Be vigilant when buying eBike chargers, warns Electrical Safety First

Consumers have been warned by an electrical safety charity to stick to buying authentic eBike chargers following an investigation that turned up dangerous or poorly advertised products with many of the world’s leading online shopping platforms.To get more news about ebike battery charging, you can visit magicyclebike.com official website.

The dangers of mismatching electric products, in particular batteries and chargers is well documented, but a spate of light electric vehicle fires, some involving eBike chargers, led Electrical Safety First to investigate just how easy it is for consumers to inadvertently land themselves in a dangerous situation.

The consumer safety charity turned up nearly 60 listings on prominent marketplaces including Amazon, eBay, AliExpress which fell below the required safety standards for sale to UK consumers. Lots were listed as eBike chargers, though some were badged as ‘multi-use’ and ready to charge everything from electric scooters to hoverboards.

The consumer safety charity contacted each marketplace with suspect sales and reported that all removed the listings highlighted in good time. One marketplace informed Electrical Safety First that it had subsequently put to use the charity’s red flag guidance to further remove hundreds more listings.

While bike shops will rightly turn away any electric bike suspected of either having been tampered with, or to have been in any way electrically compromised, most will feel it right to improve the consumer education nonetheless and to advise consumers to only buy authentic and compatible charging equipment.

Unfortunately, the signs of tampering or electrical faults are not always immediately obvious, so electric bike service centres should always take precaution against battery fires with the correct fire cabinet storage.

Compliance failures turned up by the eBike chargers investigation included plenty falling below the UK standards for plugs, with some featuring no fuse, which is part of the componentry that helps cut supply in the event of a fault. This cast doubt on other internal compliance.

Should a problem develop into a fire around a lithium ion battery, the issue can very quickly escalate with such fires notoriously hard to put out; consumers facing such situations have very often made the situation worse in their efforts to extinguish.

Other defects with the charging devices included dimension issues with the plug. UK plugs must meet minimum dimension requirements to prevent electric shock. The charging devices found by Electrical Safety First were all visibly small in size, leaving the user exposed to electric shock if their fingers were to come into contact with the live plug pins.

Martyn Allen, Technical Director of Electrical Safety First, commented: “By the very nature of the batteries these dangerous charging devices are powering, it is a potential disaster waiting to happen. The process of charging e-bike batteries must be done with compatible and compliant chargers. These chargers we have identified for sale all pose an increased risk of fire and electric shock and should never have been available for sale to UK shoppers in the first instance. Given the frightening nature of lithium-ion battery fires, it is essential the charging equipment doesn’t pose any unnecessary risk to the battery or user.

“The lack of vital regulation needed to ensure online marketplaces are responsible for the safety of goods sold via their platforms is contributing significantly to dangerous products entering people’s homes. The Government must bring forward urgent laws to finally end this scandal.”