The agency says there have been 92 reports of batteries overheating in the U.S. That includes 26 reports of burns and 55 reports of property damage, including to cars and a garage.
Advertisement
One family in St. Petersburg, Florida, said a Galaxy Note 7 left charging in their Jeep had caught fire, destroying the vehicle.
USA regulators issued an official recall of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 phone on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2016, because of a risk of fire.
Meanwhile, U.S. aviation safety officials have taken the unusual step of warning airline passengers not to turn on or charge the phone during flights, and not to put them in checked bags.
CPSC chairman Elliot Kaye leveled some criticism at Samsung for not going through the standard process, saying that it was unncessarily confusing for customers.
But many users have snubbed the offer, choosing to wait until the new phones were available, citing the inconvenience of switching devices for an interim period.
Kaye said about 1 million devices are affected.
“Consumer safety is always our highest priority”, Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America, said in a statement Thursday.
Samsung encourages customers to visit their website to determine if their phone is among those recalled.
Samsung meanwhile announced replacements for the faulty phones would be available to U.S. customers next week. The South Korean firm has clawed its way to becoming the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, and carefully cultivated its brand image to stand toe-to-toe with Apple as a high-end smartphone maker. Its smartphones, particularly the Note line, have earned the distinction of being some of the most widely bought and best-loved devices on the market.
Samsung had already initiated a voluntary recall, but the company has been criticized for not offering clear information about the problem or how it would be resolved.
Advertisement
The volatile nature of the lithium ion batteries used by all smartphone manufacturers has led to a number of incidents. Boeing addressed the issue by adding a steel containment box around the batteries.
