Inside a recalled Amazon Basics power bank. 

This is an interesting way to learn my power bank is recalled 🤷‍♂️

When big Clive says "It's probably not a good idear", that's when I go to full screen.

I live for the day that I see the USB load device cooling fan start up :)

I love all the commenters who write that this does not seem safe. They must be new here.

My guess for the recall is that as you noticed, the battery was tightly packed inside the plastic case. Li-Ion batteries will expand in their pouches over time. When constrained by the case, as they are here, perhaps over time, the pouches slowly inflated and pushed the case open. Any good design for Li-Ion batteries must allow for a nominal amount of pouch expansion.

Few things make for a more compelling video than a calm Scottish voice continually asserting that what's about to be done is really not a good idea.

3/9/21 I found out about the recall through this video. Went to Amazon, hit them up on chat, and had the refund available to get a new power bank in about 15 minutes. I was expecting them to say "no" since it has been over 2 years, but they got me sorted with no trouble at all. Thanks Big Guy!

Darn it, I was looking forward to actually needing the "Explosion Containment Pie-Dish"

Dangers to the case: - how about a 6'5" Scot wielding a 10" screwdriver and spudger for a start?

Big Clive doesnt need to put his name on any of his equipment. His is the one with the big gouges at the seams :)

Cant express how much I love your channel lol. Totally unscripted. No Clickbait. Just you being you. I don't understand half of what you are talking about but I feel I am learning a lot. Never change! Cheers from Canada!

I was a soldering technician in a previous career, the idea of leaving flux residue on the board makes me deeply uncomfortable

*Clive:* Let's test the power bank! *Clive 2 seconds later:* Let me show you my aluminium.

"Peter disposed it my way." - Thank you Peter!

Such an interesting setup for a failure mode: Battery integrity compromised due to penetration by protection circuitry.

" Let's investigate this a bit further " * clenching engageded*

Seeing the size of those cells and how tightly they're packed, I think I'm going to start leaving my own power bank in a slightly more heatproof location...

When you’ve watched so many Big Clive videos... ...that you know how every burn mark, on the bench, happened. 🔥

my favorite way to unstick lipo batteries that have that sticky tape, is to thread a nylon string between the battery and plastic, and pull it back and forth like a saw. It chews up and goes through the sticky and helps to release it

I've learned a lot more in a few hours on this channel than if I spent a few hours in a book. It really helps me when I see components being used in applications. It makes much more sense to me than just giving me a definition of what a component does.

I have that battery, and I've been using it since I got it (a couple of years now), and it's probably the best power bank I've used. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't find another one to order, but I guess now I know. By the way, it still works great.

"Dispose of it locally" AKA keep using it"

Love that he doesn't bring up AvE when talking about caring about holes being out of place. Even BigClive knows AvE doesn't care if the hole is off as long as it's a useful hole

Love it. From A Master Machinist to a Master Electrician, you machine as well as I electric. If a screw can go through the hole it's a success. Keep up the Great Vids! And fingers crossed for a Big Clive christmas things from Poundland video.

These units were recalled because they were just too darned difficult to crack open with a spudger...

You can separate pouch cells from enclosures or each other by dipping a thin but stiff piece of plastic (I use a small RC plane propeller) in lighter fluid and then repeatedly sliding it between the cell and surface. It works perfectly. Those look like nice cells too. I'd definitely want to save them.

I absolutely had tears in my eyes laughing when you gingerly said to the petrol comment " I don't fhhhhukin think soo". One of my jobs as a petrol station assistant is to gently remind mobile phone users while filling up that it is illegal to use a mobile phone on a forcourt. Not because the "radio" side interferes with anything, but because the battery in a phone IS a fire risk and also using a phone is a distraction from filling up a death trap with an equally explosive liquid! Needless to say I have been called a lot of four letter words in my time to which I simply reply, "and you.."

12:31 I am aghast that you would suspect us of wanting to see lithium batteries burst into flame. We'd much prefer they explode.

I love when I am so focused on the picture of the circuit and then Clive picks up the actual item and I suddenly remember that I was only looking at a picture.

6:40 "that's going into full on Samsung territory there" haha, lol

I don't know if anybody's ever mentioned using dental floss to cut the pad. You can slide down behind and oscillating back and forth to cut the foam or the tape liberating the battery from the device. For those who think there is a better material than dental floss don't you dare try a thin wire. Kevlar fishing line multi strand obviously also works.

Oh my god, I just realized you remind me of Scott Manley!

No ad on this one. Thou shalt not speaketh ill of thyne overload, Amazon.

Thumbs up when we need a Big Clive christmas things from Poundland video. It's not a real Christmas without one. :-)

7:13 Lucky he didn't stab himself there, that woulda hurted

There's a joke somewhere about going in to deep and the pie dish, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

"I don't fawkin think so"

That's gotta be the most accurate hole I've ever seen a electrician pull off! lol JK. Great video as always

I spent two decades working in aviation electronics in the US Marines, 76 to 97, and find this very interesting, technology after my own time of investigating, and quite different, substantially more modern. Such minute electronics in my day, were "classified, high end, almost exclusively military", but this is far and away beyond the technology of my time. Thanks for showing all the nitty gritty details.

You are correct, Samsung said in a statement to the BBC on 23 January 2017 "According to the findings, the problems centered on insufficient insulation material within the batteries and a design that did not give enough room to safely accommodate the batteries' electrodes."

“That’s an Electricians grade screwdriver” -Pulls out a completely non-insulated screwdriver!!🤣🤣🤣🤣

I'm glad you sold me on those ruideng meters they are very helpful for testing my various usb devices to see what they actually draw.

I was cringing the whole time you were prying to get the battery itself out. Let out an audible sigh of relief. That was terrifying. Amazing thing to watch.

I have that exact power bank... and honestly, i moved it from my car to my desk after hearing about the recall. I trust it 99.999% but my fire extinguisher is closer to my desk than my car.

Let see if Electroboom will test out petrols effectiveness on that glue 😂

So a tip for getting through those double-sided foam tape pads is to use dental floss like a cable saw. Easy to thread into tight spaces, and it provides just enough cutting power to get through the adhesive without damaging anything else.

Removes cell and sets to the side. Shorts on loose line of soldering next to arm. Nothing like living on the edge. :) Thank you Clive for everything you do.

"Not bad for an electrician!" OK, that made me chuckle! If you're going to open destructively you might as well used a fiber wheel on a Dremel or similar -- perhaps doing inside your pie dish!

Im jealous of the sizes of your lithium cells

LOL, looks good to me😁👍. Thanks for the mention Clive.

"They pinched it down so far that they caused a fire issue." Classic Big Clive understatement! lolol I love this guy! Like many other posts, if I saw a BC cert on a product --I'd buy it!!

I had some success with that kind of tape dripping isopropyl alcool and applying a costant pull force and waiting for the glue to separate. What I mean is that instead of constantly increasing the force applied to separate the tape from the other part I just pulled a bit and let the glue separate on its own accord (while keeping it wet with alcool) and then pulling some more etc.

"Let's pour Petro down the back of a lithium cell" hahahahaha, that made me laugh

I just found your RU-vid channel, and can't stop watching.

Mine stopped working before the recall. When I opened it, it looked like the resistor R19A (at left MOSFET) had burned out. The recall came just handy as by opening I also had broken the case.

I'd be interesting to buy the replacement and compare the two to see what changed

Thumbs up for Abom79!

xupcn.com redirects me to your YT page.

I love the fact that the explosion containment pie-dish device is made of conductive metal...

Came across your channel and now love it! Very informative content

You mentioned ABOM79 - love that guy - great machinist !

I have to ask, do you happen to ever give your poster prints away? I would love to get the one in this video. The resolution is phenomenal, how are you able to print on such big sheets at that resolution? Thanks for the great videos, they are always top notch.

I love that your videos are basically extreme unboxing or hazardous goods :D Thanks for doing these things I don’t dare do myself ! I would love a video on lithium battery safety and failure modes :)

I believe, the reason for the recall is the battery. Last two years the market has been flooded with Li-Po batteries that, after few months of use, expands without a cause. Very likely this power bank has such a battery inside... Thanks X the video...

Try isopropyl alcohol to separate the glue next time. It's what I usually use when removing batteries that are glued in like that, along with your flat case separator. Much safer than prying the plastic. The cells themselves are pretty safe from experience so long as you don't puncture. Even smooshing them hasn't cause me issues so far. Iphones are thankfully still repairable. We can still replace most things in them, though apple does try to make it difficult

12:08 It's fine to desolder those spot-welded tabs - i've removed (or in some cases, needed to "transplant") the little protection-boards from one cell to the other several times, and i've yet to cause any damage. Mind you, i did use quite a chunky tip on a non-chinese-made iron, so there's that too.

I actually messaged Amazon on Twitter in August because they were still advertising the power banks on the site 5 months after they were recalled. They promptly removed the images and links to the dead product pages and thanked me!

I used to work with apprentices in a factory in Aberdeen, Scotland. One day all the apprentices, maintenance and turners, were in the class room doing some basic arithmetic. An electrician apprentice complained that while the turners might be required to work to plus or minus .0015 inches, he only had to work to plus or minus one inch. Big Clive has proven that he can work to much tighter tolerances than that. It was oil field equipment, so all the manufacturing work was done in inches.

Its almost like ToT and bigclive has a shared set of viewers.

RU-vid at 4AM - Inside a recalled Amazon Basics power bank. Me: Hmm, what's inside a recalled Amazon Basics power bank.

You made my Christmas This Year. I'm glad that I stumbled-over Your Channel. Merry Christmas Daulingg ☃🍪

best part of the vid is how he's so calm and collected and then at 14:05 we get " I don't fucking think soo" this guy made my day yo

Sometimes watching your videos makes me wonder how did you manage to stay alive so far

You don't need to use petrol to release the sticky stuff. Normal isopropyl alcohol works wonders.

Clive I took the same pack apart and for big solder joints like those I use an old Weller 8200 N 100/150 watt trigger iron takes about 8 seconds of course your mains is 240 something volts but for big joints or things that cant be exposed to heat for long time it seems to be pretty good. Cool video and thats like five things i own that you have disassembled

I could watch you battle this stuff all day Clive.

>this old tony literally just watched his new video before this lol

Where's the KABOOM? There is supposed to be an earth shattering KABOOM!

Use medium guitar picks to open plastic devices. They are perfect for the task.

Never thought I'd be watching this as 12:28 am.... interesting....no clue how I got here lol. Interesting none the less, great video!

Man, I would love to have gotten like 10,000 of these recalled things, ripped out those cells, and created a battery pack for my house.

Hi Clive, good video as usual. Can you do a video checking the calibration of the many USB testers you have? In particular the current readings at the high end of their range over time, to see if the current shunt is worth its chips. Also the volt drop across the tester, are they measuring supply voltage or load voltage.

You might try slowly and SLIGHTLY warming the adhesive/plastic case before pulling on the cells/tape/case. I've used a hair dryer set on "warm" and kept far away enough to keep from heating the cells by any appreciable degree. Depending on the adhesive it sometimes can make a major difference in how easy it is to pull off the tape. You also have to make sure the warmth is distributed throughout the item to keep the adhesive from cooling too quickly.

You can use fishing line to cut the adhesive. Loop it around the cell and pull both ends. The fishing line is thin enough to cut the foam center of the double-sided tape

When it comes to pouring gasoline onto a fully charged lithium cell to release the adhesive, I’m with Clive - “I don’t think so!”.

I suspect that the double sided tape is supposed to hold the battery from sliding to protect the corners but someone wasnt peeling the backing off before clipping it all together. P.S. On this type of case you are supposed to start in one specific spot (and its never a corner) flex the case as you work your way around, there is no mark to tell you where to start or which direction to go. I ran into a case that is impossible to open unless you grabbed the top and bottom and twisted them slightly back and forth...and then the damn thing just popped open.

Hey! Nice to know you watch This Old Tony too! One of the best channels on RU-vid

I'm not even a tinkering kinda guy nor am I into electronics that much but I could watch this guy tinker and talk for hours if I had to lol the "explosion containment pie dish" hahaha

Have you tried dental floss for separating the pads?

This stuff is really beginning to grind my gears. If one guy can figure out the difference between good and flawed design then why can't we just get products that are properly designed to be efficient, reliable, and safe? Especially when the difference between good and crap seems to be pennies on the dollar even in the worst cases.

Thanks - very informative and entertaining

Clive, you could use something like a few drops of isopropyl alcohol, it also makes hot glue lose it's adhesion

“You cant get into iPhones these days” - Lewis Rossmann: “hold my beer” .... Ave: “where’s my mini Bosch chain saw?” - Dave Jones: “We’re in like Flynn” ... ElectroBOOM: “plasma cutter anyone?” The 5 of you guys should do a colab! Would be the best thing ever!

Yo I think that was my power bank. My name is Peter and I sent it back a while ago!

Comment on the internal lithium cells to case spacing you mentioned at about 07:45 The 16,100mAh Amazonbasics PB16 powerbank has what seems a LOT more cell to case space along with good cushioning material there than your 10,000mAh powerbank. The spacing without the foam cushion measures about 2mm but is entirely filled with a spongy soft foam cushion continuously fitted between the two long sides of and the bottom end of the plastic case and the 3 lithium cells. It feels about the consistency of Nerf foam. However, at the sharp bottom corners of the 3 lithium cells the foam is deformed quite a lot as it stretches around the cell corners, reducing the foam protection from ~0.5mm to 1.0mm of cushioning...but ONLY at the sharp corners. But, because the lithium pack is held in place to the plastic case by an adhesive patch on the 'bottom'-most cell and the supporting foam along the sides and bottom of the pack, it maintains an approx 1mm air gap between the foam cushion and the plastic case at these two corner points. I would think that the air gap *could* be compromised by dropping the powerbank onto a hard surface on one of the corners by either causing slippage of the battery pack inside the case, or deformation inwards of the plastic case corner..which I think would take more than a 1m drop to a hard floor. Based on your description and what I see in the PB16 I think as far as this part of it goes, the 16,000mAh powerbank is designed/manufactured better and likely "safer" than the 10,0000mAh model

i learn so much from your videos. i fix all kinds of stuff now.

9:50 it’s in the category of defusing a bomb again isn’t it

"1.6A in current and 1.8A going into battery" Yes, I also suspect of double duty of the inductor. In other words, the NMOS + PMOS + 2x Schottky diodes + inductor probably form a buck-boost converter and the mystery chip likely controls everything operating the all thing in buck mode for battery charging and boost mode when a load is present. It would have been interesting to see the thermal image of the board when one is charging and loading the power bank at the same time.

I had one. Loved it but couldn't take the chance so I disposed of it when the recall came through.

I stiil have the infamous recalled EE powerbank from 7 years ago. It still works just fine.