The news sites report, on an annual basis, cases of modern smartphones that have caught fire or that have literally exploded, causing damage to things and people (unfortunately in some cases with serious consequences). The case of the Samsung Note 7s was striking, which reports of explosions or serious fires led to the suspension of sales of this smartphone. But the phone we are currently using can explode "> Lithium easily overheats during use and charging of the device, plus it also accumulates the heat generated by the other internal components of the phone (CPU and GPU): if the heat is excessive, the containment cells can deform (the classic battery "inflated") up to the breaking point, where the lithium is released violently causing a very dangerous explosion (it can easily injure seriously and cause serious burns).
Among the causes of fire, in addition to the lithium battery (given the instability of the chemical element used), we can also find the electrical system integrated in the phone: it allows you to send the battery current to the logic board and to recharge the battery by transporting electricity from the USB socket.
If the internal circuits or cables used are of low quality or are poorly assembled, a short circuit may occur which will ignite the internal cables, the USB socket or the logic board, also putting the lithium battery at risk (which with a fire generated from other components usually explodes after a few minutes). The fire problem can also concern the USB cable used for charging and the charger used to connect the cable to an electrical outlet at home: in these cases, fires can be equally dangerous for the person or for nearby objects, since it is not the phone must be charged to trigger a short circuit.
How to avoid phone explosions
To reduce the risk of explosion on our smartphone or phone to practically zero, we must always have the battery temperature under control, even simply by placing our hand on the back of the body (modern phones do not allow you to remove the battery, so we will have to force of things check the temperature from the body). If we realize that we cannot keep our fingers or the whole hand on the body for more than a few minutes due to the heat generated, the battery temperature is very high and we will have to take the necessary measures to avoid the explosion (immediately turning off the phone for example).Below we have collected other situations that can significantly increase the internal temperature of the battery and that we should avoid:
- Leaving the phone in the sun in the car : one of the most common mistakes when we use the phone, especially in summer! The sun can quickly overheat the body and the battery, increasing the risk of explosion up to 50% (much depends on the build quality of the phone).
- Leaving the phone near heat sources : leaving the phone near an oven or fan that expels hot air (such as notebooks, usually present on the side) can increase the risk of explosion.
- Sit or lie down with your phone in your pocket : how many times have we happened to sit or lie down on a chair, an armchair or on a bed with the phone in your pants pocket ">
- Use covers that are too "suffocating" : some covers can be so thick as to block the recirculation of air, increasing the internal temperature of the battery well beyond what is allowed, especially in summer. In the summer season we therefore recommend you use the phone with a simple silicone cover, a "book" cover or better still do not use any cover!
- Leaving the phone under a pillow or blanket : even with the phone off, a pillow or blanket can increase the internal temperature of the battery, significantly increasing the risk of explosion even in winter. When we sleep or want to rest we leave the phone on charge, preferably on the floor, so as to avoid possible damage or additional fires (even a bedside table can catch fire!).
- Use enhanced or non-original batteries : this is probably the most likely scenario when we talk about phone explosions . Using an enhanced or non-original battery we increase the risk of explosion well over 50%, given that, to the dangerous situations already described above (and in this case amplified), we also add the differences from the electrical point of view between the logic board and new battery (original parts are factory tested by the manufacturer, which is impossible with non-original and cheap parts). If the battery no longer lasts as before, we do not make cheap replacements with non-original parts but go directly to a manufacturer's assistance center, so that we can only use original spare parts.
By carefully reading all the scenarios that we have proposed above and putting the suggestions into practice, we will avoid the vast majority of situations in which the phone can explode . Obviously we cannot exclude factory defects in the realization of the lithium battery or the electrical circuits, which in fact unknowingly increase the risk of explosion, but with the recommended suggestions we will make sure that the explosion is unlikely (for the record the Samsung Galaxy Note 7s were about 100 out of 2.5 million units sold, or less than 1% of the products sold).
How to avoid fires on your phone or cables
To avoid the danger of fire on our smartphones the same rules apply as for explosions, since often the two events are connected (the damage can start as a fire and end as an explosion and vice versa). In addition, we will have to pay particular attention to external components, i.e. charging cable and wall charger : if we use non-original or non-specific components for the type of phone we are using, the risk of short circuit increases (1 possibility out of 120, 000).
So let's just use the charger and the original cable supplied in the phone box, avoiding using worn USB cables, with wires from outside, with damaged sockets or chargers that emit strange noises or hums .
If one of the refill components is broken, we use our manufacturer's original spare parts; below we have collected original chargers and USB cables for the most famous smartphone manufacturers, so that we can buy the right one.
- Samsung, classic USB socket : Samsung Charger + Original Cable (8 €)
- Samsung, USB Type-C socket : Samsung Original Type-C quick charger (9 €)
- Apple iPhone : Lightning cable (€ 39) and 30W power supply (€ 55)
- Huawei, classic USB socket : Huawei Original Charger (17 €)
- Huawei, USB Type-C socket : Original Huawei Type-C charger charger (20 €)
- Xiaomi : Original Xiami MDY-08-EO charger + Micro USB cable for Xiaomi (13 €)
- LG : Original LG charger (16 €)
- Sony : Quick Network Charger, Original Sony Quick Charger (15 €)
- Charger : AUKEY Quick Charge 3.0 USB Wall Charger 19.5W (13 €)
- USB cable for iPhone : AmazonBasics - USB-Lightning cable with braided nylon sheath, Apple certified (8 €)
- Classic USB cables : AmazonBasics - USB 2.0 cable from A male to Micro-B (Pack of 2), 1.82 m (13 €)
- USB Type-C cable: AmazonBasics - USB Type-C to USB-A 2.0 male USB cable, 2.7 meters (€ 14)
Conclusions
To prevent our smartphone from exploding or burning, simply follow some simple common sense rules when using the device and be sure to use original parts. Obviously these precautions are useful to reduce the risks, but they do not reset them : a factory defect or a faulty electrical outlet in the house can still cause a fire or an explosion even if we are very careful to respect the rules seen in the guide.If the phone gets really hot, we recommend that you also follow the advice in our guide If the phone gets hot, how to cool down your smartphone (Android and iPhone), so as to reduce the risk of accidents.
If instead we think that our iPhone has problems with the battery, we can learn more by reading the article on How to see the health of the iPhone battery, if it needs to be changed .
If instead the problem of overheating concerns our computer in summer, we invite you to read all the tips in our guide to ways to cool your pc in hot weather .
