OT: Huge laptop battery recall

riredale wrote on 8/14/2006, 3:28 PM
As described here, Dell is issuing a recall for 4 million laptop batteries in an effort that may amount to a $300 million cost to the company. The reason I mention this here is because the article mentions that the batteries are made by Sony, who has made nearly identical batteries for all the other major laptop vendors, including HP, Toshiba, Lenovo (IBM), and others. Apparently Dell was just the first vendor to announce the recall. This could turn out to be a $1 billion charge to Sony eventually.

The issue is that lithium-ion technology as used in all modern laptop batteries is a quirky and sensitive technology, and can be prone to "thermal runaway" where the battery will explode and/or catch on fire. There have been incidents both in planes and on the ground where a laptop will suddenly burst into flame. Not a good thing.

A professional video camera battery self-ignited on John Edward's campaign plane a few years back.

You can go here (http://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/) to find out more about the Dell recall. Good luck getting through for the next couple of days--it won't open for me.

Comments

farss wrote on 8/14/2006, 3:49 PM
Huh,
I mentioned this risk over a year ago on this very forum.

We've had a Sony Li-Ion battery burst into flame just sitting on a shelf.

At the time I recall saying I believed these virtual bombs should only be transported inside metal containers, that they were allowed in aircraft without protection is insane.

Bob.
JJKizak wrote on 8/14/2006, 4:29 PM
Are these the same batteries that come with the Z1?

JJK
farss wrote on 8/14/2006, 4:52 PM
Well the Z1 batteries are different in some ways to the Dell batteries but same chemistry. The Z1 one batteries are the same apart from higher capacity than the one we had emit flame.

Bob.

johnmeyer wrote on 8/14/2006, 6:57 PM
This is the link to the Dell recall program, but it won't go "live" until tomorrow (August 15):

www.dellbatteryprogram.com



Serena wrote on 8/14/2006, 8:03 PM
Bob, so equipment shouldn't be put away with batteries installed?
farss wrote on 8/14/2006, 8:58 PM
My advice, NO!

The one we had go off was taken out of service as it was faulty and left on a wooden shelf. Sometime later we wentl to dispose of it and noticed a large hole burnt in the case and the paint work on the shelf was quite scorched.

The only problem with not leaving a battery on a camera is you'll flatten the cameras clock battery faster but they're cheap enough.

Bob.
Serena wrote on 8/14/2006, 11:18 PM
Having taken the batteries out of the camera and case, what do you do with them? Put them in a tin and submerge them in the duck pond? There must be a huge amount of experience involving laptops and professional video use, so I wonder about statistics of failures and warning signs. In aircraft it would seem worse, in terms of ability to deal with a battery burn, to put them in the hold than to carry them on board. The mentioned DELL recall doesn't provide much comfort in answering these questions, except the possibility of it being a manufacturing defect with particular batteries. But then Bob had a Sony battery for a Z1 self-combust.
Serena wrote on 8/15/2006, 5:22 AM
Wax is itself inflammable. Maybe something like "Wood's Metal" would be a safer heat sink.
dibbkd wrote on 8/15/2006, 8:54 AM
Sorry... I cannot resist this post, considering the recent "airport profiling thread"....

I heard the TSA was going to start profiling geeky looking white males between the age of 18 and 41 carrying camera equipment and Dell laptops.

:)
apit34356 wrote on 8/15/2006, 11:29 AM
Sorry, dibbkd, you read the TSA bulletin wrong, it stated " Any individual using the In.s "DSE" or "Spot" based in Utah must be given a full body cavity search in public while being forced to watch his carry-on equipment being disassemble and drop on the floor,(testing parts for explosion characteristics). Signed BB."
TheHappyFriar wrote on 8/15/2006, 11:41 AM
ouch. :)