In order to avoid a fire risk hazard, HP is planning to expand the voluntary safety recall on its laptop batteries. Recalling battery programs like this is not the first time a company has done in the past. There have been similar cases in the mobile industry regarding companies such as Nokia, Samsung, Apple, etcetera, and also the Dell laptop battery recall program in 2006. This
news of recalling products have also been posted on the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission on 13th of March, Tuesday, as well. The product recall expansion notice was received in the month of January by CPSC, but due to the government shutdown, it was not posted to the government agency before and is being posted now. HP also had independently posted about the laptop battery recall in the month of January as well. Therefore the customers who have already received a battery replacement will not be eligible or impacted by this recall.
In the month of January 2019, HP started the recall program for its laptop batteries, which had a volumetric number of 50,000. HP has reported that the batteries, which were lithium-ion, had the exact same problems as they currently do now too – having the potential to overheat. This has been a serious concern regarding this problem, and can easily manifest itself into something bigger too as well. In the recall report of 13th March, Tuesday, it has been said by the CPSC report that HP already has received eight news warnings of laptop battery packs in the USA, melting, over-heating or even charring as well. There has also been one news regarding a minor injury and another two news which involves property damage as well, totaling the damage cost to around $1,100. There has been no word from HP, where these damages will be refunded the customers by the company since the program originated from their side only.
Now the main problem that has arisen is that HP now has to address the 78,000 more batteries that they have sold, in addition to all of the previous 50,000 batteries that were being recalled in the first place. This makes the process a lot more complicated for HP, and they need to implement due diligence in handling this situation. These new 78,000 batteries were sold to various laptops that were built for commercial uses and in numerous mobile workstations as well, which were bought by various businesses and also organizations too. Therefore, in order to handle all the requests, HP is also maintaining a support page for consumers, so that consumers can found out if they are affected by the laptop battery recall.
The above link can be used to find the complete list of all the laptops that are affected by this recall, starting from the month of January 2019 and also in March 2019 as well.