Nokia recalls 14 million chargers

Nokia is replacing potentially dangerous phone chargers for free, the mobile giant said Monday.

The recall affects 14 million chargers, according to the Associated Press.

The affected chargers are manufactured by third-party suppliers, Nokia said. A loose cover could potentially expose the charger's internal components and thus pose an electrical shock hazard if accidentally touched during use, the company said.

Chargers involved in the exchange are 2-pin types and include the AC-3E and AC-3U models manufactured between June 15 and August 9, 2009, as well as the AC-4U model made between April 13 and October 25, 2009. A Nokia site offers more information.

Read more of "Nokia rolls out charger exchange program" at CNET Asia.

[jscott418]

Some more bad China made crap I suppose. Over the weekend I bought three wireless routers before I got one to work! One of them for sure probably died because of a bad power adaptor. I checked the output voltage after I smelled the burnt smell coming from the router. Sure enough it was several volts higher then it should have been. I don't think anybody has not experienced one that got very warm to the touch when charging. That cannot be good! Oh and back to the routers. I had two Linksys routers that were bad and I ended up with a Netgear.

[technologyRules]

You might want to have you home's electrical system checked. That might explain some of the failures, perhaps due to faulty wiring. Also, I assume you're using surge protection?

[johnny raindrop]

Linksys is absolutely the worst for power connection. They change the design of their routers frequently, and often change the power supply when they do it - say from 12V to 7.5V or something. Nothing on the router tells you what the voltage is. You have to c all up linksys and tell them the serial number and then they'll tell you what the power is. If you're running a small IT shop and have half a dozen linksys routers and get the line warts mixed up you're hosed. There oughta be a law about that.

[DMBoricua]

Get Belkin, lol. I got the Belkin N1 wireless router, and it rules. I've had a Linksys before this one, and before the linksys I had a Netgear.

[viper396]

@johnny raindrop, Be realistic. It's hardly the manufacturers responsiblity to keep track of power supplies for you. They sell you a device with a specific power supply. If you mix it up with another that's your resposibility.

Also, looking up the power supply specs for the routers on linksys.com is not difficult. There is this amazing thing called an internet search engine. Your small IT shop should learn how to use it. When you type the routers model number followed by the word "Power supply" you'll be suprised at what usefull info comes back.

[J.G.]

Since using Apple's Time Capsule, I cannot imagine going back to commodity routers. Being able to use the 5 Ghz spectrum is particularly beneficial.

[play7]

"The recall affects 14 million chargers, according to the Associated Press.

The affected chargers are manufactured by third-party suppliers, Nokia said. A loose cover could potentially expose the charger's internal components and thus pose an electrical shock hazard if accidentally touched during use, the company said."


THisis what happens when you use $0.20 a day labor.

[make_or_break]

I think it's more likely that the manufacturer was too cheap to hire the $.40/day QC inspector.

[play7]

never understand they spend much on R&Dto make crap end product? It wasnt always like this before.