Expected A More Explosive Reaction

I manage a vape shop. Today, a customer casually revealed his mod battery and I noticed that it was half unwrapped. The top half still had plastic over it, but exactly half of the bottom part was peeled off so that it was just bare metal. For those who don’t know much about vaping, the whole “exploding” battery issue is due to poor battery safety, namely using batteries that aren’t properly wrapped. They don’t necessarily explode, but they vent, which is when they open up and the chemicals inside are released as a gas. The battery does get very, very hot, enough to burn you or catch anything touching it on fire.

If your battery isn’t properly wrapped and the revealed metal bumps into a metal surface while inside the mod, it will begin to arc and then vent. Even putting it on a charger or leaving it laying around like that is dangerous. I immediately pointed it out to the guy, assuring him that it was 100% not safe to continue to use that battery unless he got a new wrap for it. I explained what would happen if it touched metal inside the mod, but he absolutely did not care.

Customer: “Yeah, it’s been like that for a while, but I only use it if my other ones are dead.”

Me: “I get that, but it needs to be rewrapped or replaced because the second it touches metal, it’s going to vent and you can get seriously burned.”

Customer: “I’ll get a new one eventually, but this one still works fine, so I’ll just use it for now, thanks.”

We have little pamphlet things with battery safety instructions on them, so I grabbed one and told him to take it. He thanked me but proceeded to ball it up and shove it into his pocket.

Honestly, I wanted to hop over the counter and beat him with the Swiffer duster, but I had other customers waiting, and he obviously wasn’t going to listen because he was walking out the door. I really hope he doesn’t come back because I don’t want it happening in my store.