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Protecting your users in the Dell recall

17.08.2006
Dell just announced the largest recall of any consumer electronic item in history: 4.1 million lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Sony and used in over 30 of its models. The recall was precipitated by a small number of overheated batteries in notebooks getting hot enough to cause a fire or potentially explode. Although the risk of such mishaps is small, Dell did the right thing for its customers and itself by taking no chances on someone getting hurt (or worse).

Obviously, a recall of such magnitude will not be inexpensive. (We estimate that it will cost Dell at least US$50 for each battery, or over $200 million, although some substantial amount will be funded by Sony.)

But this recall is only the tip of the iceberg and hardly an isolated case. I believe the risks of overheating in modern portable devices is increasing as more densely packed devices and higher charge rates become the norm. Companies and users must be aware of this risk and do whatever they can to protect themselves and their property from potential heat-caused accidents or suffer the consequences.

This is not the first time batteries have had overheating problems or been recalled by a computer vendor. Dell has done it before, as have Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer and others. And while vendors quickly rallied this time to say this is not a widespread industry issue, that is not the case. It is fair to ask whether this is something unusual or whether it will become an industry trend as more battery-powered devices make their way to market.

Most manufacturers of modern battery-operated devices face a dilemma. Users expect these devices to run for hours, even as they become increasingly powerful and power-hungry. They want their notebooks to run a minimum of four to five hours, up substantially from the two-to-three-hour average of just a couple of years ago. But battery technology hasn't kept pace with the "silicon curve." Indeed, battery power gains only about 5 percent to 10 percent per year; a far cry from the high multiples that processor performance increases by every 18 to 24 months. Users want ever smaller and lighter devices, but batteries are a major portion of the overall size and weight of nearly all portable devices, especially notebooks.

Furthermore, increasingly impatient users (myself included) want fast charge times that allow them to get up and running quickly. That takes chargers that pump high levels of power into the battery, thereby increasing heating and limiting the battery's lifetime, which at best is generally only 250 to 300 charge cycles. Some new battery technologies like fuel cells may change all this, but don't expect such technologies to be made economically and technologically viable for the mass market for at least three to five years.