Who ELSE has Sony sold lithium-ion batteries to?

[jmowreader]

The news that Dell makes a really hot--so hot it'll set yer house on fire--laptop is widely known. It uses Sony lithium-ion batteries.

Today, Will Pitt informed us that Apple is recalling some of its laptop batteries because they're also Sony lithium-ion units...and some of those units have been getting kinda hot.

I'm worried that Sony also sold lithium-ion batteries to Makita, DeWalt or Milwaukee...I've got lithium-ion tools from all three manufacturers in my store, and they're starting to get popular.

There are two reasons why I'm worried. One is because of the placement of the battery on a drill--right under your hand, so that if the drill catches fire you're sure to get burned. The other is the reason they use lithium-ion batteries on drills--the technology allows toolmakers to create more-powerful drills.

I figure this is what's gonna happen, if these tools have Sony's fucked-up batteries on them: Some guy is going to decide to drill a 3/4" hole in his concrete porch. He's gonna put a big bit on his 36v DeWalt, put it in Hammer mode, and lean on the drill as hard as he can...eventually heating the battery to the point where it ignites. And when it does, the user will be leaning on the back of the drill trying to get it to make holes faster.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Boy, that's something to worry about.

Here's something else to worry about... what if Mazda accidently installed rabid badgers into their cars instead of radiators. And then when the hapless driver goes to open the hood, the badger jumps out and gets him.

[rinsd]

5. Funny you should say that....

http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2006/08/mazda_recalls_r.html

No word on what they'll do with the "badgers" though.

[meisje]

9. I hate when that happens.

I hate when I take a screwdriver and jam it right into my eye, thats smarts!

[pooja]

2. lithium batteries are a hot battery... just keep on top of it.

[Ron Green]

3. He'll likely lay the drill down in a pile of shavings and take a break,

just before it bursts into flames.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Engineering solution.... make concrete less

hard/durable. Problem solved... next. Let's hope there aren't any high performance sex toys out there waiting to go nuts.

[jayctravis]

6. ...the terrarists.

Al Qaida. No more laptops on planes EVER.

[jmowreader]

19. Oh great. Thanks, you un-American prick...

next thing we know, you'll say we can't bring snakes on planes either.

[Kutjara]

7. I understand that an Al Qaeda front organization...

...recently bought-up a massive number of these batteries. According to my intelligence sources (a talking cat named Freddie), they intend to install them in their upcoming "Jihad 2100" range of laptop computers. A planeload of Islamofascist portables with molten batteries is a doomsday scenario to keep even the most stouthearted of us awake at night. Add some Mentos and Diet Coke and we're talking holocaust here.

They also apparently bought a bunch of those Hitachi DVD drives that randomly fling discs out of the PC. With a little modification, these could become lethal projectile weapons, sending copies of "The Little Mermaid" tearing through seats, fusilage and flesh. A truly chilling prospect, I think you'll agree.

We must all act now, before the Jihad 2100 begins appearing at Best Buys and Circuit Citys (Circuits City? Circuit Cities?) around the land, attractively priced at $999 for the delux multimedia/suicide version.

[Junkdrawer]

18. Only one solution: All batteries, including hearing aid batteries...

should be dumped into garbage bags before boarding any flight.

Safety first.

[wakeme2008]

8. LOL just got my Powerbook back together...

It "age" was in the recall period but not my battery. My battery is marked made by Apple and was very cool when I took it out. LOL plus I found it has a button and 4/5 lights on it and if you press the button, the lights lite up to tell you it is good.

[Gatchaman]

10. Apparantly, they never sold any to themselves

All these Dull and Apple lappys get battery recalls, but no Vaio's are affected? Maybe Sony keeps the good ones for themselves, and unloads the crap on OEMS (at that premium Sony price, of course). Mikey and Stevey should look into this (because the government certainly won't).

[hlthe2b]

13. Is that true? No Sony VAIO batteries affected?

I've been freaking out all day at work because I left my laptop running at home all day (it would go into semi-hibernation, but still be on). My poor little doggie girl was there all by herself! If there had been a fire, I'd never forgive myself!

So, while I'll be sure to power down from now on, please tell me if Sony VAIOs are affected? :shrug:

[jmowreader]

14. Maybe they can make more money by selling them outside Sony?

I was going to tell the Wal-Mart paint story (Wal-Mart is the biggest paint dealer in the world, but they won't let their maintenance people apply Wal-Mart brands of paint to Wal-Mart property, this to preclude the possibility that the paint wasn't taken off the books before it was used) but it's not applicable here.

I think there must be two reasons why Lithium Ion batteries aren't showing up in the Sony laptop line. The biggest one is factory capacity. The batteries are very young on the market, and probably the factory isn't ramped up to full production yet. Someone down in Sony's component business probably made a deal to supply x number of batteries to Dell and y number to Apple, and x plus y at this point leaves z--the number of batteries Sony has for its own computers--too low to be commercially feasible.

The other thing is that perhaps the laptop team at Sony doesn't want the batteries until they've been field-proven, which obviously isn't happening now. How many DECADES were nicad batteries on the market before Sony issued a laptop? They know what nicads can do. LiIon is a new technology and Sony is a very conservative company.

[AndrewJacksonFaction]

11. I wonder how many Sony laptops have this problem?

[sendero]

12. I just have to bash Sony..

... I'm always running into people who think Sony actually makes quality stuff. Bwwaahahhahahahah!

They make crap and they've made crap since at least the mid 80s.

Buy anything Sony at your peril, they can't even make a fucking battery.

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. We've owned a Sony Vaio forever, without one problem.

So...our fucking computer works fucking great. :hi:

[Zynx]

17. We had a Sony TV that lasted 18 years.

And that was with really heavy watching.

[OilemFirchen]

15. Gonna find out soon enough

The battery on my Dewalt 18V reciprocating saw belched acrid smoke whilst I was on a roof, and on a ladder, last week. Luckily had some tar paper handy so was able to grab it, yank it out and toss it on the lawn. It was hotter than hell and posed a rather dramatic risk for me. For those upthread mocking, fuck you very much.

By the time the smoke had cleared (literally), the case was melted, as was the interior of the saw.

So, headed to the Dewalt repair center this weekend. If it's a Sony, I'll report back.

[jmowreader]

20. 18v DeWalts are nickel-cadmium

The lithium ion DeWalt is 36v. Wonderful tools.