Old W3v w/ Sony Li-Ion Cells... a must see and read.

If you didn't already believe this before now, the demonstration below should prove that my allegiance to Asus is non-existant. They make great products and we sell those products that I as a consumer would buy. I warned of a possible battery recall in a thread I started months ago due to the long standing relationship Asus has had with Sony and because to date, Sony has made the absolute best Li-Ion cells that money could buy, so they were certainly used in a lot of Asus' systems. The link to that thread is below.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=78620

I previously found Sony cells in a Z71v and today I not only found them in an old W3v battery, but I managed to set one of the cells off into a spark which then turned into a small flame, followed by a plume of smoke which I'm certain will shorten my life by at least a few days. The pictures below are inflamatory to say the least. I couldn't grab my camera quick enough to capture the flame or smoke, but below you'll see the result, which is basically just a little bit of melted plastic. I did manage to have my IR thermometer handy and measured the temp of the cell as these photos were taken and that was 158F (70C). That's hot for a battery, especially one that wasn't currently being used in a system. Now, it also must be understood that this was an old battery which was actually a warranty replacement from last year. It was not charged and given the time it was sitting, it would have had zero life many, many months ago.

It's my professional opinion that anyone with an Asus system with a battery made prior to 01/2005, take notice and perhaps question Asus as I will be doing, in order to see where each notebook stands in terms of possible recall. The recall is being funded by Sony, and there was a deffinate trend of new batteries for all of the 2006 systems. All Core Duo and Core 2 Duo models all seem to have either Panasonic or Samsung Li-Ion Cells and there should be absolutely ZERO concern over those models from this current year, or the newest models that have just arrived. One battery from every batch we currently have as replacements batteries for these old models all seem to be updated as well.

Now, before anyone says this is proof that Asus thinks there's a problem, some things should be noted. First, Asus had some problems last year with Sony over some batteries that simply died (not related to the Dell/Apple/Sony recall at all), and at that point they started to branch out and source batteries from other makers. Then when the recall started (months before it was public), battery supply was pathetic and Asus continued to source batteries from elsewhere. Today, and through next year, Sony has already said their supply is going to be limited and this has caused Li-Ions cells to go up 20-25% and that will last throughout next year. All of these factors factor into why they made the change. However, I think this picture (with the green Sony cells and an obvious W3v battery casing) should go a long way to urging Asus to put some pressure on Sony.

I encourage everyone who is concerned (PROPortable customer or not), to email [email protected] and ask us any questions you may have.... Try to include your name, email and the model and serial number of your system.. Title the subject "Asus Batteries" as we'll have those funnel into a specific folder.

(Click to Enlarge)

 

I should also mention as I was going through old batteries that were warranty returned, but never returned to Asus, I found a trend between the batteries on the smaller systems. The models below ALL had Teal Samsung Li-Ion cells inside... these account for easily 1/3 of all Asus notebook sales in the US over the last three years.

3/6/9 cells of the following:

S5ne/n/a
M5n/a/ae (Z33a/ae)
W5a

 

Ahhhh... I was just about to send an email... Problem solved.

On a somewhat unrelated question, does the Z35 use the same battery as the Z33?

 

I'm fairly certain all new batteries made after 01/2006 are not Sony in ANY model..... However, even though there was heavy use of Sony cells in the past, the models above are ones I've cracked open to find Samsung cells in. That leaves basically the following models to contend with:

W3v - known to use Sony cells
M7v (Z71v) - known to use Sony cells
V6v/va - known to use Samsung cells

M6n/bn/ne/bne (Z70v/va) - Have not tested
A6 series (Z92) - Have not tested
W2v - Most likely Sony cells, but have not tested

... That basically rounds out most of the systems sold in 2004-2005... and again, it seems as though all batteries after 01/2006 are either Panasonic or Samsung.

 

Now that I know the S5Ne is ok, the W3J refreshed (T2500) should be ok as well? Where can we find the manufactured date?

 

All W3j's were made WELL after 01/2006......... more like no earlier than 05/2006.

 

ah! thanks! My two kids are safe from the exploding Sony batts!



ps. just being sarcastic and extreme about the exploding batts, hows malfunctioning batteries?

 

By the way, they're not exploding.. and that's not what happened in the photos above. Sony has said that two parts that are seperated may touch and basically cause a meltdown. The pictures above are not of this issue inparticular, but by opening the casing, something came in contact with something and caused the burning..... this really could happen with any battery of any sort....... It just so happened to happen to an Asus battery with Sony cells while I was examining the battery for those Green Sony cells.

.... This battery sat on a shelf of old garbage parts for a year and didn't do anything...

 

Hmmm... Justin, do you usually store piles of old batteries for years?

I know I wouldn't. My friends and I tossed one in a fire once... Bad idea! But now I know not to leave them laying around...

You should recycle the ones that you don't dissect for all of our benefit... I'd hate to see anything happen to you or your business as a result of an accident involving piles of old batteries.

 

First..... I for one am not worried about a stock pile of old batteries.. we really don't have a lot, but we do have a good two month supply of new batteries for just about every model... Those certainly aren't a concern.

We only have a handful of old batteries (not any more), but batteries that were still under warranty that just so happened didn't get back to Asus in time just got left on a shelf with other parts. Typically, anything that comes back here that is under warranty well get shelved as a replacement part goes out and once the parts get to a certain size, we usually ship one big old box back to Asus. Well, apparnetly some things on the bottom of the shelf were already well out of date - that's how long it takes for our piles to get big (speaks well for what sort of stuff we replace), but it was our mistake not to return them... so I just broke some apart before throwing them out as I knew it would be a big help to a lot of those people out there that may have been curious.

 

Man. Now I'm worried. I sent an email to you guys Justin. Maybe get a serial number check?

 

I couldn't tell you what serial numbers of W3's would be affected, but the model stopped production in the spring.... If you bought it before the end of 2005, or bought an older version after the start of the year, they're probably the same.

 

From what I've read when you let a Li-Ion go totally flat you're setting yourself up for the battery to explode /catch fire, etc when you attempt to charge it back up again... Somewhere on the below site I think I read about you have to be careful to not let a li-ion battery stay in a discharged state, that the internal resistance goes up, and it can create a short.


http://www.batteryuniversity.com/index.htm

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/partone.htm