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The Almighty Buck Technology

Snap Is Recalling and Refunding Every Drone It Ever Sold (theverge.com) 39

Posted by BeauHD from the money-please dept.
Snap is recalling all 71,000 of its Pixy flying selfie camera drones because their batteries pose a fire hazard. The Verge reports: Snap and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission say you should "immediately stop using the Pixy Flying Camera, remove the battery and stop charging it" now that there have been four reports of the battery bulging, one fire, and one "minor injury." Then, you can get a full refund for the entire drone and / or any batteries you own -- sounds like we're talking at least $185 back to you, unless you bought it on sale. You don't need a receipt: you can apply for the refund even if you got it as a gift. You can fill out this form to receive a prepaid return label to return the drone. Snap says you will need to safely dispose of the batteries yourself.
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Snap Is Recalling and Refunding Every Drone It Ever Sold More

Snap Is Recalling and Refunding Every Drone It Ever Sold

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  • That has to suck. Time to close doors I guess.

    • Actually, hardly any of the Pixys will be returned. Iran, which bought fifty thousand of them, thought the exploding batteries were a feature and intends to fly all of them to American and Israeli targets.

      • Now they are stuck with them because of all the defensive GPS spoofing [slashdot.org].

      • they are tiny, I don't know exactly how long the batteries could last, but definitely the signal won't go far enough to fly for any significant distance, these are not FPV drones.
        They are so light a slightest breeze knocks them out of the air onto the ground https://spy.com/articles/gadge... [spy.com]
        they can fly for maybe 5 flights of about 10 minutes total air time before having to be charged. Not sure how far the signal reaches but definitely not far enough and they cannot carry any additional weight.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rei ( 128717 )

        You joke, but seriously, for any drones with fire risk, send them to Ukraine. The average small surveillance drone only survives 3-5 flights on average (and FPV drones, obviously, aren't designed to survive at all). They're treated like munitions - expendable and in need of constant supply. And soldiers have a lot more serious things to worry about than an occasional drone fire. Honestly, it's arguable that given the short lifespans, they shouldn't even be using rechargeable li-ion batteries, but rather jus

  • Hidden Dangers (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TwistedGreen ( 80055 ) on Thursday February 01, 2024 @04:55PM (#64206918)

    Love how they're leaving the customer to deal with the dangerous battery. What do you think most of these people will do with it?

    Personally I'd cut it open and let it burn safely in a pie dish, maybe film it for Youtube views. But I bet most people would just throw it in the trash. Now it's someone else's problem yet again.

    Anyways, don't all lithium-ion batteries pose a fire hazard? What's different about these? I've seen lots of bulging batteries in old phones, and they never get recalled. These safety recalls are really just ignoring the real problem... this battery chemistry is inherently dangerous.

    • Probably a deal they cut with US Consumer Product Safety Commission, refund everyone's money without question and avoid court, or risk having to provide a safe return facility for the defective batteries.

    • Personally I'd cut it open and let it burn safely in a pie dish,

      You can't use just any pie dish. It has to be an explosion containment pie dish.
      If you're in the UK, maybe big Clive will let you borrow his.

    • Love how they're leaving the customer to deal with the dangerous battery.

      And requiring you to send back an otherwise fully functional drone that is just in need of a new battery!

    • Love how they're leaving the customer to deal with the dangerous battery. What do you think most of these people will do with it?

      Well, since they put that wheelie bin with an X through it symbol on things containing lithium batteries, in the case of e-cigs some people in the UK have been taking that to mean you just dispose of it on the street. While here in the US, nobody knows what the fuck that symbol means, so we just toss ours in the regular trash and cross our fingers that nothing ignites.

    • > Personally I'd cut it open and let it burn safely in a pie dish

      Better do that outdoors and not be down wind from it. You won't like what comes out of that fire.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Love how they're leaving the customer to deal with the dangerous battery. What do you think most of these people will do with it?

      Personally I'd cut it open and let it burn safely in a pie dish, maybe film it for Youtube views. But I bet most people would just throw it in the trash. Now it's someone else's problem yet again.

      Anyways, don't all lithium-ion batteries pose a fire hazard? What's different about these? I've seen lots of bulging batteries in old phones, and they never get recalled. These safety rec

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by necro81 ( 917438 )

        Most of the spiciness of a lithium battery comes from the electrical charge on them, not the chemistry itself.

        Yes and no. Many of the triggers of battery failures come from being charged. And the rapid electrical discharge results in a lot of localized heat. However, what makes them so dangerous is the resulting fire - a hard to extinguish fire that is the battery burning its flammable contents (plastic separator, carbon electrode, lithium salts, organic electrolyte).

        Another way to consider it: th

      • Most of the spiciness of a lithium battery comes from the electrical charge on them, not the chemistry itself.

        Most of the spiciness of a NCM lithium battery comes from the fact that the electrolyte emits oxygen when heated. It is, in fact, due to the chemistry itself. Then there's the fact that those batteries also contain cobalt, which you really do not want to be breathing.

        LFP batteries store almost as much energy and don't have the oxygen-producing problem, which is why they're easier to extinguish. But because they have slightly less capacity most corporations still want to use NCM, especially for smaller devic

  • "You'll need to find a safe way to dispose of the battery yourself."

    "Snap says you should NOT drop them at your local hardware stores or big box stores like Target."

    LOL. My local landfill has a household hazardous waste collection facility and a recycling center. But I am not sure if they would accept a lithium ion battery that has been recalled. I guess you would have to just go there and drop it off and not tell them it is recalled. What else can you do?

    It is really hard to ship a known defective ba

    • No one fucking wants it. If this is a recall Snap should be legally obligated to pay and accept the return of their entire dangerous product.

      I had to replace a phone battery that bulged and pushed off the front screen, no one wanted that battery... And disposing through the proper channels the cost was more than the new battery.
    • How large are these batteries? For a $185 drone, I'm imagining they aren't very big. I've had to return defective laptop batteries multiple times. Always the same procedure. Manufacturer ships you a new, good battery. They also include a return shipping box and fireproof (supposedly) bag. Everything is properly labeled. You can seal it up and drop it off at UPS/FedEx. I believe they only ship them via ground (not air) just in case something goes wrong. Probably, since they are refunding everybody, t
      • That sounds like the standard procedure for lithium ion batteries that are not defective. I am not sure if the carriers or US DOT would consider a recalled battery to pose an extra hazard and need even more protection. But anyway, they probably should have found a way to collect the batteries.
        • The ones I've shipped were defective (hence why a replacement was sent to me.) But they weren't recalled which is what I think you mean to say.

          • I guess I meant to say that even though they were defective, it sounds like there were no special shipping precautions compared to if you ship non-defective batteries. One place I worked at, we shipped a product that had lithium ion batteries. There was special labeling and we couldn't drop it off at our normal fedex location. The driver came around and picked it up. It sounds roughly like what you describe (except no fireproof bag).

            I don't know if the recalled batteries would be treated with even more c

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by necro81 ( 917438 )
      I, too, have had experiences in my career where we ended up with a dodgy battery and had to send it back to our vendor for failure analysis. (Actually, more than once.) We used a battery barrel [google.com] - it's the only accepted way to move a known-defective battery. And, yes, it cost a shitload.

  • These days there's few remaining places where you can fly a photography drone without either running afoul of some rule/regulation prohibiting their operation, or annoying someone. Want to fly at a national park? That's illegal. Want to fly at a theme park? You're not allowed. Want to fly at your local park? Even if operation isn't prohibited, someone will probably assume it is and call the cops on you anyway. Flying around your own yard? Yeah, you can do that until it gets boring or some neighbor h

    • What is the difference between a "photography drone" and the DJI ones with cameras that are pretty much ubiquitous? It seems almost every real estate listing has drone photos these days so clearly there is a market although maybe not a consumer market at Target

      • What is the difference between a "photography drone" and the DJI ones with cameras that are pretty much ubiquitous?

        I meant "photography drones" as distinct from drones sold as children's toys (the kind with no smarts whatsoever that immediately fly straight towards the nearest tree and become stuck) and hobbyist/racing/FPV drones. Basically, a photography drone is any drone, whether marketed towards consumers, prosumers, or pros, where the primary designed purpose is to take high quality photos and video. The point I was making was that with those type of drones, if you're you're only allowed to fly it in places where

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by necro81 ( 917438 )

      Want to fly at a national park? That's illegal.

      Damn right it is. A cloud of obnoxiously loud buzzing things, that exist solely for the narcissism of the owner, that is a plague for everyone else, in what is supposed to be a monument to the natural world, is something that definitely should be outlawed.

  • they need to be redesigned so they don't double as incendiary devices
    • They need to be marketed as military equipment since incendiary drones are all the rage in warfare these days.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hawk ( 1151 )

        on the bright side, it helps keep the value of used Samsung phones up!

        samsung, the only company with the nerve to rate batteries in millitons

    • All they have to do to dramatically reduce the risk is stop using NCM and start using LFP.

      They're using NCM and therefore creating fire hazards because you get 5-10% more runtime.

  • Our product has a major flaw. Here's what it is, we'll take them all back, no receipt required. Here's your refund.

    Not being able to include the battery in the return (prepaid return, no less) is probably the stipulation of the shipping company. They'd rather you not shipped batteries in the first place - they'd REALLY rather you didn't ship ones that are suspected to be defective.

    That's about as good as it gets for customer service. I'd buy one of their future products because of this.

    • You absolutely can (and regularly do) ship defective/damaged batteries. I'm surprised they are having so much difficulty with this. I've had multiple laptop batteries fail in scary ways (like blow up to twice their original size). The manufacturers (mostly Dell since that's what we used to have) would ship out a new battery as well as a labeled return container. It included a fire-proof bag in which you would seal the defective battery for shipping. This isn't that hard of a problem.

  • How about just replace all the defective batteries!

    • maybe they are built like smartphones, if you dont have the right tools and knowledge in disassembly to open it then getting the battery out requires destruction of the device or taking it to a tech that can, this company lost big on this investment

      • From the article:

        Yes, the entire drone is being recalled, not just the removable battery, likely because Snap doesn’t make those batteries anymore.

        So the battery is removable, but the article's author is guessing as to the reason they aren't replacing the battery.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          It might be an issue with the charging circuit in the drone, or maybe lack of adequate current limitation when flying.

          It's unfortunate that there is no opportunity to fix these things and re-use them.

  • After working in a similar industry for over 10 years, no matter who you are or what size or how much money you have, NOTHING will stop Chinese vendors from selling you low effort trash batteries with simple flaws like welding mistakes.

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