Samsung phones are Blowing Up - Here’s Why.

 I've been having a very strange problem

I've been collecting every single

Samsung Flagship since 2010. I was just

about to make a blog about all of them

together until I noticed that my Galaxy

Note 8 from 2017 had blown up the

battery had expanded so much that it's

actually cracked the glass on the back

and it literally split the phone in two

so I was just like oh for goodness sake

what are the chances delayed the blog

and then ordered another one brand new

not quite realizing how huge this issue

was about to become because no joke by

the time that you wanted arrived I

realized that two more of my Samsung

phones had done the exact same thing a

Galaxy S6 from 2015 and a Galaxy S10

from 2019. I'm not exactly sure if these

are just blown in the last couple of

weeks or if they'd actually blown before

that and I just hadn't noticed but the

point is three of my Samsung phones had

just disintegrated I need to find out

why and it wasn't immediately obvious

the phones in question had been powered

down they hadn't been used heavily at

all literally just for a few weeks in

the year of their release and then a

couple of times afterwards when I

compared them to subsequent devices and

more importantly it hadn't happened to

any other brand this Smartphone shelf

that I use has given me the very unique

opportunity to be able to store every

single phone in the exact same

environment with the exact same space

constraints the same clipping mechanism

the same temperature and so I double

triple check the other phones and every

iPhone was working every Asus phone was

working every Google phone was working

the only conclusion that I could come to

was that the UK had recently just had a

heat wave at the time perhaps the room

temperature got a little too high and

the Samsung phones just happened to be a

little more susceptible to changes in

temperature I put out a tweet to

summarize my findings and I thought that

would be the end of it but it was

actually about to get a whole lot worse

I mean for starters Samsung responded

immediately they sent me an email

basically saying hey we saw your Tweet

we would like to collect the phones from

you to which I was basically like nah

I'm good I'll figure it out myself

mostly because I didn't want to get

involved in some really long drawn out

process with lots of back and forth and

also I thought I might want to

investigate these phones myself I should

probably keep them but then she pressed

further kind of saying we take inquiries

like these extremely seriously we are

going to collect those

all right fine come and tape them then

but I was also curious will he be

sending these back afterwards will you

be replacing them what's the protocol

here which was basically ignored she

just said the devices have reached

Samsung Labs we will let you know when

we have an update so I asked again only

to get we will update you on your

devices as soon as we have news okay

sure maybe I'm pushing too much I'll

leave you to it I thought Samsung takes

this stuff extremely seriously so even

though I was a little miffed that all

the phones are broken in the first place

and that they've then taken them off me

with no promise of a repair or

replacement at least they're gonna have

an update in like three days they're

gonna tell me exactly what happened why

it's not really a problem and that I was

the one who'd been doing something wrong

I was kind of hoping that that's what

would happen this conversation occurred

on August 1st it's been over 50 days

since the devices were collected and I

haven't a single follower and so this

whole time it's just been sitting in the

back of my mind should I make a video

about it or is the entire thing my fault

the ideally dormant for a long time

until a week ago when I was casually

browsing Twitter and came across this

this is Matt host of the this is Channel

with Austin Evans saying that within

their collection of phones they have

noticed the exact same thing

but even worse he's gone as far as to

say that every three plus year old

Samsung device we've had in storage has

had their batteries expand like this and

I mean every single phone I followed up

with him about it afterwards and in no

uncertain terms he said every model that

we've had pre-galaxy s20 all the way

back to the Galaxy S4 and even including

phones that were stored in their

original box and again all of our other

brand phones are stored in the same

place and none of them expanded this is

when the ball dropped this is where it

gets serious I literally legged it back

upstairs to check the rest of my phones

should I see my face when I found out

that as well as the three casualties

we'd already had that my Galaxy S8 had

blown up my Galaxy s10e had blown up my

One of a Kind Galaxy S10 5G which

Samsung had engraved Mr who's the boss

onto that too had blown up which I was

devastated by this phone was genuinely

special to me I wanted to show it to my

future kids but then the most shocking

of all was when I realized that it also

applies to Samsung's foldables my Galaxy

z42 which has had a total use of about 3

weeks and is only two years old and its

entirety is very clearly just about to

do the exact same thing so I rushed to

my computer to jump on a call with

Marquez from MKBHD what's been your

finding we always find like one or maybe

two phones where the battery is falling

up and we have to get rid of it and

every single time it's been a Samsung

phone it's never been any other brand of

phone and I didn't really think too hard

about but it is weird that it has only

ever been a Samsung phone there is zero

doubt in my mind at this point that

something is happening with Samsung

phones multiple people with multiple

separate large collections of

smartphones stored in multiple different

conditions from different parts of the

world all experiencing the same thing

and then it dawned on me Samsung has a

verified history of battery stability

issues the company's Galaxy Note 7 was

Infamous for multiple explosion reports

it was banned on Airlines and in public

places and the film was fully recalled

and so even though it does look like

they did fix some things in future

phones the later devices have definitely

had fewer reports it's equally not out

of the Realms a possibility that some of

those same dangerous elements that cause

the Note 7 Fiasco are actually still

present it was becoming pretty clear to

me what was happening I just needed to

find out why so I jumped on a call with

Zach from Jerry rig everything who

disassembles phones for a living and is

funnily enough also noticed his Samsung

phones expanding and what he's saying is

that it's the electrolyte the liquid

that ions move within inside the battery

that allows it to function and to be

stable that's decomposing and releasing

a gaseous substance if that electrolyte

is gone I think thermal runaway and

damage to the battery is way more likely

to happen if it ever is charged up again

or try to be used again now Zach being a

braver man than I ever will be went as

far as to try and puncture some of his

own swollen Samsung batteries and they

seem like they have lots of protection

mechanisms designed to stop them

exploding what do you think would happen

if you then charge them up see that one

I would be very nervous about the

electrolyte is what facilitates the

energy transfer between the positive and

negative internals of the battery and if

that is d decomposing and has evaporated

inside the battery there's not an easy

way to facilitate that energy transfer

and I imagine it would just get really

hot really fast something is reacting

with the electrolyte that makes it want

to change States into gas do you think

this has anything to do with what we saw

with the note 7. I think they would

probably be different situations but

either way since it's Samsung in both

instances something's wrong with their

quality control now also around the time

of this call I'd incredibly noticed yet

another swelling phone this time the

Galaxy s20 Fe but this one was different

it's really hard to tell I only noticed

this one on the kind of like my fourth

time scanning through my Samsung phone

where I had to double take like wait a

second is it isn't it but it is like for

sure that feels like the hidden danger

here is like you're not actually

realizing your batteries is gone and

you're continuing to use your phone and

then right at the end Zach finished off

with one more nugget on batteries and

you'll find this really interesting he

explained that there's a label you can

find on them that tells you for how many

years they should have no mutations or

hazardous chemicals leaking

so of course I

Galaxy s20 Fe to check for myself sure

enough when I got inside it was pretty

clear that this was yet another victim

but an especially alarming one given how

this phone was only released two years

ago it only got delivered to me about 18

months ago and it's been stored at room

temperature this whole time even the

battery on the back says that it should

be good to go for five years this should

not be taken lightly the ifixit.com

article about swollen batteries

literally has this text written in bold

capital letters a swollen lithium-ion

battery may catch fire or explode

proceed with Extreme Caution and also at

your own risk when removing a swollen

battery from an electronic device let's

be very clear about something if your

phone actually explodes this is no

exaggeration you can die this is real

it's happened and it's a pretty tragic

way to go it's risky enough that I can't

even just throw these in a bin now I've

literally had to buy myself fireproof

sleeves so that I can dispose of them in

a way that I'm not at risk of setting my

own house on fire and as for why it's

taken this long for someone to realize

well I mean clearly many separate people

are aware that this is an issue you but

if you just had the odd phone that

breaks down every now and again maybe

you just assume that it was moisture in

the air or the way that you'd

specifically store the phone it's only

when you have a shelf like this where

you can keep tabs on every single brand

in exactly the same environment that you

can actually identify a systemic issue

with one brand in particular but at the

same time as I'm becoming more and more

sure that this is a legitimate issue

with Samsung phones I'm also becoming

more aware of the implication that that

would have to think Samsung sold almost

300 million phones just last year there

are probably a billion current Samsung

phone users at any given point and based

on my small sample size up to 25 percent

of them could well blow at some point so

I thought let me do one final check so I

sent out one big round of messages to a

whole series of tech journalists and

Tech YouTubers and there was a slightly

more mixed finding there were about 40

who said well yeah but I've had it with

other brands too but then there were

also 60 who are more like yes I've

definitely noticed the exact same Trend

with Samsung's in particular for the

only ones that I can remember are

Samsungs so this is a bit of an evolving

situation and I want to wait to hear if

any Brands decide to weigh in any

content creators or your experiences in

the comments before I say something

conclusive but so far there's a few key

takeaways one the batteries expanding

like this can be an issue on any phone

but at the same time between my own

sample size and the sample size are

taken from other people it seems like at

the very least the problem is worse on

Samsungs but then two is that I don't

think you need to panic yet this problem

can be very serious but it's much more

likely to occur when you leave your

phone for long periods of time and you

can also somewhat mitigate it by storing

it at closer to 50 as opposed to letting

it drain entirely and storing it while

the battery's flat.