In some unfortunate news, there has been a recall on Hyper’s HyperJuice Stackable GaN USB-C Chargers. It is a voluntary recall, which means that the company has chosen to recall them due to safety concerns as part of its dedication to providing a reliable line of products.
As of right now, you can find that the chargers are no longer available online. It’s own website lists them as sold out and its store on Amazon no longer has them included in the mix. In fact, it seems they have been sold out for some time now, regardless. The recall affects three models including Stackable GaN 65W USB-C Charger, Stackable GaN 100W USB-C Charger, and HyperJuice 130W USB-C Battery Pack.
The company is accepting returns in exchange for store credit. Per the official recall on the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s website:
“Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled HyperJuice Stackable GaN USB-C Chargers and contact Hyper Products for a refund in the form of a Hyper Shop store credit for the amount of the purchase price for the 65W and the 100W chargers.”
In order to initiate your return, head to Hyper’s website here and scroll to the very bottom. In the footer section, click on “Notices and Recalls”. This will take you to a registration page where you can start the process. You will be offered store credit for the purchase price that can be used on Hyper’s website for an alternative product.
So what happened?
It’s the most common issue behind most recalls surrounding chargers/adapters. The chargers are suffering from overheating leading to device failure. They have had only a few cases of it occurring but this was enough for the company to determine that the product wasn’t up to its expectations when it comes to safety (it likely led to some experimental reproductions that proved certain parts of the charger to be faulty).
We love to see companies stepping forward to protect consumers. Instances like these will exist, even with the strongest brands in the market. Nothing is perfect, thus defects will pop up from time to time. What’s important is that a company does something about it if it’s more than just a random freak occurrence caused by a unique circumstance (ie, user tampering).
It’s too bad it ran into this as the chargers are incredibly friendly, offering a unique feature that other USB wall adapters don’t have. That is the ability to plug into each other (or “stack”) to add additional ports while consuming a single plug. Users were able to stack up to 1600 watts (15 amps) with these chargers, thus turning it into an average commercial-level power strip.
Of course, you could simply just buy a larger charger that already comes with multiple ports. This simply did this while offering a modular approach so you can go small or go all out. Instead, it seems it is better to go without.
The products page on Hyper’s website does state that the company is working on a next-generation product that isn’t yet available.
