LG Chem recalls some resi battery units after reports of fires — caused property damage

Residential battery manufacturer LG Chem has launched a recall of some of its Resu 10H residential battery products in the interest of fire safety.

LG Chem says it received five reports of thermal events in the U.S that have caused limited property damage — with no reported injuries.

Bloomberg reports that the impacted units were sold by various distributors of solar energy systems including Sunrun from January 2017 through March 2019.

“We have already started proactively replacing batteries impacted by the recall and have credited customers for the brief downtime,” Sunrun said in a statement.

LG Chem says cells in units being recalled are at risk of overheating.

This is not the first time LG Chem’s batteries have had issues.

According to Greentech Media, LG Chem supplied the utility-scale McMicken battery in Arizona, which entered thermal runaway and exploded in April 2019.

This occurrence injured four firefighters, and an investigation concluded that cell failure kicked off a chain of events that led to the explosion.

“While reports of fires don’t look good for the company, LG Chem is doing the right thing by launching a recall,” says Derick Lila, Managing Editor at pvbuzz.com. “Other less reputable suppliers in the industry would have closed up shop for fear of litigation.”