A Replacement Battery Burned Down a Missouri Family’s Home
This is sadly a teachable moment about being careful when you buy a replacement battery for a device or appliance when one fails. One Missouri family had a battery go bad on their Dyson vacuum. They found a replacement for it on Amazon which eventually led to their home burning to the ground.
I saw the story of Mike Thomas family in Blue Springs, Missouri on Yahoo News. They had a Dyson vacuum with a battery that failed. Like many of us, they found the replacement online and put it in the vacuum. Not long after, they awoke to fire alarms going off in their home.
Fortunately, all of Mike's family were able to escape the home while their belongings were a total loss according to the Fox 4 Kansas City report.
Their Dyson replacement battery fire is not an isolated incident. Any Lithium-ion battery is capable of sparking a fire as this video shows, too.
Smart phones are obviously very common these days and their batteries can be a fire hazard, also. This repair shop was trying to replace an iPhone battery when it suddenly exploded in flames.
As the Fire Chief in Blue Springs, Missouri mentioned, the best practice when replacing a failed battery is to buy directly from the manufacturer so you're getting the exact model that was designed to work with the device. While normally more costly than a generic replacement on Amazon, it's better than having your home and/or loved ones threatened in a fire.