Anker Recalls 1.1 Million PowerCore 10000 Power Banks

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Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2025/06/13/anker-recalls-1-1-million-powercore-10000-power-banks/

If you use an Anker power bank to charge your iPhone or iPad on the go, take note. In a joint statement, Anker and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission write:

This recall involves Anker PowerCore 10000 power banks with model number A1263. The brand name “Anker” is engraved on the front of the product. The model number “A1263” and serial number “S N” are printed on the bottom. Only model number A1263 power banks sold in the U.S. with qualifying serial numbers are included in the recall. Consumers should check their serial number at https://www.anker.com/product-recalls to determine whether their power bank is included in the recall.

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled power banks and contact Anker Innovations for instructions on receiving a free replacement power bank. Visit https://www.anker.com/product-recalls to register for the recall. To receive a replacement, consumers will be required to submit a photo of their recalled power bank showing the model number, serial number, their name, the date of the photograph, and the word “recalled” written on the power bank in permanent marker. A purchase receipt will be requested but will not be required to participate in the recall. Consumers will also be required to confirm disposal of the power bank in accordance with applicable laws and regulations before receiving a replacement.

The affected Anker PowerCore 10000 power banks were sold through Anker’s website, Amazon, Newegg, and eBay between June 2016 and December 2022. Given Anker’s popularity among Apple users and the fire risk these batteries pose, you should immediately check if your power bank is affected by visiting Anker’s recall webpage. Affected units are eligible for a free replacement or a $30 gift card.

For those with recalled units, note that proper disposal is crucial for recalled lithium-ion batteries. Neither the trash nor the standard recycling boxes at retail stores are acceptable. You must dispose of these batteries through appropriate channels, which means contacting your municipal household hazardous waste collection center for specific guidance.

Anker PowerCore 10000 recalled power bank

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I gave one of these as a gift several years ago. I sent the CPSC link out to the recipient to let them know in case they still have it.

Thanks @ace, we’d probably never have seen it otherwise.

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You’re welcome! I never know the extent to which the companies doing the recall are good about notifying customers.

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I bought mine from Amazon, way back when I used to buy things from Amazon. I can see that Amazon still has a record of the purchase, including the recalled model number, as well as my still-current contact information.

Needless to say, nothing from Amazon about this.

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If the product was “sold and shipped by Amazon”, then Amazon clearly hasn’t provided good customer service here. But if the product was only “fulfilled by Amazon” and the vendor is responsible for everything else (common with many Marketplace and third party sellers), I’d place a lot of the blame on the product’s seller.

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I have one of these Anker A1263 battery packs. Bought it on Amazon in 2018, but it was “sold by” AnkerDirect. So they should have my customer info and could have reached out directly. I’ve not heard from them. Having said that, I’ve found their customer support to be pretty good. I’ve had two of their USB-C PD power supplies fail, and they’ve honored the warranties.

Fortunately, my A1263 unit does not appear to be subject to the recall😀.

Thanks to @ace for the heads-up about this.

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I bought one of these in the time frame, but it looks like I tossed it at some point (I tend to use them for outdoor cameras and they get wet sometimes).

I have 3 others but they are more recent.

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FWIW, I bought two of these from Amazon last year and many months ago I got at least four emails, in two waves, from Amazon alerting me to the recall, including links to Anker’s relevant web pages.

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I get the impression that Anker is purposely making it difficult to claim the replacement. Since I bought the unit in 2018, I no longer have the receipt. The website says that if you don’t have your purchase receipt, you can upload photos instead. However you can’t submit the form without the purchase information. I can find no list anywhere of the serial numbers which are covered. The only guidance is this cryptic information:

Pay attention to the letters and numbers in the serial number: “1”, “L”, “I”, “2” and “Z”. Please note that characters such as “0 (zero)” and “O” (o) may be entered incorrectly. Regarding the serial number of the target product, “O” and “I” are not used.

My serial number doesn’t contain “O” or “I” but they still said it was not one of the ones recalled.

They ask you to write on the unit with a permanent marker. Their example unit is white. Mine is black. How can I write on it?

I finally contacted the support email with all the requested information and photos and got a form response which indicated they didn’t even read the the email. I persisted and got the following reply:

We understand your concerns. You can rest assured that only a small number of batteries may be affected by this issue. Your device is confirmed to be safe based on the SN/Order number you provided.

Well, maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. How would I know? I’m going to assume it’s not and junk it to be safe.

This is a great example of how not to handle a product recall… unless your objective is to not actually replace anything.

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It’s confusing but if you enter the serial number in the Anker form, it will let you know (without having to hit submit) whether that serial number is affected. Let’s see if this screenshot works:

SNScreenshot
SNScreenshot1748×726 94.4 KB

The red text appears after you enter the serial number and tab out of the text box.

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Hmm. What happens if it is part of the affected batch. When I enter my SN and tab out of the text box nothing changes. I tried two different browsers.

Why can’t they just publish the list of the affected serial numbers? This reminds me of the old “can you guess what number I am thinking of” joke :slight_smile:

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A cautonary AI data point. I asked the DuckDuckGo AI if my Anker A1637 is subject to recall. It said it was, and linked me to the recall site. Which, in fact, does not list this model as being recalled. Halllucinations, indeed.

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Just a comment on notification of hazardous product recalls…

Back in the day, people had a good chance of hearing about product safety recalls on the broadcast news or other major publications (even local papers). Now we have a severely fragmented media world (and far too much opinion/fiction being passed as factual information). The onus must be on those who sell or distribute to help in notifying customers of potential danger.

As has been noted above and elsewhere, those who purchased this through Amazon have not all received a notice. By now, there has been plenty of time to send a basic email, at least for the initial model officially recalled June 13.

The reseller, be it Walmart, HomeDepot or Amazon, should also be responsible for attempting to contact customers. Amazon, in particular, has everything needed to do so. Regardless if a recalled product was purchased from “sold and shipped by Amazon” or just “fulfilled by Amazon”, it is Amazon that should be issuing notification because they have ALL RELEVANT INFORMATION.

Amazon (or ____ big box store) has:

  • the product info (brand, model, part number)
  • the purchase info (date/time, price, etc.)
  • the customer info (name, account, email, credit card/payment method, delivery address, etc.)

With all the database, datacenter technology and power Amazon has, it would be near trivial to receive an official recall (from US CPSC or the manufacturer), call up a list of those who purchased that item, and send an email.

There are grade-school kids who can do this, given access to internal search tools at Amazon.

I use Amazon as an example, but they are but one of the mega-corporations who retain huge data troves on customers. This is not a difficult task.

It would even be helpful to include a place where product recalls could be found somewhere on the Amazon/Walmart/bigboxstore product page. Maybe not a flashing red banner across the top, but there is plenty of room to include a tab or link.

Oh well. Soon we may not even have the US CPSC. Perhaps ignorance is bliss.

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Is it really a recall if you have to dispose of it yourself? And in a very convoluted way. Crazy stuff

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I was a bit troubled by the word “recall” too, but there’s certainly no way to return them to Anker safely, or any general place they could be taken for repair, so I guess it’s reasonable to use the word to encourage people to take the danger seriously.

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Anker and retailers selling Anker products might require self-disposal of the affected power banks because of all the restrictions on shipping lithium ion batteries. There really isn’t any way to ensure millions of consumers are shipping hazardous items correctly. Plus, as many Amazon customers have noticed, anything containing Li-ion batteries over a certain size require ground shipping within the US. So I wouldn’t be surprised if shipping recalled power banks back to Anker in bulk would have to go by sea. That would be a long and complex process.

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The meaning of “recall” seems to be morphing to mean any government-mandated (or encouraged) repair or remediation. For example, a good number of automobile recalls recently have been implemented through over-the-air software updates where the vehicle owner might not even be aware that their vehicle was recalled and repaired.