Vape battery hot, swollen or leaking? What to do, step by step

When a battery misbehaves, the order matters. You want to cut the power, put distance between the battery and anything flammable, and keep people and pets back. You do not want to pick up something that is very hot or smoking, so only move it if you can do it safely.

Do not cover it, do not try to open or puncture it, and do not put it back on charge to see what happens. If at any point it smokes, hisses, pops or catches fire, stop dealing with it yourself: get everyone out, close the door behind you and call 999.

Once it has cooled completely and looks stable, it is finished as a battery. The rest of this guide covers how to tell what happened and how to get rid of it.

The three symptoms mean different things, and one of them is often not the battery at all.

Pod kits use flat pouch-style cells, so trouble often shows up as swelling: a bulging case, a pod that suddenly will not click in, or gaps opening along the seams. Removable 18650 and 21700 cells have a rigid steel can, so they rarely bulge visibly. Problems show up as heat, a split or shrunken wrap, or venting instead.

Leaks are the one that usually turns out fine. Tap the symptom that matches yours.

Every battery warms a little when it works hard. A sub-ohm mod after a long session, or a pod kit near the end of a charge, can feel warm in the hand. That is the battery doing its job, and it cools down quickly once you stop.

What you are watching for is heat that does not fit the situation: hot when the device has been sitting idle, hot enough that you do not want to hold it, or heat that keeps climbing after you have unplugged it. Combine that with a smell, a sound or a change in shape and the answer is clear.

Use the table as a quick reference. Anything in the right-hand column means stop.

Most leaks are e-liquid. Pods and tanks leak for all sorts of ordinary reasons: overfilling, a worn coil, heat, pressure changes on a flight. The liquid finds its way to the airflow holes, the connection or the charging port and leaves things sticky and sweet-smelling.

That is a cleaning job, not an emergency. Remove the pod, wipe everything with kitchen roll, and let the device dry out fully before charging, because liquid in a USB port can cause problems of its own.

A genuine battery leak is different. On a removable cell you might see crusty white residue, corrosion or a damp patch on the can, often with a sharp chemical smell. That cell is done: tape the ends and recycle it. If a newly bought device behaves like this, contact us through help or see our returns page.

A damaged battery is still a battery, and it can still short or heat up after the scare is over. Do not put it back in a drawer, do not post it, and never put it in your household rubbish or recycling bin, where it can be crushed and catch fire.

Tape over the ends of loose cells so nothing can bridge them. Keep the damaged item in a ceramic dish or metal tin, away from anything flammable, until you can drop it off. Then take it to your local household waste recycling centre and tell the staff it is damaged, so they can put it in the right container. Our guide to disposing of vapes and batteries covers your options.

When something goes wrong, people reach for whatever advice they half-remember. Some of it makes things worse. Swelling, in particular, tempts people into pushing the case back together or trying to let the gas out, and both are bad ideas.

The safest response to any battery that has overheated, swollen or leaked is the boring one: stop, give it space, let it cool, and recycle it. Then think about what caused it. A cheap plug, a damaged wrap or a battery left in the sun are the usual suspects, and our guide to charging a vape safely covers the fixes.

Tap each card to flip it.