BenQ's GV31 recall is finally global - 1,249 US units and three incidents

Martin22

Member
If anyone here still has a GV31 sitting on a shelf, go check the serial number. The battery recall that started in the UK and Australia/NZ at the end of May has now rolled through Singapore and then the US and Canada on June 30, so at this point it covers pretty much every market the thing was sold in. The lithium cell inside can overheat. BenQ is doing a free battery service or a free upgrade depending on the unit.

What struck me reading the CPSC filing is how small the numbers are. Roughly 1,249 units in the US, three reports of a projector overheating, one minor burn. That is a tiny recall by consumer electronics standards, and I suspect that is exactly why it dribbled out country by country over two months instead of landing everywhere at once. Each regulator wants its own serial ranges and its own remedy plan agreed before anything goes public, and BenQ had to have repair capacity standing by in each region first. Annoying if you happened to live in the country that got told last.

The part I keep chewing on is the sales window: July 2023 through May 2026. That is a projector that was on Amazon and BenQ's own store for nearly three years with a cell that was apparently capable of this. Battery-in-the-body portables are the whole category now, from the GV series to the Mars-style pucks, and almost none of them tell you whose cells are inside or what the charge controller does when the fan is choked on a duvet.

Did anyone here actually get a replacement unit rather than the battery service? Curious which way BenQ pushed people.
 

Graceli

Member
Mine was bought March 2024 and the serial checker says affected. Sent the form off last week, no reply yet. Meanwhile it is unplugged in a box like a small bomb.
 

dwuw

Member
Three incidents out of 1,249 is a 0.24% rate. That is not nothing for something that charges on a nightstand, but I would want to know how many of those units are still in active use before calling it a design fault vs a bad cell batch.
 

waterloo

Member
Two months between the UK notice and the US one is the bit that bothers me more than the fault itself. Same product, same battery, different date depending on your postcode.
 
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