Australian LG Chem solar battery recall announced

LG Energy Solution Australia Pty Ltd (formerly LG Chem Australia Pty Ltd), has issued a recall notice for various LG Chem RESU models and battery packs with cells from specific production lots, Solarquotes.com.au reports.

In December last year, LG Energy Solution triggered a voluntary recall in the USA after receiving five reports of fires resulting in minor property damage. These incidents were associated with LG Chem RESU 10H residential energy storage systems with specific serial numbers sold from January 2017 through March 2019. The recall involved around 1,800 battery systems.

On Friday, a recall notice was posted on the Product Safety Australia web site for the following models with cells manufactured between March 2017 and September 2018 from certain production lots.

  • RESU7H_Type R
  • RESU10
  • RESU10H Type-C
  • RESU10H_Type R
  • EM048063P3S4
  • EM048126P3S7

The last two are battery packs (3.262 kWh and 6.524 kWh respectively) that may be used in other storage systems, such as Redback Technologies’ Smart Hybrid Battery Enclosure BE13200.

479 units in Australia are affected by the recall; the serial numbers of which can be found here and instructions for locating those numbers here.

The recall notice notes the defect as being “the batteries may overheat and catch on fire”.

Owners of affected systems who haven’t yet been contacted are urged to get in touch with LG Energy Solution Australia’s product department (1300 677 273 or email via productau@lgensol.com) immediately to arrange an inspection. If applicable, a replacement battery will be supplied at no cost.

During the period prior to replacement, a remote software upgrade for affected internet-connected  RESU10H Type-R and RESU7H Type-R units is being organised by LG Energy Solution Australia to lower the maximum state of charge to 90%.

While this is an unfortunate turn of events, at least LG is taking this voluntary action rather than saying nothing, crossing its fingers and hoping none of its potentially affected LG Chem RESU batteries installed in Australia burst into flames. It’s not clear why there was a significant lag between the US recall and Australian recall.

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