The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in cooperation with Battery-Biz Inc. (Newbury Park, CA), announced a voluntary recall of about 10,000 Hi-Capacity® rechargeable notebook computer batteries due to an internal short, which can cause the battery cells to overheat, posing a fire hazard to consumers. Battery-Biz has received six reports of batteries overheating and melting.
The recalled batteries were sold at various national and regional resellers, retail stores and online stores from January 2004 through May 2005 for between $70 and $199. The batteries were manufactured and assembled in China, Korea and Taiwan. The recalled lithium-ion, Hi-Capacity® brand rechargeable batteries are used with various well-known, brand-name notebook computers. The recalled batteries include those with part numbers B-5301, B-5333, B-5340, B-5341, B-5342, B-5344, B-5345, B-5346, B5461, B-5615, B-5896 or B-5942/LI; lot numbers of 10098, 10198 or 10230; and date codes. The part number, lot number and date code can be found on the main label.
Consumers should stop using the recalled products immediately unless and contact Battery-Biz to arrange for a replacement battery, free of charge. The battery’s serial number can be checked, and replacement units can be requested, through the company’s website at http://www.hi-capacity.com/exchange. After removing the recalled battery for the notebook computer, consumers can continue to use it with the ac power adapter until a replacement battery arrives.
