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CPSC: Stop Using The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (techcrunch.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the ticking-time-bomb dept.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 can not seem to catch a break. In addition to the recall issued by Samsung over faulty batteries that have the potential to burst into flames, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is urging Galaxy Note 7 users to avoid turning on or charging the devices while flying on planes. Most recently, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a statement "urging all consumers who own a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 to power them down and stop charging or using the device." TechCrunch reports: "The government body is 'working quickly to determine whether a replacement Galaxy Note 7 is an acceptable remedy for Samsung or their phone carriers to provide to customers.' In other words, they may still decide that the problem is of a scale sufficient to issue a complete product recall. This could be the case should the problem causing the fire prove to be in the phone itself as well as the battery. The CPSC and Samsung are working together on a more official notice with advice on what to do (other than turn it off), so until then, stay safe."

42 comments

  1. just say no by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    and never start

    1. Re:just say no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

      I'm getting sick of all this Galaxy Note hate.Lots of reasons to hate the phone but the fact it uses Lithium Ion batteries isn't one. How many actual instances of explosions have occured, say compared to other products like the iPhone. I'm willing to bet that even the recalled batteries have a lower malfunction rate than a lot of litium ion cells on the market.

      Apple had to do a rush production of phones at the last minute, I assume because they bought the same dodgy cells that Samsung did! US Airlines dont allow Lithium Ion cargo on a passenger plane, whether they're branded Samsung, Apple or Trump Tech!!! Litium batteries explode, fact of life. I doubt the Note cells have any statistically significant failure rate than the others (on average).

      What is it with all this pro-Apple shit on Slashdot these days?

    2. Re:just say no by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      I expect it is part due to US nationalism. The same way the EU may keep an exra eye on American companies to make sure they are following the letter of the law, while their EU based companies may get a blind eye. I expect the US government want Apple to get the advantage here so Samsung will need to deal with stricter enforcement of the law from the US.

      No crazy conspiracy just the fact that people will look out for themselves first.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  2. And sales of the iPhone 7 spike by ArtemaOne · · Score: 2

    I can hardly wait to dongle the dongle.

    1. Re:And sales of the iPhone 7 spike by goombah99 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Some phones bend in your pocket, other kill you in your sleep or bring down a 747 when they catch fire. Seems sort of all the same to me.

      --
      Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    2. Re:And sales of the iPhone 7 spike by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Well, at least those phones were cheaper to make without user replaceable batteries. I'll bet there are a whole bunch of end users laughing at Samsungs misery, those users who demand end user replaceable batteries (just think, instead of a recall, they simply could have sent each user a new battery, a cost to Samsung of something like $20 a phone instead, youch, new phones returned, rebuilt, sold as refurbished phones in the second hand market, something like $400 lost per phone). So if the note & phones have shit batteries, where else did batteries off that production line end up?

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  3. Yeah but, by Silver+Surfer+1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    At least it has a headphone jack! ;)

  4. I have no trouble charging mine by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Right here next to my Hoverboard...

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re:I have no trouble charging mine by hey! · · Score: 1

      In the cabin of my dirigible!

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  5. Only the tip of the iceberg by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 3, Insightful

    One in 42,000 phones is estimated to have the problem by Samsung. Now, this is the problem with high energy density. If there's a problem, you get a release of high energy all at once.

    Now, the whole world is moving toward better batteries. Meaning denser, and even more likely to fail catastrophically unless the makers can somehow contrive a chemistry with higher internal resistance (and thus harder to charge and less efficient). Otherwise, more efficient batteries are all going to make pretty good bombs.

    --
    Bruce Perens.
    1. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by thesupraman · · Score: 0

      Come on Bruce, you are better than that...

      Its almost as if they should do something about it. Perhaps some kind of recall?
      Oh look! they must have been listening.. Sure, they haven't quite got it sorted out yet - I would imagine it takes a bit of time to get
      guaranteed good new phones flowing in the pipeline..

      I assume you are recommending the same thing for Sony and HP laptops?
      https://consumerist.com/2016/06/27/hp-and-sony-recall-laptop-batteries-due-to-possible-overheating-and-fires/
      I mean, its not even Sonys first time!
      https://www.engadget.com/2006/10/19/sony-battery-recall-approaches-10-million-costs-mounting/

      And please, before you go squawking about batteries, perhaps go and learn a bit more about them?
      I suggest LiFePO4 batteries are a good start. here is an example, these are 'cheap and nasty' chinese cells:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52h8IK0IdqI

      You are normally much more thorough and balanced Bruce, why not this time?

    2. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 2

      Well, you're assuming that I don't already know about batteries. Which is wrong. And hey, a bit arrogant.

      I am not talking about today's cells, which is why this is the tip of the iceberg. The market is pushing for new chemistry like lithium-air, and improvements in current chemistry like increasing the surface area of the electrodes without increasing their size, using nano texturing such as nanowires. All of these technologies are speculative and might not be productized, but we're going to end up with more powerful batteries eventually. The market demands it and these new batteries will not be less trouble.

      --
      Bruce Perens.
    3. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      Solid state batteries should be better at limiting fault current without the efficiency penalty.

      There are so many things that will kill us all, might as well go surfing with sharks.

      (I expect better of you too, Bruce.)

    4. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 1

      I'm at all not clear why you expect better of me. Do you think that future, denser battery tech is going to be less troublesome? Lithium-air can potentially store as much energy as gasoline.

      I'm not saying we should stop it. We need to figure out how to live with it. Tesla did a lot of work to encapsulate their batteries, for example.

      Are you sure about solid-state batteries? My impression was that the kind of resistance they have limits self-discharge, not normal charging and discharge.

      --
      Bruce Perens.
    5. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by hey! · · Score: 1

      I remember when Li-Ion technology was new -- as in not available to the general public at all. I was an MIT student (back when Disco sucking was a hot cultural issue) and there were a few labs around campus that had them, but they were considered extremely hazardous. It wasn't the electrochemical energy density that made them dangerous (although that's what made them attractive); it's that lithium cobalt oxide is a chemically dangerous electrode material. It's subject to thermal runaway and when heated releases pure oxygen. Heat + pure O2 + any kind of reasonably combustible material = Earth-shattering kaboom.

      What makes the technology safe to use in something you carry in the pocket is decades of engineering. It's still the same incredibly dangerous stuff, it's just surrounded by layers of safety measures which collectively deliver (normally) enough of a safety margin. But the overall result is more complex than you'd use with chemically safe materials. Complex systems often have unexpected failure modes, modes that are hard to detect in testing because they're statistically rare. But even though they're rare, the results can be catastrophic.

      I do know that Samsung software sucks at power conservation; I have an S6 and that sucker gets really hot and the battery level drops like a stone unless you keep it in ultra-power saving mode. The S7 has a battery that's a 1000mAH larger, so right off the bat you have just that much more potential for generating heat. Add some occasional defects in the battery cell safeguards and you could well have rare cases of thermal runaway.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    6. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 1

      Not only do the plates release O2, the electrolyte is an organic solvent. One choice is dimethyl carbonate.

      --
      Bruce Perens.
    7. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, they did a faux recall instead of using proper channel with the CPSC, which would mean a forced mandatory recall.

    8. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Companies will go to great lengths to avoid being forced by government regulation. Voluntary recalls are a common means to do this.

      --
      Bruce Perens.
    9. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      What (little) I hear on solid-state is for stationary applications, and some of the things being floated (heh) sounds very promising. The systems I am seeing are designed for opportunistic charging for renewables. Price point isn't there by a long shot yet though.

    10. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LiFePO4 are significantly less energy dense than Li-Ion of various kinds. That's why they aren't especially popular.

    11. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by Jason1729 · · Score: 0

      Meaning denser, and even more likely to fail catastrophically unless the makers can somehow contrive a chemistry with higher internal resistance (and thus harder to charge and less efficient).

      You don't begin to understand what a high internal resistance means for a battery.

    12. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 1

      You don't begin to understand what a high internal resistance means for a battery.

      Sigh. If you're going to say something like that, at least try to substantiate yourself. The thing that I am talking about is ionic resistance and interfacial resistance, rather than the structural impedance of the battery which provides the internal load that results in self-discharge.

      The safest high-density battery would have ionic or interfacial resistance that increases with heat or current, limiting its instantaneous output.

      --
      Bruce Perens.
    13. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by bmo · · Score: 1

      In Casa BMO, we have gone through *two* S6s. The first one died and I was horrified by the amount of heat it was generating as it was dying. It really was frightening. And since the battery wasn't removable, it's not like you could yank the fucker out and let it burn in your driveway. So it sat in a Corelle bowl while we *watched* it die completely and cool off.

      This problem did not start with the 7.

      Our second S6 (warranty replacement) died the blue-light-of-death and simply wouldn't charge anymore.

      We had an S3 that had horrible battery life until /that/ got replaced with the supposedly better S6.

      We're done with Samsung. We went elsewhere, to a phones that don't overheat and eat batteries and talk unnecessarily to the network.

      --
      BMO

    14. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by lgw · · Score: 1

      An approach that inherently heat-limits charging (rather than discharge) would seem to be the issue at hand. And I'd love to see it.

      I'd also love to see something better for home energy storage, where energy density is less of an issue, and safety more important still. Though I guess if you're looking at applications competing with propane tanks, you just need to beat that, but something safe to stick in the wall of the house would be better - I'm certainly dubious about the Tesla battery given how complex and fragile the whole Li-Ion approach is.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    15. Re: Only the tip of the iceberg by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 1

      Once it is in thermal runaway, discharging is what keps it there. Also consider mechanical damage like a car crash.

      --
      Bruce Perens.
    16. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by zrobotics · · Score: 1

      They certainly have problems, but my dad has been living with lead acid batteries for his solar array, as lithium was too expensive at the time. The batteries will need replaced soon, but lead acid still looks like the way to go. The memory affect sucks, and power density is horrible, but they are pretty darn safe. I wouldn't want to short the system, but if you dropped a wrench on the output terminals it wouldn't be nearly as serious as doing the same on a lithium system, provided the protection circuitry failed. He may go lithium, but if so those batteries are getting moved into a pit external to the house, the potential failure mode is too ugly to have that bank inside the garage. I wouldn't want any portable device with lead acid, that's for damn sure, but they are still pretty darn viable for stationary use.

    17. Re:Only the tip of the iceberg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I do know that Samsung software sucks at power conservation; I have an S6 and that sucker gets really hot and the battery level drops like a stone unless you keep it in ultra-power saving mode.

      It's the radios, I have a S6, and if I put it in "flight mode" before going to sleep it will only lose a couple of percent, if I don't it will lose lots. Perhaps if I had better reception at home I'd get better standby time, but nothing I can do about that.

  6. Government says not to buy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'll take five.

  7. You just noticed the Koolaid drinkers? by thesupraman · · Score: 2

    On Slashdot? Have you just arrived on the planet or something?

    Have you not noticed that there are a whole 'type' of people out there for whom, if it competes with
    an Apple product, it must be stopped? I think we just identified a group within the FAA.
    Interesting that they were not trying to ban Sony etc laptops back in the days where their much larger
    batteries were catching fire ;)

    The Samsung batteries are behaving badly, and unlike Apple with their touchscreens, etc Samsung are
    doing the right thing, and actually replacing them all (the whole phone) even though it is a small %age
    - good on them.

    I would be quite astounded if it had not been standard on aircraft for quite a long time to carry a fireproof
    containment bag for just such situations, because as you say, many types of LiIon batteries can catch
    fire for a number of reasons. I am surprised we are allowed them on planes at all - because TERRORISTS!
    After all, they cause a major fire if you hammer a nail in to one, and some laptops have big batteries.

    Buy hey, since Apples 'hey, look no headphone socket! dont think about the lack of other innovation!' 7
    release, they need something to pick up sales.

  8. Totally overhyped! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Funny

    My Galaxy Note 7 works just fine. I'm using it while it's charging but it's still not bursting into flam#OP*qe! B89*#()*13!B89*#()*13!B89*#()*13!

    CARRIER LOST

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Totally overhyped! by shanen · · Score: 2

      I'd give you a funny mod if I ever got a point. However, my favorite joke of that type is still:

      Yip yip yip yip yip yip yip
      BANG

      NO TERRIER

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  9. that'll teach em! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That'll teach Samsung not to try & bypass the bureaucracy! How dare they issue a recall without getting it approved first.

  10. it had to bite someone by kiviQr · · Score: 1

    ....if only it had user replaceable battery... ah.

  11. Low hanging fruit unharvested again? by shanen · · Score: 1

    I don't think it's just a matter of being here too early. I'll try to remember to come back later, but right now there are no "funny" and no "insightful" posts. Obviously an easy target for both cases. Well, maybe not so much for the insight side, though it saddens me that such greedy incompetence may well destroy Samsung as in now.

    I really have trouble understanding how someone can screw up the technology of basic physics. There must be a missing or defective temperature sensor involved here, but this is a case where there obviously should have been several sensors.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  12. Yawn by dohzer · · Score: 1

    Yawn. Another article?!
    Move along. Nothing to see here.

  13. Why is this a story? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The solution is, and always has been, an iPhone running iOS. Google couldn't come up with a smart phone OS on its own. It bought Andriod and has been unsuccessfully copying the iPhone and iOS's best features while pushing the envelope on bad implementations of features that Apple will provide in a later more stable release ever since. Android's failure is complete. Samsung has implemented Google's spyware OS on a device with an exploding battery. Nice work Samsung. Now you've got hardware that blows up literally while it's user's privacy blows up figuratively.

    Google and Samsung, please return to copying Apple after they've perfected something rather than having phones that explode. You've done well by copying Apple but your half assed attempts to be first rather than letting Apple figure it out the right way and then shamelessly copying them have now produced a phone that can literally kill a person. Enough is enough.

    1. Re:Why is this a story? by trabby · · Score: 0

      Apple? Perfect?

      Antennagate? Bendgate?

      You must have a short memory.

  14. More BS to let the hammer fall by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    on foreign competitors. You're not going to die in a fire from using your Samsung phone, period.

  15. Sounds like politics to me by gweihir · · Score: 1

    There have not been enough incidents to justify this kind of panic-reaction. There is already a recall underway. Hence I think this additional things are not about consumer safety, but about propaganda. They probably want to drive home a "do not buy Samsung". It may also be plain stupidity, it gets really hard to separate that from politics these days.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  16. Note 7 features by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One hot product - it has VR so good that it will MELT YOUR FACE OFF.

  17. Free $$$ advice to Samsung by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey, just in case there is any Samsung drone reading this, let me give you $$$ advice,
    rename the repaired phone as Samsung Galaxy Note 7plus. This way, authorities can go ahead and ban GN note 7 only.
    If one has GN7+, they know that it has been replaced so they won't ban them.

    You are welcome.