The fitness-tracking system maker Fitbit is recalling 1.7m of its Ionic smartwatches after stories of the battery overheating and burning some customers.
The corporate, which was acquired by Google in 2021, had offered about 1m of the mannequin within the US and almost 700,000 internationally.
The US Client Product Security Fee introduced the recall, warning that the watch’s lithium-ion battery can overheat, inflicting a “burn hazard”.
The watch was recalled after Fitbit obtained 174 stories of its battery overheating, together with instances of 118 folks being burned. Many customers put on the units in mattress to observe them whereas sleeping.
Two of the folks injured by the watch had third-degree burns, whereas 4 others reported much less extreme second-degree burns.
The fee instructed Ionic homeowners to cease utilizing the recalled system instantly and get in touch with Fitbit to return the system and obtain a refund. Clients within the US can contact Fitbit for pre-paid packaging. Fitbit will even present any shoppers who return their Ionic watch with a code for a reduction on sure new units.
The Ionic smartwatch, which includes a 3.5cm color LCD display screen and a polyurethane band out there in a number of colors, tracks the wearer’s exercise, coronary heart charge and sleep. The model title Fitbit is printed on the entrance of the Taiwan-manufactured watch, which was initially offered for between $200 (£150) and $330.
The corporate mentioned the watch was manufactured between 2017 and 2020, and is now not offered by way of its web site, fitbit.com or authorised retailers.
Nonetheless, Fitbit added that it did “not management third-party or aftermarket sellers”.
The corporate was purchased by Google for $2.1bn in January 2021 after regulatory scrutiny within the US and the EU over concerns about customers’ health and fitness data and whether or not it could possibly be used for promoting functions. As a part of the deal, Google agreed it might not use Fitbit for adverts for a minimum of a decade.
The Ionic smartwatch is the not the primary product Fitbit, which was based in San Francisco in 2007, has recalled.
In 2014 it voluntarily recalled its Force device after some clients developed an allergic response. Fitbit mentioned unbiased check outcomes confirmed this was prone to be allergic contact dermatitis as a response to nickel within the system’s surgical-grade chrome steel.
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