Laptop manufacturing company HP has announced a massive recall of 101,000 laptop batteries sold between March 2013 and October 2016 for fears of overheating and fires
The expansion recall of the batteries is an addition the 41,000 batteries HP recalled in June in the US.
According to a notice on Tuesday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the expanded recall involves lithium-ion batteries containing Panasonic cells that are used in HP notebook computers.
The devices affected HP, Compaq, HP ProBook, HP Envy, Compaq Presario, and HP Pavilion laptops. The batteries are said to overheat, posing fire and burn hazards.
‘’Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled batteries, remove them from the notebook computers and contact HP for a free replacement battery. Until a replacement battery is received, consumers should use the notebook computer by plugging it into AC power only.’’ the notice read.
The batteries affected are black and should have the bar codes 6BZLU, 6CGFK, 6CGFQ, 6CZMB, 6DEMA, 6DEMH, 6DGAL or 6EBVA printed on the back of the battery. Users can also download software from HP’s recall website to check if the battery qualifies for a recall.
This recall comes in the aftermath of Samsung’s scaring saga with the Galaxy Note 7 which was recalled twice last year after cases of the batteries overheating and causing fires were reported. The recall was one of the largest ever from a phone manufacturing company and is said to have cost Samsung and estimated $5.3bn in lost profits. Samsung blamed the lithium-ion batteries for causing the fire. Batter
While announcing its findings on the cause of the fires on the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung said it hopes that this case will serve as an opportunity to improve the safety of lithium-ion batteries not only for the company but for the entire industry.
The consumer Product and Safety Commission is now urging technology industry to put a greater emphasis on battery safety to avoid such cases in future.
