They determined the cause of the fire that burned a neighbor's house down, a total loss.

[NNadir]

It happened in September, probably about 100 meters down the block, at 2 AM. Somehow or another my wife and I didn't hear all the fire trucks. We didn't know it happened until we saw the burned out hulk of a totally destroyed home, with only a brick wall remaining intact.

Happily the two adults and three children got out of the house unharmed, but they lost everything. Neighbors apparently contributed clothing, school materials for the kids, and other things. Nice people live on my block.

The fire was apparently caused by an overheated lithium battery on a portable electric drill being recharged overnight.

My lawn mower and snow blower are battery powered, my objection to batteries that mark me as a hypocrite, notwithstanding. Interestingly, the brand I use, Ego, has designed their batteries with a cooling grid to be in a U shape to foster heat exchange. The charger also has a blower.

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If the battery is not left in the charger, which draws low current, it will discharge and need to be recharged, destroying exergy: All batteries destroy exergy so there's that. I reason that it's still safer than storing gasoline.

Understanding the "fix" the battery brand features, I have been looking a little cross eyed at the charger and batteries.

I only recharge during daylight hours because we do have - although I'm not fond of it - solar capacity in New Jersey. I don't regard solar energy as "green," and don't own or want to own solar cells, but I concede that they are slightly superior to dangerous natural gas and coal, which on my grid, the PJM, are prominent sources of primary energy to generate electricity. Thus I make this concession, probably a good idea, because if the batteries catch fire, I'll be awake and around to do something about it.

Be careful of your batteries. (I did once have a computer that caught fire, but I was with it at the time and quickly unplugged it.)

[Deuxcents]

1. Hearing about these batteries too often lately..

[ProfessorGAC]

2. I Use The Same Brand

I fully unplug the charger i use for the mower all winter & the one for the snowblower 8 or 9 months a year.
The smaller batteries for the blower & hedge trimmer are only on, on a power strip when I actively need to charge a battery.
I might turn them on for a half-hour once a month, just to keep the batteries at around 50%.
But, I try not to just let them sit on the charger.
However, my charger does not turn itself back on if the battery discharges over time. If I want the battery to top off, I have to physically lift it and put it back in place.
Maybe there are different generations of chargers.

[NNadir]

3. I have three batteries, two that came with the snow blower, and one that came with the lawn mower, and a replacement..

....for one that failed and was replaced under warranty. (I don't know where to dispose of the failed one for magical "recycling." )

The lawn mower uses one battery at a time, and I cycle through all three in a typical mowing session. Mowing my lawn can, and sometimes does, require three fully charged batteries. (I don't run them until they're completely discharged. Because of my bad back and bad hip, I'll run them down two levels, and take a break.)

For years, I insisted on shoveling the driveway and sidewalk by hand, since it was "carbon free." However my back and hip wanted no part of my ersatz holiness in the end, and I broke down and got the snow blower, under the quasi-mystical theory that if I spent money on a snow blower, it would no longer snow heavily. (For a while it seemed to work out that way.)

The snow blower doesn't throw snow the advertised 30 feet; with the wet snow I've used it for, it's more like five to ten feet, which is plenty for my purposes.

I don't want or need a leaf blower. I use the lawn mower to pick up the leaves and also "mow" the sidewalk in that way as well. I keep the mulched leaves to maintain the nitrogen cycle. Pine needles in particular are apparently rich in arginine or so I've read. (I'm a big time composting guy; at night when no one's looking, I confess to pee on the lawn for nitrogen and phosphorous for the trees. I rarely use commercial fertilizers, as I'm concerned for phosphorous and nitrogen for agriculture.)

I use an electric chain saw (corded) and a corded electric hedge trimmer. I would like an Ego chain saw, since it's a pain in the ass to string the cords out to the wood pile.

I can still split wood manually with an axe, an enterprise I used to enjoy in my youth as a stress reliever. However, there is, again the back and hip, no longer the possibility of splitting enough wood for half a winter in a single session of a couple of hours. A session might last only three or four thick logs, an hour at best.

I have never bought firewood, since we've had a lot of big trees come down over the years. Last autumn, that of 2024, I had the pleasure of teaching my son how to split wood with the axe. His girlfriend - also a nuclear engineering Ph.D. student - is from a semi rural area, and he made a point of calling her while splitting wood to let her know he was "manly" despite being from suburban New Jersey. I was greatly amused.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Funny Stuff

We have a lot of gardens cut out of our lawn, and a lot of concrete. So, I get 2 cuttings out of one charge on the mower.
Well, I did. Now that the battery is nearly 8 years old, I get 1 with maybe 20% of the charge left.
The little low battery light never comes on.
The smaller batteries will charge even on the bigger charger, but the bigger ones are too heavy for the blower or hedge trimmer.
But, I've got 2 of the smaller batteries too, so there's never a concern about running out of juice.

Except for my emergency generator I have no gas powered stuff anymore.

[marked50]

7. One of my favorite sayings

Your life is as complicated as how many reciprocating engines you have.

[Jerry2144]

6. Check with your big box hardware stores

The big chain that’s the same color as the Korrupt Korpulent Koprolite in the White House will take and recycle lithium batteries for free. There’s a drop by the Customer “Service” desk.

Alternatively search for lithium battery recycling in your area. Lots of hits should come up

[cpamomfromtexas]

5. I keep a charging station cart for all these now

I unplug everything unless I am charging. These things scare me

[Cheezoholic]

8. I never charge lithium batteries overnight and I also discharge them ad nauseum. My laptop power bank is on a timer

I've slowly switched to battery powered yard tools, everything except my rider/ tractor because of the size of my yard. One main reason is I'm sick and tired of rebuilding 2 cycle carburetors (THE main reason your weed wackers and chainsaws and whatever fail to start). Cant start it? 90% chance its the carburetors (and cheap or improper oil ratios). The nature of 2 cycle fuel just naturally gums these things up. Trust me, I've rebuilt them on the side for cash or re-sale for 30 years. I've had people just give me 300 dollar chainsaws that gave them fits that I fixed with 20 dollar rebuild kits and a good cleaning and then sold.

I meander, I'm just sick of doing it for my stuff. I have one 40V battery for a chainsaw and weed wacker that has a tree trimming attachment for the same price as good quality gas ones. I dont trim a lot but I can run the weed wacker for 45min to an hour min on a charge. Hang it up, recharge the day before I need it again. Nothing environmental about it. I'm more environmental with my property (around 3 acres). I have 35 trees that get pruned very seldom but for health reasons. About 2/3rds of an acre is actual grass, or whatever seeds blow into it. It's a native rye that when left on its own and with regular cutting around 4-6 inches does a good job of dominating invasive species without chemicals. The sky waters it. I have native wild flowers haphazardly growing around and I plant the equivalent of about an 1/8th of an acre of veggies, everywhere. No rhyme or reason on locations. Get a bare spot in the grass, plop goes in some tomatoes. Plant a lot around my house as I have french drains and no gutters all the way around, self watering. Once again I try to let nature have my property as much as possible.

I know not everyone can do what I do but really you can do a lot even in small spaces if you just do you and quit listening to the so called "pros". They're just trying to sell you something. Green thumb not required, just let nature back in instead of trying to force it out. Put Big Box stores out of business and a local garden center will open up with everything you need, they need and your community needs. Rant off lol.

But yeah, no overnight charging of lithium....ever for the reason you stated above.

Does my property look great? Yeah to me and the critters but thats all that matters isn't it

[Nictuku]

9. Oh jeeze, I leave mine plugged into the recharger all the time

I just went and unplugged them.

Thanks for the PSA!

[electric_blue68]

10. I don't have big battery items, but I Never have my phone charging overnight. Plus it has a safety feature of...

of the charging shutting off at 80% capacity to protect the battery.