Question Serious Question: Is there any way an unplugged and boxed up flat screen monitor can blow up or start a fire?

[Krislw]

So a sealed box containing 2 Acer flat screen monitors supposedly caught on fire, causing a vehicle to be totaled. Please note that this vehicle was a Prius with the battery compartment next to video of firewhere the box was located. (I am going with the battery compartment triggering the fire....)

 

[USAFRet]

Anything is possible. But this is so unlikely as to be immeasurable.

Are there any other reports of this model monitor spontaneously catching fire/exploding?

 

[TerryLaze]

So a sealed box containing 2 Acer flat screen monitors supposedly caught on fire,

Well, this doesn't really mean that the TVs caught on fire, there is more than just TV in a TV box.
If they were factory sealed this would not concern you as a customer so I guess whoever packaged them put something else in them with the TVs?!

 

[thepersonwithaface45]

"Hi, there. Those homemade TVs look really nice!"
"Oh, these aren't TV's. They were made in a factory... a bomb factory. They're bombs."

 

[sizzling]

To start a fire you need heat energy. There is nothing in a TV that I know of that could store enough energy to start a fire. I’d imagine if there was a real risk TV’s would require the same care as shipping lithium batteries.

 

[punkncat]

So a sealed box containing 2 Acer flat screen monitors supposedly caught on fire, causing a vehicle to be totaled. Please note that this vehicle was a Prius with the battery compartment next to where the box was located. (I am going with the battery compartment triggering the fire....)

With so little detail it would be impossible to make an informed decision/opinion on this.

Standard car batteries can catch fire. If it were the lithium battery on an electric car there would be absolutely no doubt if it were the cause. Cardboard can catch fire sitting in enough heat, like per se the hatch back in full sun.
There is nothing about the make up of an unplugged flat screen that would make me think it could spontaneously combust, but stranger things have certainly happened.

Of note, if there happened to be an oily rag or the like back there, they can go up quite readily. Learned that in shop long ago.

 

[Krislw]

Anything is possible. But this is so unlikely as to be immeasurable.

Are there any other reports of this model monitor spontaneously catching fire/exploding?

Only when connected to power . How do I post a picture from my computer? The picture is just bizarre.

 

[Krislw]

To start a fire you need heat energy. There is nothing in a TV that I know of that could store enough energy to start a fire. I’d imagine if there was a real risk TV’s would require the same care as shipping lithium batteries.

I agree

 

[Krislw]

With so little detail it would be impossible to make an informed decision/opinion on this.

Standard car batteries can catch fire. If it were the lithium battery on an electric car there would be absolutely no doubt if it were the cause. Cardboard can catch fire sitting in enough heat, like per se the hatch back in full sun.
There is nothing about the make up of an unplugged flat screen that would make me think it could spontaneously combust, but stranger things have certainly happened.

Of note, if there happened to be an oily rag or the like back there, they can go up quite readily. Learned that in shop long ago.

2012 Prius. Electric car battery area was melted.

 

[punkncat]

2012 Prius. Electric car battery area was melted.

When the battery in one of those actually catches fire, it doesn't just melt some plastic. Lithium batteries burn very hot, very vividly, and water is incapable of putting it out. The entire car would (more or less) be a puddle of melt and burn.

 

[Krislw]

To start a fire you need heat energy. There is nothing in a TV that I know of that could store enough energy to start a fire. I’d imagine if there was a real risk TV’s would require the same care as shipping lithium batteries.

With so little detail it would be impossible to make an informed decision/opinion on this.

Standard car batteries can catch fire. If it were the lithium battery on an electric car there would be absolutely no doubt if it were the cause. Cardboard can catch fire sitting in enough heat, like per se the hatch back in full sun.
There is nothing about the make up of an unplugged flat screen that would make me think it could spontaneously combust, but stranger things have certainly happened.

Of note, if there happened to be an oily rag or the like back there, they can go up quite readily. Learned that in shop long ago.

Video of fire https://usacouriers-my.sharepoint.c...1PlpKlPniLo0oBW9wzezvFyuOFFgOJoTXTdw?e=2lgRze

 

[Krislw]

With so little detail it would be impossible to make an informed decision/opinion on this.

Standard car batteries can catch fire. If it were the lithium battery on an electric car there would be absolutely no doubt if it were the cause. Cardboard can catch fire sitting in enough heat, like per se the hatch back in full sun.
There is nothing about the make up of an unplugged flat screen that would make me think it could spontaneously combust, but stranger things have certainly happened.

Of note, if there happened to be an oily rag or the like back there, they can go up quite readily. Learned that in shop long ago.

Video of fire:

https://usacouriers-my.sharepoint.c...1PlpKlPniLo0oBW9wzezvFyuOFFgOJoTXTdw?e=2lgRze

 

[USAFRet]

Only when connected to power . How do I post a picture from my computer? The picture is just bizarre.

Upload your pic to imgur.com
Post the link here.

 

[USAFRet]

Who is saying it was the TVs?
Insurance investigators are pretty good at drilling down to the root cause.

 

[Krislw]

Who is saying it was the TVs?
Insurance investigators are pretty good at drilling down to the root cause.

2 computer flat screens, acers. They are not sharing the reports with us. O thought Toyota should make the determination as well. Did you watch the video?

 

[USAFRet]

2 computer flat screens, acers. They are not sharing the reports with us. O thought Toyota should make the determination as well. Did you watch the video?

Yes, I watched it. Tells us nothing.

That's like look at a burning house, from a doorbell camera across the street, and determining if the original cause was a faulty crockpot, or someone falling asleep on the couch with a burning cigarette, or a faulty hoverboard battery.

Not sharing the report with you? Unless some entity is pinging you to be at fault, it doesn't matter. Toyota and Acer and the relevant insurance companies can fight it out.

 

[TerryLaze]

To start a fire you need heat energy. There is nothing in a TV that I know of that could store enough energy to start a fire. I’d imagine if there was a real risk TV’s would require the same care as shipping lithium batteries.

A brand new, never used monitor won't have anything.

On a used, even just for a few minutes, monitor you have capacitors that have stored energy, enough to create an ignition source.
Also if it has a remote and the batteries are inserted it can also cause enough heat.

 

[USAFRet]

What is/was the specific model of the Acer monitors?

 

[sizzling]

A brand new, never used monitor won't have anything.

On a used, even just for a few minutes, monitor you have capacitors that have stored energy, enough to create an ignition source.
Also if it has a remote and the batteries are inserted it can also cause enough heat.

Maybe but enough energy to ignite plastic or melt through it and then ignite a fuel source?

 

[TerryLaze]

Maybe but enough energy to ignite plastic or melt through it and then ignite a fuel source?

All you need is a spark and enough bad luck.
The packaging foam and all styrofoam are very flammable.

 

[USAFRet]

All you need is a spark and enough bad luck.
The packaging foam and all styrofoam are very flammable.

This is true.

But every other instance of spontaneous combustion of regular consumer devices is widely publicized.
hoverboards, cell phones, lithium batteries, car cruise controls, hybrid/elec car batteries, etc, etc...

Are there any reports of these specific monitors, or their remotes, doing this in a fully powered off and boxed up state?
Or is this Patient Zero?

 

[USAFRet]

googling for "acer monitor fire" shows a few, but none that were in the box.
All were plugged in.

 

[Krislw]

Exactly, the ones posted were plugged in. I am of the impression these were never used as they were in the same boxes as they were shipped out in. And yes, they are looking for $$$

 

[USAFRet]

And yes, they are looking for $$$

Time to lawyer up.