Battery bloated

[IAP]

Hi all,

I logged a support Request #33885 but did not get an answer in over a week now.

My battery is bloated. Its so bloated I cant even close the metal back cover anymore. The battery does not hold any power anymore and the phone switches off immediately after disconnecting the charger. I dont want to charge the battery anymore as this is hazardous right now - the battery is clearly broken and could go on fire if charged again.

I got my phone in january. Batteries should last at least two years. 10 months is clearly not long enough. Can you please get in contact with me to solve this issue. I cant use my phone anymore!! I start to regret having chosen the fairphone. Not answering a support request within a week is clearly a NOGO.

Can someone please take care of this case. A bloated battery should be a warranty thing. Please please am begging you get in contact with me.

And why do I need to register two different accounts - one for support and one different one for the forum? weird.

can someone please help me?

Thanks.

[Fairlulu]

That’s terrible! How did the battery get bloated?

[Chris_R]

@IAP

I’m sorry to hear about your problem. This should definately not be the case and should be replaced under warranty.

The forum is however just a community forum and doesn’t get you official answers. As you’ve logged a support ticket already I can’t suggest much more.

I will tag @joe as the community manager at Fairphone to flag this with support and get you a response asap.

[IAP]

I am a bit unlucky and my battery became faulty. Batteries do not last for ever but shouldn’t get bloated at all. But it can happen once in a while and the battery should be replaced under warranty. I understand that. Bloated batteries can happen if battery is faulty (my case) or if they get too hot due to overcharging (unlikely in my case) or to warm surroundings (not in my case).

The problem lies somewhere else though. I do not get an answer to my support request. Meaning since a week I am waiting for an answer and until I will receive one and until I get a battery shipped there will be more time going down the drain. several weeks without phone is not acceptable. Cases like this should be handled within a few days incl. shipping. Lets see if I get an answer any time soon.

[ben]

Lets see if I get an answer any time soon.

If you not get an answer during the weekend, you could try calling the support to get attention. Have your request number ready. You will find the number on this page (bottom):
https://fairphone.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

[joe]

Dear @IAP,

You have every right to be concerned about this battery issue. I’m sorry the customer support team has not contacted you earlier. I will personally put this as a top priority when the team is back in the office Monday morning. Further, we will discuss internally why this issue was not prioritized and you did not receive a response sooner.

In the meantime, please do not use your phone with a bloated battery - I cannot be sure exactly what the cause is without more details, but a bloated battery is potentially very dangerous. I’m writing this publicly so other users know that bloated batteries are dangerous.

I’m sorry for any inconvenience not being able to use your phone may cause. We will have more information for you by private email on Monday.

Thanks for your patience,
Joe

[morten_olsen]

Dear @joe and @IAP,
I have the same problem.
Filed it under support #35434 just now, incl. photos of the problem.
Very unpleasant and disappointing to see such manufacturing issues.
Please help to push the support team to do something about it.

As I am located in China (the miraculous country of origin of our beloved FP) and would like to avoid unnecessary shipping costs, delays and CO2 footprints, I would be happy if someone from design & production department could advise the Changhong Battery model no. which is equivalent to the F1B101, as it may be easily available here in China from online stores at Taobao:
http://s.taobao.com/search?q=�����ֻ�����&js=1&stats_click=search_radio_all%3A1&initiative_id=staobaoz_20141123

It’s no secret that FP is based on an existing Changhong design, just which model, and to which extent they are compatible is not clear.

[joe]

Dear @morten_olsen,

I’m sorry to see this. I can’t speak to your particular situation, so I’ll let our customer support write you when we’re back in the office (tomorrow, 24 Nov).

The batteries are specific to each phone model from a sub-supplier separate from our Changhong/Guohong manufacturer and may not be the same batteries used for another phone. Including similar models made in the same manufacturer. But our support team will tell you more via email.

Best,
Joe

[Sparafucile]

My battery is starting to bloat as well since a few weeks.

Andreas

[Ian]

I also have a swollen battery, and the support team are helping with this. From the looks of the other pictures I think I caught mine before it got too bad!

I am worried about this issue though as there seem to be a few of us with swollen batteries at the same time. How quickly does this sort of damage happen? Is this something that would have happened over the ten months I have had the phone, or could it be more recent damage? Will a replacement battery be okay, or will it fail again?

[Bobby]

Hello

I was also worried and curious about this topic.

To let the people use their own chargers is in theory a good idea, but in practice only a minority of the chargers do their job in the specified limits.

I have modified a charger cable to connect a Volt- and Ampere-Meter and asked then friends and family if I could use their charger to charge my (old HTC) phone.
After measuring more than 20 diffrerent chargers (included car-chargers) I am a bit shocked and glad that I made these tests with my old phone.
And I am surprised that there are not more bloated Fairphone-Batterys.

@ Fairphone-Team:
I think using a Fairphone-Charger would be better for the environment than to waste stressed Batterys with too aggressive chargers.

Best regards
Bobby

[Bobby]

After theses tests some people asked me how is the much safest (healthiest for the Battery) way tho charge a Fairphone without the Fairphone-Charger http://shop.fairphone.com/catalog/category/view/id/9.

IMHO I propose to charge it on a PC / Laptop using a USB2-Port.
USB3 can charge faster, but some powerful ports (for USB-Harddisks) can overcharge the Fairphone and overcharging it frequently can bloat the Battery…

Best regards
Bobby

[therob]

@Bobby: I do not agree with you. If an USB3.0-Port CAN deliver more than 1A current, it does not mean that the battery or even the FP sees this high current. The Port should only deliver that current, which will be used/consumed/requested from the device.
And if the FP is designed to use more than it can handle it would be a really big problem - and therefore I don’t think it is like this.

Any comments?

@Chris_R @joe:
Because I saw now some bloated batteries in the last days, maybe we should merge the different posts and maybe create a pinned topic or even a poll, how many batteries/FPs are affected and under which circumstances it occured…?
It is a quite serious problem, if a lot of FP (or all?) will be affected sooner or later…

Hope the best,
Robert

[Marco]

Hi all, thanks all for your reports about the bloated batteries and I am really sorry we are seeing some of these issues.

If you have a bloated battery:

1. Please stop using it immediately and remove it from your Fairphone
2. Contact us (customer support), please use “bloated battery” in your subject line so we can recognise your issue in the swiftest way possible
3. Customer support will get back to you and arrange a replacement battery for you asap.

For now the best way is to contact us, so we can collect all the feedback and work with our product department on figuring out a possible cause and/or solution.

Thanks!

[IAP]

Hi all.

Today I finally received my new battery. Thanks. It took 21 days from the time I logged the support case. There is room for improvement. Also check your delivery partner GLS - it took 7 days for the shipment alone. The battery spent 3 full days in a Belgian warehouse…

To all other ones: as in all technology products also batteries have faults. 1-3% of all produced batteries are or will get faulty. With 25k FP sold thats between 250 and 750 faulty batteries. This is normal and not FP fault.

IMHO the charger should not make a difference. Stronger chargers will charge the battery quicker and maybe the lifetime of the battery shortens a little but it should not overcharge the battery at all. Maybe you really can lengthen the lifetime of a battery if you keep the charge between 30% and 85% as suggested in another thread. I will try this. Also make sure the battery doesn’t get too hot. Maybe it is better to remove the phone from the protective case when charging? Would that make a difference because the phone is getting really warm when charging?

Thanks for the warranty battery. It works fine now.

IAP

[C1710]

I’ve got the same problem. Just written to the support. Unfortunately I can’t use my phone over christmas
(And I used a wrong title). It’s really annoying to see so many problems with this terrible phone. But in half a year I#ll have a new, better phone and it won’t be the FP2…

[changeover]

I have the same problem too.
request #38351

I hope these are isolated incidents.

[Es_Ter]

Same problem, but I realised that the battery was bloated, just after having bought a new one (no time to lose and no money for buying any new phone). I wrote to the support team (request #38675) and now I’m waiting for an answer because I think I have the right to be refused. Here some pictures.