What went wrong inside recalled Anker PowerCore 10000 power banks?

Yep. Anything I get from China, even from a vendor I have done lots of business with in the past gets at minimum random samples inspected and tested when appropriate. Every single shipment, zero exceptions before use.

So many things are caught. At best there is a lack of QA on the Chinese side, but it's definitely worse than that. They have no qualms sending you known-bad items, and just see it as "maybe the customer won't notice" and worth a try. It's definitely a giant pain in the ass, and adds a ton of expense and friction to the process. Lots of stuff you simply cannot source from any other country though - even if you do, the supply chain usually traces back to China anyways so all you're doing is adding a middleman layer to the problem.

It's extremely important to set very explicit and strict quality parameters and specifications prior to any deal you do with a vendor. Even then you will miss things that will later be argued about. The more you can specify the better, otherwise it will be seen as negotiable/changeable.

A lot of folks used to living in a high trust society get really taking advantage by this. Any vendor sourcing from China and not implementing an extreme level of QA to the process is being negligent, and I assume that's quite a lot if not the vast majority.

>Chabuduo mindset [1] is a very real thing

IMO high tech cost optimization is like the opposite of chabuduo - it's not half-assing, but over value engineer under pressure. The PRC's "amazing" manufacturing system fosters adversarial competition down the supply chain because there are so many competitors, packed with technical talent incentivized to value-engineer the shit out of everything to squeeze out fractions of a RMB more per unit. Some engineering team probably poured thousands of man-hours and retooled $$$ manufacturing lines just to gain a tiny margin edge. Sometimes that backfires. But the pressure isn't about laziness - it's involutionary effort. The result is still a zero-trust environment, since when manufacturing base is so dense, everyone incentivized to cut corners or optimize/tweak silently, they usually do, forcing everyone upstream to stay hyper vigilant. So we end up in default equilibrium where it's cheaper/more optimal to squeeze downstream and inspect.

reminds me of this old but crazy if true comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18138699

A strict "do not trust" because BOOM! Do not trust. Wow, and we are betting the bank on this type of garbage.

Yep, there is an interesting book "Poorly made in china" talking about the same thing... not powerbanks but same modus operandi.

For example (hope I didn't mess up the details, it's been some time since I read it), a cosmetics manufacturer vendor replaced shampoo bottles with ones made with less (thinner) plastics multiple times, untill they started being destroyed in shipping... without notifying the company that ordered the shampoo... and then wanted more money for the "better" shampoo bottles.

Also some very questionable practices:

-----

The hair gel that we produced at the factory was green. One day, I noticed that the worker who filled the gel bottles had a skin condition. His hands were covered with the slick formula, and beneath the green, shimmery layer, I could see that the skin on his hands was peeling. Small, raw patches of flesh were exposed, and you didn’t have to be a dermatologist to see that his skin was infected.

“We should probably do something about this one,” I said to Sister, trying to sound calm, while in my head alarm bells were ringing.

Sister did not see the point. “Why?” she asked.

“It might be a health issue?”

“But the worker has done nothing wrong. It’s just an allergic reaction.”

Trying to press the matter, I suggested that the worker might contaminate the product.

Sister twisted around the argument. “How can he harm the product when it was the product that caused him the harm?”

[dead]

This seems to be startlingly contrast to all the talks about "US manufacturers are absolutely doomed w/o Chinese vendors' great products and quality control" when Trump increased the tariffs.

I can only find https://youtu.be/3ZTGwcHQfLY but earlier this year it was all over YouTube.

It clearly isn't the "basic formula" if it was so out of the norm it caused a national controversy and got the vendor's certifications removed. Your bitterness is showing.

Or the changes weren't immediately visible externally.

This is also obvious if you think about installing OpenWRT on a router. You'll quickly find out that there's often various versions of the same product; it used to be that they would mark it somewhere, but that doesn't always happen anymore, and only some versions are compatible.

FWIW my random brand that I purchased was also part of this recall.

I only buy portable Li-ion batteries from manufacturers with a history of product recalls in my country or directly from major retailers that regularly recall defective products.

I also only buy portable battery models that I believe will sell or has sold many thousands of units so any widespread manufacturering defects should become apparent sooner.

And they might pay from now on closer attention. Expensive lesson learned?

For now I don't avoid them, yet. Definitely not switching to a random cinese brand instead.

Locating the physical product is the problem, not the purchase record.

If they have flat batteries you could be safe if they are LiFePO which are quite hard to light on fire. YMMV depending on the actual battery. Usually the come from batches of old phones which went out of production are put into these kind of things since they can be bought on the cheap.

If they put in a round cell I'd stay away. I usually replace the cell with one I know is good and check the circuit for protection. Wouldn't be the first time I've seen something with no over or undervolt protection whatsoever.

I am not sure that no-name batteries are that more dangerous. A common reason batteries catch fire is when things are too densely packed, causing shorts. A famous case is the Galaxy Note 7, which is Samsung, not Chinese tech.

No-name batteries are often way lower capacity than advertised, which means less stuff, and therefore less densely packed and less stuff to burn.

I am not saying that these batteries are safer, or that it is not a scam, but the fact that these batteries are lower capacity can compensate for the sketchy build. Power electronics is another story, so while the battery may be ok, the charging circuit may not.

100%... I'm seeking products that take AA or AAA batteries instead of built-in lithium batteries, for the same reason.

I've seen some teardowns and power supplies are another place where the no-name slop is spooky.

> Your only option is to run.

That is not true. Please don't spread misinformation that could lead to deaths or people losing everything they own.

You can put out a Lithium battery fire with a class-D fire extinguisher. If you don't have one available, you can isolate the burning battery by surrounding it with sand or other inert, dry substances to keep it from spreading until the fire department arrives with proper equipment to dispose of or extinguish it.

It's funny, because this is just a description of content marketing. But most companies forget step 1, which is to make the content interesting.

Last updated scan of the month... August 2023?

But will it blend?

actually no let's not blend the lithium, forbidden inhaled powder

Places like Staples and Office Depot have actual electronics/battery recycling bins they keep in the back. They aren't in front for anyone to drop stuff in because they limit what they will accept. So not sure why you're assuming he would take it home. I mean it's not impossible but I'd assume he was just putting it in their electronics recycling.

This is not just a central europe problem. A bit further west people throw them in the trash as well. Fun and smelly since the garbage truck drivers usually notice it when driving and then dump all trash on the street.

It's taking me to the recall page, not sure why it's not working for you.

See also the CPSC link:

https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2025/More-than-One-Million-Anke...

(Notably, this page mentions "Anker has received 19 reports of fires and explosions. This includes two reports of minor burn injuries not requiring medical attention and 11 reports of property damage totaling over $60,700." Puts it into context! That's not a house, but with numbers like that, I wonder if a couple cars were destroyed.)

There's also Anker's product recalls main page:

https://www.anker.com/product-recalls

which adds a few other models with different enclosures but presumably with the same upstream manufacturer to the recall.

Works for me from the US; it may depend on what region you're in.