Electrical - battery explosion.

Missboo

A portable computing device, purchased 1 year ago. £700 ish. Hardly used to be honest. It was plugged in and updating today and it started smoking, immediately removed from power - where the inside started smoking and the battery caught fire. A smelly house but luckily not a burned down one. The manufacturer has asked for an incident sheet and photos. Would you expect a replacement in this case? No damage, no modification, hardly any use.

Emmia

Do you want a replacement from the same company... I'd be seeking a refund.

flaneurs_lobster

I'd be on that internet with the model number to see if this spontaneous combustion was unusual or a common fault before I was asking for a replacement.

You'd hope that at the very least the manufacturer would offer compensation if not full refund.

What's the device, perhaps give details in case anyone wants to unplug theirs. 

Missboo

Emmia said:

Do you want a replacement from the same company... I'd be seeking a refund.

Quite. I’m not sure if I want another one to be honest!

Missboo

flaneurs_lobster said:

I'd be on that internet with the model number to see if this spontaneous combustion was unusual or a common fault before I was asking for a replacement.

You'd hope that at the very least the manufacturer would offer compensation if not full refund.

What's the device, perhaps give details in case anyone wants to unplug theirs. 

Just done that and there appears to be a couple of cases on another forum. However many complaints of swollen batteries distorting cases…

sheenas

Maybe another approach would be home insurance rather than a replacement by the manufacturer?

Emmia

sheenas said:

Maybe another approach would be home insurance rather than a replacement by the manufacturer?

That would push the premium up for future years though.

TELLIT01

Are the complaints about battery issues from a short period?  If so it's likely it was a duff batch of batteries, which the computer manufacturer will not have produced themselves.  A replacement laptop wouldn't have batteries from the same batch, or possibly not even from the same source.