Citing Fire Risk, Best Buy Recalls 5,100 Third-Party MacBook Pro Batteries

If you've been buying ATG-branded replacement batteries for the MacBook Pro from Best Buy either directly or via the Geek Squad, you might want to check if any third-party batteries you've bought there have been getting a little too hot lately. Best Buy announced a recall today on 5,100 third-party replacement batteries for Apple's popular notebook after the Consumer Product Safety Commission reported 13 incidents in which the batteries went up in flames. In one case, the fires even caused serious leg injury.

The affected batteries were all sold between September 2008 and June of 2012. You can check to see if you have one of the volatile batteries by checking the model number. Black versions of the ATG lithium-ion replacement batteries will have the model number MC-MBOOK13B; the white ones will read MC-BOOK13W. Both should have the ATG logo.

Best Buy announced that they'll contact their customers and inform them of the recall, in addition to offering a gift card to anyone affected. Keep in mind, however, that Best Buy wasn't the only supplier of ATG replacements, so it's probably a good idea to check your laptop anyway.

Best Buy contacted Cult of Mac concerning this issue and released this statement: "After receiving reports from customers of these lithium ion batteries overheating when charging, we believe the right thing to do is to contact our customers and ask them to return the product for replacement or for a Best Buy gift card. While we are only one of many companies that may have sold these batteries, we feel they are a potential fire and burn hazard and want to keep our customers safe."

(Battery image via Popscreen.)

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