Posted on 04/02/2023 7:02:21 PM PDT by george76
There's important information for the owners of tens of thousands of electric bikes. Stop using and charging them, because they're being recalled.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Jetson Electric Bikes announced the recall of about 53,000 electric bikes.
The bikes are 42-volt Jetson Rogue self-balancing scooters/hoverboards, and the problem is with their lithium-ion battery packs. The batteries can overheat, posing a fire hazard.
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The CPSC reported two sisters, 10 and 15 years old, were killed in a fire, and a 42-volt Jetson Rogue was the point of origin. The tragedy happened April 1, 2022, near Allentown, Pa., and the fire spread from the room with the electric bike to other parts of the house. The girls' parents suffered smoke inhalation, and the cause of the fire remains undetermined.
The feds say there have been multiple other reports of the recalled scooters/hoverboards burning, sparking or melting, several of which involved reports of flames.
The recall involves all 42-volt Jetson Rogue self-balancing scooters/hoverboards. They have two wheels with light-up hubcaps and come in various colors. "Jetson" is printed on one side of the body and on the top of the footpads.
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The affected bikes were manufactured in 2018 and 2019, and have a UL certification label and serial number on the bottom. They do not have a barcode on the bottom. The charge port has three pins, and is located to the left of the power button. Bikes with a charge port with just one pin on the right of the power button are not included in the recall.
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The recalled self-balancing scooters/hoverboards were sold at Target from August 2018 to June 2019, and at Jetson's website from January 2019 to November 2021.
They cost between $100 and $150.
Anybody with these electric bikes is urged to immediately stop using and charging them, and contact Jetson for a full refund.
That ain’t a bike. It is a hoverboard. So my son tells me.
There have been a number of fires, some fatal, iirc, in NYC apts where people were storing these bikes/scooters, etc. And people in NYC don’t have garages or any outside storage.
I remember when my gocart caught on fire. My friend’s sister was driving it, and I was driving his gocart and racing her. Good times. NGL, it looked pretty cool. Nobody died. It was just some spilled gas, I think. I had to pass her to get her to pull over and get out of it.
Electric bikes are going to have big problems in our Brave New World, in that if you bring them indoors, they take out buildings, but if you leave them outdoors, the ‘Amish’ take them out.
Best option that I can think of is to bring them indoors, but remove the battery (assuming removable) and store the battery in a special chamber that vents outdoors when the battery decides to Tesla.
Of course homes do not (yet) have that chamber.
when the battery decides to Tesla.
Made me LOL.
There must be a thousand rechargeable hand tools using the same sort of batteries for every one of these hoverboards and scooters and Teslas and Volts and Leafs and whatnot. Which begs the question, why aren’t my power tools burning the house down?
I can tell you that my solar battery bank is outside, Lithium Iron, encased in concrete board walls, on a slab, with a metal cover.
Every cell is monitored 24/7 for voltage. 34 cells for 28 kw of storage. They float about 3.2 to 3.3 volts each. If they get to 3.4 all charging stops immediately.
Not taking any chances.
One of the big problems is that they use the same plug for different voltage toys. We went to a burning odor call and found a power wheels and a scooter and one was 12v and the other 40v(?) with the same plug and the high voltage cord was plugged into the low voltage toy. It didn’t quite catch fire yet but it wasn’t far off.
How many innocent pedestrians were killed, disabled, or maimed by these bikes BEFORE they caught on fire?
Electric bikes belong on the street, not on the sidewalk.
There was a 2 bay garage big enough to put 2 18 wheelers, truck and trailers inside. about 2 miles from me.
The building also housed offices and records storage.
The fire that destroyed it was started by a power tool battery being charged.
E-bikes can’t be brought on public transit in China, it’s that big a problem.
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