Anker is recalling over 1.1 million power banks due to fire risks
Anker is recalling over 1.1 million power banks due to fire risks
www.theverge.com
Anker is recalling over 1.1 million power banks due to fire and burn risks
18 comments
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The recall process is kind of annoying, but it seems fair if it works. They gave me the option of a $30 Amazon gift card (which is more than I paid for it), or a replacement/updated charger.
They insist you take two photos, and one of them has to include the serial number. The serial number is incredibly small, and it's very low contrast on the black version of the charger. Getting a photo that actually shows the number was nearly impossible. They also require that you affirm you will "safely dispose of the device" per their instructions.
I'm still waiting to hear if they approve my request, but it's only been a day.
Edit: it's been 7 days since I filed the recall, and they finally acknowledged that they received the request. It seems like they're kind of swamped with requests. As a result, "the earliest estimated shipping date is September 2025". I opted for the replacement charger; I'm not sure if the Amazon gift card option would have been faster.
They've clarified that their disposal instructions are just "Stop using it. Store it safely. Don't throw it in the garbage. Take it to a facility that accepts lithium batteries." I don't find those instructions particularly helpful, but Best Buy has accepted used power bricks in the past, if that's an option for you. I just walked in and said "You guys take these, right?", and an employee said yes, and took it from me. Couldn't have been much easier!
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It’s nuts how companies get to pass on the disposal costs of a defective product to the consumer. “Contact your local municipal waste handler” as a million batteries get thrown in the landfill.
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I agree that this is a sickening amount of e-waste, and companies should be responsible for processing/recycling their own waste, but what's the alternative in this case? Mail the faulty batteries back to Anker?
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Many places have ways to drop off a bit of e-waste for free. In my area electronics manufacturers who sell their products in the state have to facilitate free recycling of e-waste. In practice this means pretty much any large electronics shop has a bin somewhere you can freely leave stuff to get recycled.
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I've been very happy with UGreen as a replacement to Anker, after the Eufy thing. Have not tried a power bank yet, but the charger and cables have held up so far.
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What Eufy thing? I'm curious because I was about to pick up a security system from them.
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I suggest you look it up in detail, my memory on the details are not only hazzy, I never looked that deep into it, beyond "well thats shitty, rip Anker".
but the TDLR; A few years back Eufy (owned by Anker), they didn't tell anyone video was stored on the cloud, and then it turned out the live video stream was exposed to the open web. Initial response was lack-luster and Anker didn't own up to anything.
Its been a few years, possible things are different. Also possible initial issues were blown out of proportion, and I never heard any of the "corrections" no one ever makes.
It's in its early days, but consumerrights.wiki has potential to become a very valuable place to check before buying anything. The summery there is much better.
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A few years ago they were saving footage from peoples' cameras in the cloud without consent.
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On top of what the other comments said, they did facial recognition with tracking. They created an id that was attached to a certain person. When the unit was reset, the same id was applied. People didn't know this happened, because supposedly nothing went to the cloud or something.
https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/17/eufy_lawsuit/
I have a Reolink that is completely offline, but they also are under scrutiny for having Chinese backdoors in their newest models.
An other alternative is Ubiquity, but they are expensive. They used to have a completely offline offering, but I started looking at Reolink because Ubiquity started with cloud logins. Things may have changed, so look up more recent, non anecdotal, information.
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https://www.anker.com/a1263-recall-form
In case you want to check your PowerCore 10k.
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This is wild. I mean, it isn't surprising conceptually, but like...I got my first ever Amazon recall notice about this, and it is for something I surely bought between 2016 and 2018. Thing's just sitting in my basement wishing it was getting charged and used. I guess I'll need to run it to the dump.
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I feel like every year Anker is recalling one of their power banks. Couple of years ago I had to return one of mine, but I have two other Anker models. Does Anker do more recalls than other brands?
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I haven’t paid much attention, but I had some myCharge units I bought at Costco last year get recalled. I suspect a lot of these have cheap batteries from suppliers that don’t put much effort into consistent quality. That’s “okay” with alkaline batteries where the worst that happens is they leak and maybe ruin the device they were in. Have poor quality with a lithium battery and you get a fire or even explosion. I suspect with Anker or some of the other brand names at least you’ll actually get a recall if there’s a problem. A lot of the other no-name, fly-by-night brands on Amazon or elsewhere probably don’t even give you that.
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I got my dad an Anker Bluetooth speaker a year or so ago that was subject to a recall due to the rechargeable battery inside presenting a fire hazard.
Fortunately, by way of the serial number, his was not one of the effected units, but I had the same question you did when I saw this article.
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