A BATTERY OF TESTS
To ensure the safety of power banks, several tests must be done — which Hauser demonstrated to find out the differences among the purchased devices.
In a case stress test, they were put in an oven at 70 degrees Celsius to see if any casing “opens up and deforms”, which would expose its internal components. All of them passed this test and were still working.
The power banks also passed the short-circuit test. “The protection electronics were good enough,” said Hauser, who has spent 18 years testing batteries.
The other tests, however, yielded different results.
As overcharging is one of the main causes of fires, in the third test, more voltage was applied to the power banks than they were normally able to take. Two devices died, as they were supposed to, said Hauser.
“They passed, (because) from a safety perspective, (there should be) no fire, no explosion.”