How To Avoid An Air Freshener Explosion

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Have you heard the news? Air freshener devices are exploding everywhere! You’d better never buy an air freshener again.

Just kidding.

But there have been a few crazy stories about air fresheners exploding, which I’d like to talk to you about here.

You may have heard some of these crazy stories which were widely publicized:

Story 1 – A German teenager sprayed too much air freshener aerosol into his car, trying to get rid of cigarette smoke. A car light turned on and ignited the aerosol gas, causing an explosion which burned the teenager and damaged the car.

Story 2 – A woman sitting in her car lit a cigarette. Next to her was an aerosol air freshener can that she didn’t know was leaking gas. The can exploded and wrecked her vehicle, leaving her with painful burns.

Story 3 – A man sprayed aerosol air freshener in his car. He then lit a cigarette. The aerosol exploded, blowing out his car windows and burning him.

Source – An aerosol can caught fire and exploded in a man’s garage. Nobody was injured.

Story 4 – An aerosol air freshener exploded while sitting in an empty car. Nobody was injured, but the car caught fire and was totally destroyed.

Story 5 (PDF) – A man was changing a compressed aerosol canister in an air freshener appliance. It exploded, causing injuries.

Story 6 – A family set an aerosol air freshener can on top of a grill while cooking. It exploded, burning their child.

Story 7 – An air freshener aerosol canister was sitting in front of a heater in a store. It exploded, burning the building down and killing 11 people.

Story 8 – Employees were spraying out the contents of 120 aerosol air fresheners to empty them before disposing of the cans. A nearby flame ignited the room full of flammable aerosol, causing a huge explosion and burning down the building.

Story 9 – A woman was touching a plugin air freshener when the cartridge exploded, getting harmful chemicals into her eyes.

Lesson Learned: Never Keep Air Freshener Aerosol Cans In A Hot Location, And Never Use Them Near An Open Flame Such As A Cigarette

All of the stories except the last one involve flammable aerosol cans exploding, or the gas from the aerosol can catching fire after it had been sprayed.

The last story is a bit less scary – a cartridge of gooey air freshener chemicals somehow exploded while a woman was changing it in a plugin air freshener. No deadly harm was caused, but her eyes were injured by the chemicals.

The lesson here is to never keep an aerosol can of air freshener, or anything else for that matter, near an open flame or a source of significant heat. Also do not keep it in a hot vehicle.

Aerosol cans contain compressed gas. When gas is heated, it expands. If the aerosol can is heated too much, it could explode. This by itself is bad, but when the contents of the container are also flammable, then the explosion of gas will quickly ignite and cause even more outward expansion as well as heat and burns.

Air Freshener Options That Will Never Explode

If you’re super concerned about exploding aerosol cans or exploding air freshener cartridges, then get an air freshening object that will never explode.

I recommend two different types of air freshener. The first is odor removers, and the second is fragrance diffusers. You generally should not use both at the same time, because the odor remover will also remove the scent-creating particles that are put into the air by the fragrance diffuser.

Here’s my top selections for odor removers:

  • Odor removing spray bottle – Click here to view.
  • Odor-removing bag of activated carbon – Leave this bad in a smelly room and it will absorb nearby odors – Click here to view.
  • Odor-removing gel canister – Just like the bag above, leave this gel canister open in a room or car and it will freshen the nearby air – Click here to view.
  • Air purifier with odor-removing carbon filter – Click here to view.

And my favorite way to add new fragrances to a room is to use an essential oil diffuser. I’ve listed a great basic one first, followed by a more expensive advanced one that will cover a larger room: