After a Taoyuan young woman was injured when her mobile phone battery exploded over the weekend, pundits yesterday said consumers should only use batteries recommended by the phone's manufacturer.
While the cause of the accident is still not known, the quality of off-brand batteries is the suspected cause of the incident.
"Quality control on brand-name batteries is much better than some locally made products," said Hsiao Hung-ching (
Improper charging and battery overheating are known to cause battery explosions. Most imported models are designed to automatically dissipate heat and shut down when hot, while some locally manufactured batteries are not equipped with similar safety mechanisms, he said.
On Saturday, Chen Yun-an (
The original battery in the Motorola T2688 had been replaced with a locally made battery marketed by Synnex Corp (
"After realizing the explosion was caused by the battery rather than the handset, we decided to recall all of Hand More Co's (蘅懋) T2688 batteries that Synnex sold over last two years," said Synnex spokesman Lin Chun-Chien (林俊堅).
Synnex is a mobile phone and computer accessory retailer.
Synnex will begin exchanging Hand More batteries for Motorola-brand T2688 batteries this week.
"Synnex and Hand More regret the incident and covered all of Chen's medical costs, as well as the battery recall costs," Lin said.
They will also turn to a handset-examination center for further investigation of the incident.
Hsiao said poorly designed batteries are also likely to short circuit and overheat. He said users should stop charging batteries after they are fully charged. "Don't charge your battery for more than five hours," Hsiao said.
Prices of brand-name imports are triple the cost of Taiwan-made batteries.
"That's why over 70 percent of cellphone users choose locally made products for back-up batteries," Lin said.
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