“Critically important:” ACCC raises fresh alarm over faulty home batteries

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued yet another warning to households with a recalled LG battery, warning that the “potentially dangerous” batteries cause a “serious risk of injury or death due to the affected batteries overheating and causing a fire.”

“All households with a solar storage system need to urgently check if the system has a recalled LG battery installed and should switch off affected batteries immediately,” warned the ACCC in an update published on Monday.

According to the ACCC, LG is currently instructing all consumers with affected LG batteries in their solar energy storage system to switch off their systems immediately and keep it off until the batteries are fixed or replaced.

“It is critically important that anyone with a solar energy storage system checks their battery’s serial number, as this recall has been updated to include new models, affected systems and dates of manufacture,” said Catriona Lowe, ACCC deputy chair.

“Even if you don’t have an LG-branded solar storage system, you may still have an LG branded battery that has been recalled. For peace of mind – check your system again and turn off your battery straight away if it has been recalled.”

The recall appears to be widespread across a range of battery serial numbers, listed below (according to the most recent ACCC Product Safety Australia update):

• RESU3.3
  • RESU6.5
  • RESU10
  • RESU13
  • RESU7H Type-R
  • RESU10H Type-C
  • RESU10H Type-R
  • RESU10H Type-R (Secondary)
  • EM048063P3S2 (Standalone Gen2 1P)
  • EM048063P3S4 (Standalone Gen2 1P)
  • EM048063P3S5 (Standalone Gen2 1P)
  • EM048126P3S7 (Standalone Gen2 2P)
  • EM048126P3S8 (Standalone Gen2 2P)

Thus, according to Product Safety Australia, systems that might contain any of these batteries include LG branded RESU systems, SolaX Power Station, SolaX X-Cabinet, Opal Storage, Redback SH5000, Red Earth Sunrise, Red Earth Drop Bear, Eguana Evolve, and VARTA Pulse Neo.

LG has reportedly promised to provide financial compensation to consumers who have higher electricity bills due to not being able to use their batteries.

“Please put your safety first and follow this important advice to switch off,” said Lowe.

“LG will compensate consumers who are out-of-pocket on their electricity bills as a result of switching off and not being able to use their battery.”

A long road to recall

A recall for around 7,200 LG home batteries was first issued by the ACCC in Australia in March 2021, following a “voluntary” recall that itself had followed reports of “thermal events” in the US.

The ACCC then reissued the recall just over a year later, broadening the batteries involved to include the brand names SolaX Power or Opal and warning that nearly 6,500 faulty batteries were yet to be replaced.

Another notice was issued in November of last year, when it was revealed that thousands of the faulty home batteries remain installed in Australian homes, despite the ACCC’s recall efforts.

“Unfortunately, since October 2019 there have been nine reported incidents involving these types of batteries in Australia resulting in property damage and one injury,” the notice said last year.

“We do not want to see any more incidents or injuries.”