Here’s why the batteries in your gadgets start to bloat over time

Placeholder while article actions loadOut of the many laptops that landed on his desk over the last two months, IT specialist Gareth Belton says he has seen seven or eight with swollen batteries.The 22-year old, who works for a small agricultural company in central Maine, said none of the batteries were all that old — maybe three to five years by his count.After discovering another swollen battery he would eventually store in a yellow, fireproof safe, Belton shared his findings with r/spicypillows, a Reddit community of over 60,000 members who trade images of batteries used in laptops, phones, mp3 players and game consoles that have swollen well beyond their original size.“I’d say it happens in about 10 percent of laptops I deal with,” Belton said. “I’ve seen it in phones, but more rarely.”Reports of battery swelling have become more common as our reliance on…

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