EE recalls all 'Power Bar' USB batteries due to 'fire safety risk'

British carrier EE has issued a recall for all “Power Bars”, the company's name for external USB batteries.

The company had already recalled 500,000 of the devices, after being warned by The Register they posed a safety risk.

The Register subsequently reported that the devices appear not to comply with European safety standards. EE denied that allegation, but has now taken a different tack and admitted that “we are aware of a very small number of further incidents where Power Bars have overheated in circumstances that could cause a fire safety risk.”

“We’re asking everybody to stop using Power Bars and unplug them from their phones or tablets, and the mains,” the recall notice reads. “If you have a Power Bar, you should stop using it straight away and hand it in to one of our stores … as soon as you can.”

Once you cross the threshold of such a store, “eligible customers” will be offered “instructions about how to claim” a £20 voucher you can redeem at accessories.ee.co.uk. The recall notice and the legal pages it links to don't explain the eligibility requirements, but do say you must elect to have accessories purchased with the voucher sent to the same address as your EE account.

Which sounds like some customers will struggle to have a replacement purchase sent to their places of work, a potential further inconvenience after the trip to an EE store to drop off the device. ®