Exploding Samsung batteries putting customers at risk

Samsung may have announced an international recall of its in demand Galaxy Note 7 mobile phone but it is still promoting the model on Australian shores.

Terry Koo uses his Samsung smart phone. Source: SBS

More than 50,000 Australian Samsung Galaxy Note 7 owners have been told to turn off their phones and return them to stores after reports of batteries catching fire.

So far only 35 out of 2 million handsets have reportedly burst into flames because of a reported defective lithium battery.

Terry Koo, a Sydney Trains employee from North Sydney who owns the model in question, said the global recall, announced last Friday, was a major shock.

“I wasn’t expecting it, I hadn’t experienced any malfunctions. I had felt the phone getting hot but I just put that down to normal usage. I hadn’t been alarmed about it,” he said.

Terry Koo uses his smart phone. Source: SBS

The lithium fail-safes include the charger and cable, the charging port, and the protection circuit at the top of the battery, which controls the flow of electricity and the temperature of the lithium.

The issues appear to stem from the phone over-charging and the voltage regulator failing, resulting in smoke and fire inside the watertight case building to such an extreme pressure it causes the phone to explode.

The recall was announced after Ariel Gonzalez posted a video on YouTube which has since gone viral. It shows his burnt phone and comes with a warning to others that it occurred while being charged.

Despite Apple’s launch of the iPhone 7 in September, Mr Koo, who has previously owned four Samsung phones, said he would continue to buy the South Korea tech giant's products.

“Someone who’s a Samsung Note person isn’t going to switch over to an iPhone 6 or 7, because they’ve got such different features,” he said.

A burnt Samsung Galaxy Note7 phone. Source: Supplied

However, Mr Koo said it concerned him that he let his two children play with his phone before the recall.

“I didn’t want anything to happen while my kids were playing with it, I didn’t want anything to happen with them at home, while they were in the vicinity. For [Samsung] to say there was a problem with the battery, that was a really big issue for me.”

Mr Koo said using the older model was a temporary inconvenience and planned to return his Galaxy Note 7 on Wednesday.