Safe' Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Batteries Are Still Exploding...
With Samsung still unable to identify the root cause behind Galaxy Note 7 units catching fire and exploding, the South Korean tech giant had no choice but to discontinue the product entirely earlier this week. What this means is that Samsung has permanently ceased all Note 7 production, will not be issuing replacement devices, and will not even attempt to repair affected devices. Driving the point home, Samsung earlier today confirmed that it will dispose of every single returned device.
Now if you happen to still be a Note 7 owner, there are a few things you should know. For starters, you need to replace your device immediately. Now you might not have had any problems with your Note 7 just yet, but holding onto an inherently faulty and dangerous device is beyond risky. As we’ve seen over the last few weeks, exploding Note 7 devices have completely engulfed cars and, in some instances, have partially destroyed houses.
The fire below, caused by a Note 7, speaks volumes.
So whether or not you have an original or replacement Note 7 device, here are the steps you should take.
One, power down your device immediately. While we might ordinarily recommend that you transfer over any photos or important data on the device to your computer, it’s probably not a risk worth taking unless you have a fire extinguisher handy. As we covered yesterday, one Note 7 owner recently saw her device start to smoke wildlyafter an innocent visit to Samsung’s own homepage.
Two, you don’t want to dispose of the device by yourself. After all, you don’t want someone else to find it in the trash, turn it on and risk getting burned. Remember, Samsung by mid-September had already received upwards of 26 reports involving Note 7-related burns and upwards of 55 reports of the Note 7 causing serious property damage.
That said, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommends that users return the device to the wireless carrier or retail outlet where it was purchased and exchange it for another smartphone model.
Notably, customers who opt to exchange the device for another Samsung smartphone model will be eligible for a $25 credit. Depending on where you purchased your Note 7, it may take as many as 2-3 billing cycles for the credit to appear on your statement.
It’s also worth noting that customers can also exchange any Note 7 accessories they may have purchased.
According to USA Today, some carriers will even provide users with a “loaner” device in certain circumstances.
Update (Oct. 11 at 12:30 p.m. ET): Samsung is permanently ending production of the Galaxy Note 7 after continued battery malfunctions caused some of the smartphones to catch fire.
On Tuesday (Oct. 11) Samsung filed a statement with the South Korean stock exchange declaring its "final decision" to stop production, reported the New York Times. A source told the newspaper that the company will no longer make or market the phones.
A statement on Samsung's website, also posted Tuesday, asked all Galaxy Note 7 consumers to "power down and stop using the device and take advantage of the remedies available." The company said it has also asked all carrier and retail partners globally to stop sales and exchanges of the smartphones.
Original article published on Oct. 10, at 3:20 p.m. ET.
Samsung has reportedly suspended production of the company's Galaxy Note 7 smartphone because the devices — plagued by battery problems that were causing some phones to catch fire — are still at risk of exploding.
Last month, Samsung issued a global recall of the Galaxy Note 7 after several incidents in which the phone's lithium-ion battery caught fire. But now, reports have emerged that new devices sent out to replace the faulty phones face the same explosive problems. [9 Odd Ways Your Tech Device May Injure You]
There are seven reports thus far of "safe" Galaxy Note 7s exploding,reported Ars Technica. One of the first reported incidents of a replacement phone catching fire was aboard a Southwest Airlines plane that was parked on the tarmac. The plane was evacuated, and no injuries were reported, a Southwest Airlines spokesperson told The Verge.
Last week, a man in Kentucky went to the emergency room "vomiting black" after he woke up to find that his replacement phone had caught fire and his bedroom was filled with smoke. The owner of that Galaxy Note 7, Michael Klering, told a local CBS station that the phone "was just sitting there," not plugged in.
"The phone is supposed to be the replacement, so you would have thought it would be safe," Klering told WKYT.
In Minnesota on Oct. 7, a replacement phone melted in a 13-year-old girl's hand, an ABC affiliate reported.
Though Samsung has not addressed what specifically is causing the phones to catch fire, a faulty lithium-ion battery can meet with fiery ends, Lloyd Gordon, the chief electrical safety officer at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, told Live Science last year.
A faulty battery, for instance, can be overcharged. While well-made batteries stop charging automatically once full, a faulty battery's lithium ions can collect in one spot and be deposited as metallic lithium within the battery if left plugged in for too long, Gordon said. If this happens, the heat from the overcharging can cause oxygen bubbles, which are highly reactive with metallic lithium. If they combine, the reaction can lead to an explosion. Defective batteries can also be over-discharged, Gordon said. If the lithium-ion battery does not shut off when the power is too low, it can cause the phone to catch fire, he added.
A Samsung spokesperson addressed the explosive replacement phones in a statement to The Verge:
"We are working diligently with authorities and third-party experts and will share findings when we have completed the investigation. Even though there are a limited number of reports, we want to reassure customers that we are taking every report seriously. If we determine a product safety issue exists, Samsung will take immediate steps approved by the CPSC [Consumer Product Safety Commission] to resolve the situation."
As a result of these battery malfunctions, Samsung has reportedly stopped production of the Galaxy Note 7. According to Yonhap News Agency in South Korea, an official at a supplier for Samsung said Monday (Oct. 10) that production has temporarily been suspended. The anonymous source told the news outlet that Samsung is cooperating with consumer safety regulators from South Korea, the United States and China.
Samsung hasn't officially confirmed that it's halting production of the smartphone, but it did provide the following statement to Tom's Guide: "We are temporarily adjusting the Galaxy Note7 production schedule in order to take further steps to ensure quality and safety matters."
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