrically; or soak it.)

Lots of boards failed in 2020 from manufacturing defects.
Occasionally battery packs are defective too (this MTen3, for example).
Once the EUC has survived 200 miles of riding, it's proof that there were no big defects, and failures during normal use are much less prevalent.

(All great motivation to appreciate the wheel you have, vs chasing the latest model)

[meepmeepmayer]

1 hour ago, RagingGrandpa said:

The safest EUC is the one you already own.

This is extremely true! If EUCs don't fail right away (manufacturing defect), then they tend to be good. But till now it was only bad boards and the like, not fires!

-

Soon on ewheels:

mten3 (new) $900

mten3 (slightly used, 46 miles, didn't blow up) $1200

RS HS (new) $1900

RS HS (good as new, 23 miles, didn't blow up) $2200

[Tawpie]

Yikes! So glad you were sitting there. This is why attended charging is always recommended even though it’s rarely convenient, especially when things are new or suspect in any way.

puts me another step closer to mimicking @OldFartRides’s outdoor charging/storage bunker project.

[conecones]

I saw OP's post on reddit and would like to add the additional background info posted in the comments there that's missing here.

Apparently the OP could not get the unit to self-balance upon taking it out of the box and turning it on. After sending a video of the issue to EUCO, they advised that there is no transportation lock on the MTEN3 and instead to charge it as the battery indicator looked low. After about 3 hrs on the charger, it exploded. The OP did connect the wheel to an APP prior to charging but does not recall the voltage reading.

Obviously the OP had no reason to believe that an explosion would occur, but this is a reminder to anyone with any wheel that upon the first sign of strange behaviour - be prepared for the worst and do not use or charge the device before you can confirm the issue. If possible charge outdoors, and if not possible, only charge where it can be supervised. I always charge with my APP on with all alarms activated (esp. temp alarm), and near a fire alarm.

It's easy to get angry/frustrated/worried over yet another incident but lets all take a moment be thankful no one was injured.  

[meepmeepmayer]

2 minutes ago, conecones said:

this is a reminder to anyone with any wheel that upon the first sign of strange behaviour - be prepared for the worst and do not use or charge the device before you can confirm the issue

Excellent point!

[5Cauac]

So glad to hear you and your family are safe and thankful you were near by to act quickly. 

I feel bad for EUCO too, they might be facing some tough times ahead. Perhaps I should support by buying a many spare parts for my wheel as I can. Hopefully they did not lose a lot of their parts inventory if at all.

[GoGeorgeGo]

34 minutes ago, 5Cauac said:

So glad to hear you and your family are safe and thankful you were near by to act quickly. 

I feel bad for EUCO too, they might be facing some tough times ahead. Perhaps I should support by buying a many spare parts for my wheel as I can. Hopefully they did not lose a lot of their parts inventory if at all.

From one video i did see it looked like thats what took the brunt of the damages unfortunately. They said not to many wheels where damaged as it didnt happen where they are stored. But the repair shop area was what burned 

[5Cauac]

11 minutes ago, GoGeorgeGo said:

From one video i did see it looked like thats what took the brunt of the damages unfortunately. They said not to many wheels where damaged as it didnt happen where they are stored. But the repair shop area was what burned 

Just checked the web site for S18 parts and practically all are "Unavailable" 

[Roadpower]

I'm of the unpopular opinion that we in the EUC community really need to get more vocal in telling people to not purchase Gotway/Begode products. Yes I own a wheel by them but knowing what I have learned in the last year I would not purchase one again. They keep coming up on the very troublesome company list in a range of areas.

PS: I bought two fire extinguishers two months ago for just this reason. Fire is nothing to fool around with.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Roadpower

[Roadpower]

Here is another big reason why we really need to get vocal on known poor quality products in this realm.

It is exactly the very serious matter of battery fires in homes that is going to bring down the wrath of legislation. Heavy regulations could have harsh consequences if they come to pass because some manufactures are either unable or unwilling to get their quality control act together. So my mind is made up, anytime I see a thread by a new interested rider to be for wheel recommendations, I'm going to do my level best to scare them away from Gotway/Begode.

These stories have to stop, no more fooling around.

[FlyboyEUC]

9 hours ago, shellac said:

The other side of the story is the wheel is from EUCO, who just this last weekend had a major fire which we still don’t know the cause of. 

It’s been radio silence from them which is weird. Nothing on their website or social media. Was the cause of the fire a Gotway wheel or something else? Should they have been issuing recalls on all their recent Gotways?

Wtf EUCO?

 

The investigation has not been completed yet. I don't know what or who this entails but EUCO has nothing to do with it or the mten3. They are a distributor much like any other company. If the mten3 had a QC tag on it, then Begode is to blame. EUCO simply takes the shipment from china and forwards it to the customer along with their support. It's not like distributors do their own inspection.

From EUCO's findings, the source was either a known compromised battery pack separated from the wheel, or it was a common electrical fire.

Edited May 20, 2021 by FlyboyEUC

[shellac]

1 hour ago, FlyboyEUC said:

The investigation has not been completed yet. I don't know what or who this entails but EUCO has nothing to do with it or the mten3. They are a distributor much like any other company. If the mten3 had a QC tag on it, then Begode is to blame. EUCO simply takes the shipment from china and forwards it to the customer along with their support. It's not like distributors do their own inspection.

From EUCO's findings, the source was either a known compromised battery pack separated from the wheel, or it was a common electrical fire.

I think we all realize EUCO is just a distributor and they don’t do their own testing. (Neither does Ewheels for that matter.)

I guess these investigations can take some time, but some transparency on their part would be nice, especially in the context of a recent epidemic of Gotway fires. Even something as simple as “we are investigating and will keep you posted”.

I saw that message from you before, think gogeorgego posted it, and I’m not sure who it comes from exactly or what to make of it. What’s a common electrical fire exactly? Like something random like a mouse chewed an electrical cord? Are we to believe maybe this was a totally chance occurrence that had nothing to do with wheels or batteries? What are the chances of that? 

Edited May 20, 2021 by shellac

[FlyboyEUC]

I imagine they have their hands full and are letting us and the news do the publicity for them? I've just been messaging an employee for my info. I haven't driven over there to see how they are doing. Maybe I will on Saturday just to see. I'm sure a business is different but when My wheel experienced thermal runaway I didn't go telling the world. It's a very scary situation and not to many people know about it.

Common electrical fire causes I thought of were bad extension cords, faulty outlets or bad wiring. Not sure how old the building is but I can imagine lots of extension cords or wiring pulling a lot of amps charging up wheels. It's got to take a toll somewhere. 

https://www.firerescue1.com/fire-products/firefightingtools/articles/5-common-causes-of-electrical-fires-olFt6TUMOsWg7re2/

[.....]

oh shit! Are the 67v mtens using the same cells as the rest? I have both an older 67v mten and a newer revision 67v mten. Both sit here just calmly and I've never noticed an issue. It sure would be nice if we could narrow this down to chargers, specific batteries, or just plain shit QC from Gotway.

I fully agree that used wheels are looking mighty tasty nowadays. Im a tech, so I open mine up to inspect from day one. Not that I would do anything different than the op. Hell, fully charging a wheel when it arrives, is the FIRST thing I do. I suspect that Gotway (and others) in China, need to quit with the cheap bullshit already. They need to make a line of conveyors and chargers. FULLY charge each wheel at the factory with the charger to be sold with the wheel. THEN, run them on the conveyors thru vaiances in load. Once they do a proper burn in to check for tire runout, motor noise, amperage draw and all the other testing... recharge it fully. Then run it down to 80% again for storage/shipping. I mean sonofabitch, this is getting stupid rediculous nowadays. Spend $1000 for a new toy that immediately burns your house down and endangers your family. Its painfully obvious that the CHina euc companies are enjoying their lack of liability.

SOrry to hear about the fire for sure. SOrry for your hand, your loss and the entire ordeal. Its total crap and you deserve better. Much more of this and euc's will be outlawed and homeowners will lose being insured. Maybe it aint the nyc riders we need worry about, its the short people building these and not testing for shit.

Edited May 21, 2021 by ShanesPlanet

[Tawpie]

9 hours ago, conecones said:

After sending a video of the issue to EUCO, they advised that there is no transportation lock on the MTEN3

That’s odd, my new mTen from eWheels arrived in transportation mode that I had to disable. There was even a tag on the handle with instructions for disabling transportation lock. And I re-enabled it for re-shipment (when enabled, wheel powers up but doesn’t balance).

[GoGeorgeGo]

1 hour ago, shellac said:

I think we all realize EUCO is just a distributor and they don’t do their own testing. (Neither does Ewheels for that matter.)

I guess these investigations can take some time, but some transparency on their part would be nice, especially in the context of a recent epidemic of Gotway fires. Even something as simple as “we are investigating and will keep you posted”.

I saw that message from you before, think gogeorgego posted it, and I’m not sure who it comes from exactly or what to make of it. What’s a common electrical fire exactly? Like something random like a mouse chewed an electrical cord? Are we to believe maybe this was a totally chance occurrence that had nothing to do with wheels or batteries? What are the chances of that? 

It was a screen grab that zen lee had posted on Facebook from a private group chat. Looked to me like telegram or whats app or something. The person alleged it was either a known damaged battery pack that was in for repair or a common electrical fire that caused the euco fire. I think its fairly safe to assume if they had known damaged batteries in the shop that this was the most likely cause. No official word though, and i doubt we will get one anytime soon. Insurance companies can take months and even years to pay out and they will look for ANY reason not to. If it can be proven a known faulty pack was responsible the insurance company will want to know why it was not properly stored so as to prevent this exact situation happening. For their sake i would hope it was a mouse chewing on a wire, or a faulty extension cord that caused the incident. The only thing we know is it was not in the wheel storage area where they kept their inventory, it happened in their repairs/parts area.

If no one was in the building, i would contend that faulty batteries should be kept in a fireproof locker of some kind, isolated from walls and any other objects. If it happened while the repair was in progress, theoretically there should have been a way to remove it from the building or somehow isolate the fire via extinguishers or a designated "fireproof" work station. (Again, based on assumptions that batteries where to blame, we don't actually know anything concrete)

Edited May 21, 2021 by GoGeorgeGo

[FlyboyEUC]

The fire was reported at 6am on Saturday and was extinguished by 6:20 if I recall correctly. I'd speculate no one was working at the time. Batteries do tend to go fast once thermal runaway starts. It would have had to be initiated by something. If it was thermal runaway then that means someone or something was working late to kick off the process. If it was an electrical fire, maybe there was a short when the automatic lights turned on at 6? Again, all speculation.

Hopefully we can understand more soon.