Battery charging safety comparison
No solution, a fire-safe cabinet, active suppression, a separate charging space, or water submersion. We scored all five against the same seven questions. Including ours.
CE marked · Patent FI 130608 B · EU patent pending · Made in Finland
Most common ways for safe charging.
Batteries are usually safe. They are charged, however, in places where usually and most of the time is not good enough — where one freak failure puts families, premises and businesses in danger. Several methods exist to handle that. These are the most common ones.
| Criterion | Nothing | Fire-safe cabinet | Aerosol suppression | Charging space | Vault |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detects before there are flames | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Extinguishes the flame | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Stops the thermal runaway | No | No | *No, see footnote 1 | No | Yes |
| No explosion risk | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Safe to open afterwards | Not applicable | No | No | No | Yes |
| No building work to install | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Back to operational | Weeks–months | Days–weeks | Days | Days + rebuild | No disruption |
* Knocks the flame down, but the heat stays. It can reignite when the agent runs out or the cabinet is opened.
The five methods, scored
Nothing
- Free, and the battery is right where you need it
- Nothing to install, nothing to learn
- The most common setup there is, and the one behind the fires you read about
- Flame, smoke and flammable gas move through the building unhindered
- Chargers and batteries end up scattered, and people lose time hunting for the right one
Fire-safe cabinet
- Projectiles and burning debris stay inside
- Simple, and the battery stays near the work
- Flammable gases escape freely, so combustion outside the cabinet is possible
- Smoke damage happens anyway
Aerosol suppression
- Buys real time to evacuate and call for help
- Knocks the flame down fast
- Risk of explosion
- The fire service has to approach it with extreme care
Separate charging space
- The best fire separation available. Done properly, the building is genuinely protected
- In case of fire, the accident does not affect the premises
- A charging room that shares ventilation with the building is not a separate charging room. Smoke and flammable gas travel the ducts straight into the plant
- It is a long walk, so people stop using it — and a solution nobody uses protects nothing
- Expensive to build, and afterwards you are repairing, cleaning and rebuilding. Concrete does not survive high-temperature fires well
FireLion Vault
- Stops thermal runaway
- Self-contained, can be installed anywhere with power
- Safe to open immediately afterwards. No heat, no runaway, nothing built up
- Costs more than a steel cabinet
- The batteries inside are destroyed — as they would be in any fire
Got questions?
We believe our solution is suitable for most places where there’s li-ion batteries, humans and valuable operations, but we don’t assume we’re familiar with your situation! Send us email or book the demo below!
