Jin Daily Tech Trivia — Suppliers Cut Costs, Multiple Power Bank Brands Issue Mass Recalls

Jin Daily Tech Trivia — Suppliers Cut Costs, Multiple Power Bank Brands Issue Mass Recalls

It all started with Romoss, one of the best-selling power bank brands in China (known for their super low prices). They recently faced a nationwide ban in schools due to multiple fire hazard incidents. At first, the company claimed all their power banks had passed China’s CCC certification and were safe to use, but eventually they gave in and announced a mass recall of up to 490,000 units (models listed below) after the government revoked their CCC certification.

Then, just yesterday, Anker also announced a product recall — this time involving 1.16 million units sold in the US and China. They stated the main reason as follows:

“During a recent quality and safety inspection, we discovered that one of our suppliers made an unauthorized change to the raw materials used in a batch of industry-standard battery cells. This could cause, in rare cases, a breakdown of the separator insulation after long-term use, potentially leading to overheating or even fire hazards.”

Anker emphasized that no incidents have been reported yet; they found the issue during a self-audit and launched the recall proactively to protect consumers.

Well, this can’t be a coincidence, right? So I dug deeper and found out that one of the major battery cell suppliers, Amprius, is having its CCC certification widely revoked by the Chinese government. That probably explains why so many power bank brands are now in panic mode.

I strongly recommend that you check your power bank model and visit the manufacturer’s website to see if any recall plans have been announced.

Hope you learned something new today! See ya!!!