CPSC: Sony recall will include laptop batteries only

And you thought you could go the whole day without reading a single battery recall-related post; sorry, we'll try harder tomorrow. So you probably remember yesterday's scary report which quoted a Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesperson predicting that Sony's upcoming US battery recall will expand beyond just laptops, and might include portable DVD players and videogame consoles too. Well the same woman who made that statement, Julie Vallese, has now backtracked somewhat by telling CNET that "Any recall that the agency will make will be limited to batteries that power notebook computers. We have no anticipation at this time beyond that." So, does this mean that those other types of batteries are safe -- or that the CPSC knows about problems with them, but since they apparently won't be part of the recall, there's no need to worry the public? It's hard to say at this point, although Vallese's previous comment was pretty clear -- unlike the following response from Sony spokesperson Rick Clancy: "Sony has provided a wealth of technical data to the CPSC involving this tech, and it is omnipresent in a host of portable electronic devices, but as far as we know, from Sony's perspective, there is no initiative planned at this time that goes beyond what has already been communicated with respect to notebook computers." Doesn't sound very reassuring to us. Only time will tell if other kinds of devices are at risk from those little metal particles that tainted many a laptop cell, but if we had to proffer a guess, we'd say it's pretty unlikely that the QA breakdown which allowed so many batteries to become fire hazards was limited only to the manufacturing processes for notebook power packs. Let's hope we're wrong about this one.

[Veritas II @ Oct 3rd 2006 9:16PM]

Another Sony story: Get ready for the Two Minute Hate!

[Kakairo @ Oct 3rd 2006 9:47PM]

It's nice to see that the consumer is protected by Battlestar Galactica.

[O Y O Y @ Oct 3rd 2006 9:48PM]

That logo reminds me that Battlestar Galactica is back on this Friday... Good thing its only laptop batteries. I do not want my psp to esplode

[Pfft @ Oct 3rd 2006 10:12PM]

What the other guys said; my first thought was that the product was protected by the GALACTICA; that's a strikingly similar logo.

[O Y O Y @ Oct 3rd 2006 10:36PM]

@Pfft


So say we all

[B @ Oct 3rd 2006 10:37PM]

Any idea if the UX micro pcs qualify for the recall?

[Brian @ Oct 4th 2006 1:40AM]

What about cell phones? Who makes those batteries? :(

[Automatt @ Oct 4th 2006 2:49AM]

I'm just curious about what is new or different about the replacement batteries - what specifically did they fix?

[Shmee150 @ Oct 4th 2006 7:16PM]

If they recall the UX battery there is absolutely nothing I'm gonna be able to do about mine!

Bought it in the states a couple of months ago, brought it back home to the UK, and I wasn't planning another trip that way for a while. Although I do have quite a number of long-haul flights the other way around the globe and I would rather I'm able to use it... please sony don't have made this problem on the UX!

ShMeE