1mo ago

Anker is recalling over 1.1 million power banks due to fire and burn risks

www.theverge.com

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1mo ago

Anker is recalling over 1.1 million power banks due to fire risks

www.theverge.com /news/686084/anker-recall-uscpsc-power-bank-battery-powercore-a1263

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1mo ago

Anker is recalling over 1.1 million power banks due to fire and burn risks

www.theverge.com /news/686084/anker-recall-uscpsc-power-bank-battery-powercore-a1263

12 comments

The company has received 19 reports of fires and explosions
The recall covers about 1,158,000 units that were sold online through Amazon, Newegg, and eBay between June 2016 and December 2022.
That still sounds more trustworthy than random power bank from Wish.
I've had a power bank with earbuds (yes) from AliExpress that just randomly started to feel quite warm. Not the battery being a problem, some chip (SY7656) on the board was cooking.
I tried to replace it, but I couldn't do a good job without a heat gun. It broke again after a few weeks. Probably overheated as I couldn't do anything about solder that was supposed to be below it. But anyway...
Also had a cheap power bank from Tesco that would self-discharge in 3 days.
- It’s been super reliable. Perhaps at 10 years old they’re extrapolating the failure curve and worried about many more fires.
- 19/1000000 is not that bad. I mean Tesla didn’t do a recall and I’m certain their cyber trucks have a worse track record.
  Saying something is more reliable than ass isn’t bad, it’s more him being surprised anker actually bothering to because plenty of companies have worse products that don’t get recalled.
  
  Point is, this could probably be buried in the many other blowing up power banks. Years old power bank caught on fire doesn't make much news. Yet Anker went with a recall (though unfortunately it's US only). Makes Anker look even better.
Oh geez, I think I have that. Thanks for the heads up.
I think mine is from just before June 2016. Thing is incredibly reliable
I have the 10000 Slim, model A1261. Bullet dodged...
What to do if you have one
RETVRN to a big block of NiMH
- I was searching for something like that ereyesterday. Couldn't find anything aside from maybe Xtar BC4 which is a battery charger with power bank function, but even if that works properly, it's going to be not very useful capacity-wise.
  I have one of those 4xAA power banks from AliExpress, but it quickly drops voltage way too far. It's fine for USB LED lights and running my USB fan for 5 hours (with some old NI-MH batteries I have), but it won't charge most things due to the voltage drop. One more problem is the series connection. Weaker cells can get reverse-charged and damaged during discharge.
- Different use case. I used this one for hiking the pacific crest trail in 2016, and a few other hikes since. Amazingly, the power banks haven’t even gotten much lighter than this model, and those that are lighter are less reliable. It would be nice is NiMH could match the energy density of lithium, but it’s hard to compete with the lightest solid element.

12 comments