Dozens of Amazon's Own Products Have Been Reported as Dangerous -- Melting, Exploding or Even Bursting Into Flames. Many Are Still on the Market. (cnn.com) 98
An anonymous reader shares a report: Launched in 2009, AmazonBasics has grown to offer more than 5,000 products, according to the retailer. Its mission: identifying everyday items that Amazon can create at a similar or higher quality and lower price point when compared to existing name brands -- a strategy also employed by companies such as Costco and Target. A growing number of AmazonBasics products, which the company promotes heavily on its site, have become bestsellers since the line's inception, and many have ratings above four stars, according to Marketplace Pulse research. In recent months, the online retailer's sales have been soaring as millions of Americans have been staying at home -- and in many cases working remotely -- during the ongoing pandemic.
But consumers have raised serious safety concerns about AmazonBasics items in complaints to government regulators and in reviews posted on Amazon's own website. Since 2016, at least 1,500 reviews, covering more than 70 items, have described products exploding, catching on fire, smoking, melting, causing electrical malfunctions or otherwise posing risks, according to an analysis of AmazonBasics electronics and appliances listed on its website. The reviews identified represent a small fraction of the overall purchases of the products, and fires caused by consumer electronics are not unique to Amazon branded items. User error can also be a factor, as can faulty or aging wiring within a home or a defective device being used in conjunction with the product. But when well-made and used properly by consumers, electronics like those sold under the AmazonBasics name should rarely pose dangers, said electrical engineers interviewed by CNN.
But consumers have raised serious safety concerns about AmazonBasics items in complaints to government regulators and in reviews posted on Amazon's own website. Since 2016, at least 1,500 reviews, covering more than 70 items, have described products exploding, catching on fire, smoking, melting, causing electrical malfunctions or otherwise posing risks, according to an analysis of AmazonBasics electronics and appliances listed on its website. The reviews identified represent a small fraction of the overall purchases of the products, and fires caused by consumer electronics are not unique to Amazon branded items. User error can also be a factor, as can faulty or aging wiring within a home or a defective device being used in conjunction with the product. But when well-made and used properly by consumers, electronics like those sold under the AmazonBasics name should rarely pose dangers, said electrical engineers interviewed by CNN.
Safety regulations (Score:1, Offtopic)
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Whenever I see one of those millions of Robotaxis driving on the road now, I think, "Hey, at least it isn't powered by AmazonBasics batteries".
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You joke, but Rivian is a thing.
Re:Safety regulations (Score:4, Informative)
How do USB cables catch fire? USB power supplies are supposed to have current limiting with automatic shut off. Are the cables catching fire being used with power supplies that don't implement this part of the USB spec? A short circuit in the cable should trigger automatic shut off of the power.
Re:Safety regulations (Score:4, Informative)
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We had issues a while back where iPhones caught on fire, when plugged into a fraud USB power supply. The AC plug with a diode pumping raw 120 volts over to the phone.
Also if these wires are damaged, or with a short in them, they could create heat and then a fire.
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That's what I'm wondering, is it really the cables causing the fire or it is the power supply doing something out of spec to the cable which causes it to catch fire? You can make lots of things catch fire by doing out of spec things.
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USB power supplies like that are typically implemented as flyback converters. What likely happened here is they cheaped out on the electrical insulation that prevents line voltage from ending up on your USB cable.
That insulation is one of the big reasons to use a flyback converter in the first place, since all the electronics can break and it still prevents line voltage from ending up on your USB cable.
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How do USB cables catch fire? USB power supplies are supposed to have current limiting with automatic shut off.
That wouldn't matter if the actual cable couldn't handle the 500mA or so that the power supply can supply.
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500 mA is approximately 2.5 Watts at 5volts (the maximum voltage per the USB 2 / 3.0 spec). That is really Not enough power to melt things.. the heat from 2.5 Watts will dissipate too quickly. The insulating and protective materials around the USB wires are plastics.. Not gasoline - Its going to take a little bit more energy to produce significant enough heat to melt them.
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500 mA is approximately 2.5 Watts at 5volts (the maximum voltage per the USB 2 / 3.0 spec). That is really Not enough power to melt things.. the heat from 2.5 Watts will dissipate too quickly. The insulating and protective materials around the USB wires are plastics.. Not gasoline - Its going to take a little bit more energy to produce significant enough heat to melt them.
Problem is that is for older stuff as not only can it be up to 20v but at a few amps, with USB 3.1 and various PD versions it can be up to 5A ish so around 100w. Granted I mostly use devices that use under 20W max and use custom packs not off the shelf USB PD banks I've DIY'd for anything over, Mostly because I'm more paranoid/ott for avoiding damaged gear and not trusting manufacturers ratings/testing in higher power (expensive) things so want to make sure, plus often cheaper for me getting quality cells o
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There are newer/advanced protocols that can provide more power, but the updates that allow more power are also strict about when its allowed - you can't just grab an old common USB cable from a previous generation and expect it to work with USB PD. The specs don't permit increasing the supply voltage from the host above 5volts or the USB 1.0 levels of 500mA without a positive identifications of the cable and the host/device capabilities, and all 3 c
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There are newer/advanced protocols that can provide more power, but the updates that allow more power are also strict about when its allowed - you can't just grab an old common USB cable from a previous generation and expect it to work with USB PD. The specs don't permit increasing the supply voltage from the host above 5volts or the USB 1.0 levels of 500mA without a positive identifications of the cable and the host/device capabilities, and all 3 components supporting it.
USB PD uses different cables from USB 3, and those cables carry an electronic marker identifying the current carrying capacities of the cable.
Aye agree it shouldn't work in theory and there are standards, problem is manufacturers don't always follow them or impliment them properly. Seen that on a lot of devices, not necessarily just this, where teardown show sketchy implementations and all the parts of the chain are not suitable. If the terminations are correct for purpose you'd assume the cable is but that isn't always the case as some manufacturers seems to have no QC nor care past makign a quick buck. For example seen various USB based charge
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USB power supplies are supposed to have that kind of stuff. Many of them don't. Especially the dumb as brick wall wart USB power supplies that are just a switching power supply with no smarts whatsoever. Even a lot of computers will let you get away drawing significant amounts of current through a USB port, until you finally reach the point where something goes pop and the magic smoke comes out.
And then there's USB-C, where the spec allows for current levels that most certainly could start a fire, and qu
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Any regulations are overrated if you are the one who has to follow the regulations.
If you work in Health Care in the United States you have to Follow HIPAA regulations. For IT Work it is damn annoying as you want to share the data across systems for better patient care, however the regulations make it very difficult because it prevents you from doing too much future proofing. Now as a worker I hate that regulation. However as a patient and a family member of patients. I do enjoy the privacy that it provi
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There's a reason there are warning labels on hair dryers not to use them in the shower or some shampoos should not be used internally.
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There's a reason there are warning labels on hair dryers not to use them in the shower or some shampoos should not be used internally.
And bleach or UV light.
Toxic toaster (Score:3)
We bought an Amazon Basics camp toaster, one with a diffuser and folding rack so you can toast bread on a camp fire. Even after getting it super hot three times it still smelled like oil. Hopefully it wasn't PCBs. Threw it away, obviously, never having made any toast on it.
As a result I don't even look at Amazon Basics items, since they clearly do not do even the most basic QC.
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Re:Toxic toaster (Score:4, Interesting)
It was stamped steel, like all the modern camp toasters.
It smelled like machine oil, not food oil.
That's okay if you're a robot who loves toast, but not so good for humans.
I would not have told that story if it was what you imagined.
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We bought an Amazon Basics camp toaster, one with a diffuser and folding rack so you can toast bread on a camp fire. Even after getting it super hot three times it still smelled like oil. Hopefully it wasn't PCBs. Threw it away, obviously, never having made any toast on it.
As a result I don't even look at Amazon Basics items, since they clearly do not do even the most basic QC.
I wonder what the problem was.. Where you using this over a camp stove? Might the "oil" smell be the propane or white gas? IF you are using propane, I suggest the problem was the gas/air mix of your stove was a bit rich, not the basically inert stainless steel parts of the toaster. Was the flame yellow tipped? All blue? OR it's the added "smell" in propane (which is really an odorless, colorless gas).
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One of the things i do regularly in the course of my work duties is drill holes in metal. I often use cutting fluid when I do. It smelled like that.
Another thing I do is service LP appliances. It didn't smell like that.
The problem was toxic oil on a product meant for food preparation.
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Sure, but taking your statements at face value... (and looking at similar items I summarize look like the one you tossed..)
This thing was punched out in a press and I doubt they used cutting oil of the kind you are used to. They likely didn't drill anything, but the die set punches the holes as the part is cut and formed. Not that it's all that different, they use lubricants in presses too, it's just not "cutting oil" per say, though likely made from similar base materials.
But you state you heated this i
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I never got the metal glowing hot, but I tried unsuccessfully to burn it off on multiple occasions. It was disgusting. I scrubbed it again with unscented detergent soap (and rinsed it well) between attempts, of which there were three IIRC.
Maybe I just never got it hot enough to fully burn off, but based on my experience with heavy weight oils on steel I would have thought so.
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We bought an Amazon Basics camp toaster, one with a diffuser and folding rack so you can toast bread on a camp fire. Even after getting it super hot three times it still smelled like oil. Hopefully it wasn't PCBs. Threw it away, obviously, never having made any toast on it.
As a result I don't even look at Amazon Basics items, since they clearly do not do even the most basic QC.
I wonder what the problem was.. Where you using this over a camp stove? Might the "oil" smell be the propane or white gas? IF you are using propane, I suggest the problem was the gas/air mix of your stove was a bit rich, not the basically inert stainless steel parts of the toaster. Was the flame yellow tipped? All blue? OR it's the added "smell" in propane (which is really an odorless, colorless gas).
Probably the excess varnish burning off of metal windings in some coil somewhere. A lot of devices with motors have a smell when you first use them, for example.
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Windings aren't limited to motors. Transformer windings do the same thing under load. I have no idea if such devices have transformers in them or not, but it isn't entirely out of the realm of possibility, particularly if it is AC/DC.
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Did you clean it before using it?
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Yes, I washed it very thoroughly with dish detergent.
Re: Toxic toaster (Score:2)
Burned a chair with a USB cord? (Score:2)
Re: Burned a chair with a USB cord? (Score:2)
Re:Burned a chair with a USB cord? (Score:4, Informative)
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Speaking as someone who deals with some product safety, there is no amount of 'oh we didn't certify to that' that would excuse a smoke/fire event. Further for a situation like this (standard USB), warranty couldn't weasel out of replacement if the circuitry even safely gets damaged when plugged into something that physically fits (all the potentially out-of-spec scenarios for a component are not supposed to happen until all components involved have explicitly advertised it can do it)..
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Speaking as someone who deals with some product safety, there is no amount of 'oh we didn't certify to that' that would excuse a smoke/fire event
So if I decided to use my USB cable to replace the mains power cord in my deep fat fryer I get to sue Amazon for the comedy outcome?
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Ok, so if you cut apart a product and attempt to reuse the bits randomly, no the manufacturer wouldn't be accountable for the scrap metal of its product being used for whatever.
However, plugging a usb cable into a usb port and claiming some obscure 'not supported' scenario is why it caught fire would not fly. Similarly, if you have a PSU for which there are standards defining how your standard connector could connect to 220V, then your PSU must not catch fire or smoke if it gets connected to 220V, even if i
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However, plugging a usb cable into a usb port and claiming some obscure 'not supported' scenario is why it caught fire would not fly.
So if my USB charger has a short circuit that puts the full mains power through the USB cable, that's the cable manufacturer's fault?
I don't think we're going to agree on this.
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The original comment was that it's the users fault if they buy a cable that is plugged into a validly behaving port or pair of ports but that cable still burned things. They didn't claim that there was a dodgy power source or device, just that the things being connected supported valid spec behavior, but the cable wasn't designed for it and could be excused for a smoke/fire event.
A charger that accidentally puts mains on the connectors would not be a valid behavior. This is different from 'usb source suppor
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And are Amazon Basic cables certified at this level? Or was this just someone who used the wrong cable, not a product defect?
USB Power Delivery (PD) requires that the cable tell how much current it can handle, so unless we're talking about legacy USB (USB-A), if a cable overheats, it's a product defect in either the cable or the charger.
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It doesn't take many volts if you have a lot of amps: https://www.quora.com/Is-it-po... [quora.com].
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How many amperes you can drive through your chair depends a lot on the chair and the volts you can put across it.
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5v@2A==10W. An electric cigar lighter draws about 25W, and creates a much larger hotspot than you need to burn a visible mark into a chair, or ignite a particularly crap one which does not meet fire retardant specifications.
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the watts the total.
No, the watts don't measure the total, whatever that is.
The watts measure the power, which is the energy that creates the current, which moved through the load by the volts across it for some unit of time.
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If you insist to be an anal pedant, then don't make stupid mistakes out of ignorance, smartypants.
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Good synopsis.
I used to work with high-voltage scientific gear. Some of it generated up to 250,000 volts DC, but the amperage was in the nano- to pico-amp range.
I took more than "residual" 100KV shocks to my hands and torso a few times. It'll convulse the shit right out of you, literally in some cases (fortunately not in mine).
It won't kill you but it'll make you feel shaky for a few hours. You may also get odd muscle cramps later in muscles you didn't even know you had.
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It won't kill you but it'll make you feel shaky for a few hours. You may also get odd muscle cramps later in muscles you didn't even know you had.
There was a movie in the 80s Running Scared where a car chase went into the NY subway. The passenger told the driver to avoid the 3rd rail, as it carried 50k volts. Driver said, "It's not the volts that kill you, it's the amps." Passenger said, "Well it's got enough amps to push a train, so keep off it!"
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Now that Keith Alexander oversees Amazon... (Score:2)
Amazon products are terrible. (Score:5, Informative)
I bought a toaster oven about 6 months ago. 2 months in I wiped the thing down, the paint on the front that tells you the temperature and time you've set it to washed right off. Looks like the paint was never cured to the metal.
Had it been a normal seller, it would have been simple to get in touch with the person to get a new one. Because Amazon was the seller I wasn't able to initiate a return as it was over 30 days from the purchase. "Contact the seller" puts you in an endless loop of menu's that never resolve to a human. I left terrible reviews for the product hoping that would get some traction. In the end, there is no way to get in touch with a person that cares at Amazon.
I'm fairly convinced the products that Amazon sells directly are of the worst quality and I should avoid them. It's no fun getting scammed by an almost trillion dollar company.
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When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin. - Winston Churchill
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I'm no amazon fan boy.. And I agree their menu trees are circular and designed to dissuade you from making contact with them, but I've never had an issue that calling them couldn't fix quickly. Yea, it's hard to find that phone number in the menu tree, but it's there (or it was last time I needed it).
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their menu trees are circular
Sounds like an epic graph theory fail.
Re:Amazon products are terrible. (Score:4, Interesting)
their menu trees are circular
Sounds like an epic graph theory fail.
They definitely have directed graphs with a cycle or two built into them, I believe on purpose, to frustrate folks and dissuade them from actually calling (and costing Amazon money by keeping their customer service folks busy). So, it may not be a "fail" from Amazon's perspective.
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If you know how to find it, why don't you post it here?
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I bought a toaster oven about 6 months ago. 2 months in I wiped the thing down, the paint on the front that tells you the temperature and time you've set it to washed right off. Looks like the paint was never cured to the metal.
Had it been a normal seller, it would have been simple to get in touch with the person to get a new one. Because Amazon was the seller I wasn't able to initiate a return as it was over 30 days from the purchase. "Contact the seller" puts you in an endless loop of menu's that never resolve to a human. I left terrible reviews for the product hoping that would get some traction. In the end, there is no way to get in touch with a person that cares at Amazon.
I'm fairly convinced the products that Amazon sells directly are of the worst quality and I should avoid them. It's no fun getting scammed by an almost trillion dollar company.
--
When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin. - Winston Churchill
It's a race to the cheapness bottom for Amazon Basics products. It's a basically the cheapest model they can buy, made cheaper by volume, strong arming, and no advertising costs needing to be amortized in.
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Because Amazon was the seller I wasn't able to initiate a return as it was over 30 days from the purchase. "Contact the seller" puts you in an endless loop of menu's that never resolve to a human.
Have you ever considered moving to a country with consumer protection laws? Amazon would get royally screwed if they did this in most western countries.
Idiots be idiots? (Score:2)
Never had any issue with amason basics stuff.
They may not be as cheap as the dodgy stuff, but they are cheaper that the ridiculous branded stuff and often better.
Some people have high expectations for the price point of don't even keep a check on items that may break over time. USB cables being an obious one of them. Breaks and tears around the end, bin it buy another and don;t expect it to work. Also they tend not to if you use it carefully (an out of fashion thing).
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Amazon Basics are like shopping at WalMart. Prices are low, quality is variable but generally good to low, depending on what you're willing to pay.
Read reviews, don't expect great things for super cheap prices. I was shopping for some replacement rechargeable C batteries recently. Amazon Basics had like five different kinds, at varying prices, with varying capacities. I got one of their highest price offerings, and those (high capacity) cells appear to have all the capacity they were rated for, which is
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Cheap = Variance.
Getting the Cheap No Name Brand products I have found you often get a variance in quality. Normally from Slightly below average quality, to well about expected quality.
There is a lot of cost in a product to make sure it properly fits a recognized standard. Being that you are working with supplies that may be different via the production scheduled. If you are plastic molding, the Plastic from the begging of the batch may be melted just at its melting point, and will cool much faster than n
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Never had any issue with amason basics stuff.
They may not be as cheap as the dodgy stuff, but they are cheaper that the ridiculous branded stuff and often better.
The only issue I've had thus far is that some of their product designers must be smoking crack. I bought a couple of power strips from them, with the intent to use one in my bedroom. The thing has an LED-lit glass face that serves as a power light. It's bright enough to use as an emergency exit sign.
But otherwise, I've never had a problem with them working, and their Lightning cables have generally been a lot more reliable than the Apple versions (but this was back before Amazon started using the same ov
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This just goes to show that al the certifications and testing in the world won't help if you draw the lucky number and get the one device where stress fractures cause all four screws that hold the case together to no longer hold the case together.
That was my initial reaction to the entire story.
Do some Amazon Basics products fail? Hell yes. Do some of them fail catastrophically? Probably.
Most of the catastrophic failures are likely to be user error and the net failure rate could be utterly miniscule. It's just that when you sell a billion items and everybody in the world can read the reviews of the four that broke...
I bought Energizer batteries (Score:2)
instead of the Amazon ones. I read a lengthy breakdown of their shelf life and use life in addition to safety as there are a lot of posts about exploding batteries or unexpected corrosion ruining devices. While the Amazon ones are cheaper they have to be replaced more often and are of dubious quality.
I'll pay a bit more for peace of mind (don't need a storage closet bursting in to flames and burning everything else down) and better results.
My last fiasco was a shipping one. I bought my brother a birthday
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Amazon still seems to be waving COVID excuse for not honoring its delivery policy.
If it can't be done. Fine, but let the customer know of the correct shipping date. If you ordered 2 day delivery and can't do that. Eat the delivery cost and don't charge us for delivery (if you are a prime member, better give us some rewards)
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Seriously? Do you unpackage them and lay them end to end for storage? How in hell does a battery standing alone explode into fire? Leak crap, sure, but never in seventy years have I seen a battery simply burst into flame.
Where did he buy that chair? (Score:2)
IMO there is another import question to ask. Where did he buy that computer/office chair, and just how quickly did it burst into flames? Was that also an Amazon purchase, and is it significantly more flammable than US regulations would allow? I would imagine regulations like that only apply to US manufacturers (and not to sellers like Amazon), so things made in China and shipped by Amazon may not be subject to those.
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I always thought that the importer was responsible to verify that consumer items meet local regulations, regardless of where they are coming from. This would include consumer safety rules.
The problem here is that importers are not being held responsible (or are gone with the money) when the problem becomes apparent. Of course you are free to sue the retailer who sold you unsafe goods along with the importer. However, the costs of filing suit is usually more than you could recover, and most lawyers who do
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Utah?
Non-story (Score:2)
The reviews identified represent a small fraction of the overall purchases of the products, and fires caused by consumer electronics are not unique to Amazon branded items.
Well that pretty much sums that up. The real question is whether or not the Amazon products in a given category experience higher failure rates compared to other manufacturers. TFA doesn't answer that. The fact that Amazon is producing such a large number of products in so many categories, and selling such large quantities of them, will result in some baseline number of failures.
Re: Non-story (Score:2)
You can also sue the hell out of them should a faulty product burn your house down, and they have the money to pay up.
AliExpress (Score:2)
...is that you?
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I buy a lot of stuff on AE, but never would I buy batteries, being AA or CR123 or 2032 and even worse, 18650 or thing like lipo 6000mAh 4S 70C for RC cars
Scale? (Score:2)
Been following this story on other outlets and watching it make its way around the various aggregators and so here it shows up on Slashdot.
So my main critique is that the article seems to cherry pick incidents. it doesn't talk at all about frequency of incidents compared to sales volumes. Anecdotally, I've had really good luck with Amazon basics products, so my initial reaction is one of skepticism.
What level of failure is acceptable in a product? Is it a zero failure environment we expect, or do we need to
All electronics have reviews like that (Score:1)
Iinsufficient management at Amazon: Poor web pages (Score:2)
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A lot of that is a seller posting at a good price and shipping and another that posts a lower price and makes it equal by shipping.
Math, your friend.
UPS stopped working due to... low voltage (Score:3)
Not the real cause of the problem (Score:2, Insightful)
Said it before, and I'll say it again (Score:4, Interesting)
The FTC needs to come down hard on Amazon.
I've seen electronics sold direct from China that are direct fire hazards. I've seen counterfeit UL labels on electronic goods. I've seen "plenum-rated" Cat6 cable show up in a box with non-twisted pairs of copper-clad aluminum conductors with a cheap PVC jacket. And that's just what I've personally witnessed. Why Amazon is allowed to become a trillion dollar company by selling dangerous, unregulated, and counterfeit Chinese goods directly to the US market is beyond me.
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Why yes, I do realize that is almost everything. But as long as it doesn't effect toilet paper I don't care.
You get what you pay for (Score:3)
Gray Market crap (Score:2)
Amazon Basics is only a sliver of the problem. Much of Amazon is inundated with the same kind of sketchy crap, just not necessarily Amazon branded. Almost anything electronics related has search results clogged with unknown fly-by-night "brands", with many of the products being clones/identical to each other. Amazon enables these vendors like no-other (well, Ebay is right behind, but you kind of expect sketchy stuff on an auction site).
reviews represent a small fraction of purchases (Score:2)
Amazon imitates Samsung (Score:2)
Amazon doesn't care about anyone, thats your fault (Score:2)
Back in the day, if a retailer sold crappy products, people wouldn't shop there anymore. If you don't like Amazon, quit your subscription (it's overrated, and overpriced) and it's products are overpriced. Tell all your friends to do the same. I have, I have not missed prime one bit. I order 2-3 items a year if amazon is the only one that has it or the best price. Convenience isn't worth the price, plus you have options now (walmart,ebay and other retailers). Shop around
That's why they called it the "Kindle Fire" (Score:2)
Maybe that's why they called it the "Kindle Fire", because that's what it does.