YouTuber Notes Swelling Battery Issue In Samsung Phones

Tom Jowitt,

YouTuber notes batteries in some older and not so old Samsung phones are swelling up, but it is unclear if there is a systemic flaw

Samsung phone batteries are back in the headlines after reports that batteries in Samsung phones are swelling up at a disproportionately high rate.

This was first noticed by YouTuber Arun Rupesh Maini (aka mrwhosetheboss on YouTube), who in a video posted earlier this week reported the swelling battery issue was more likely in older handsets, although some of them are only a couple of years old, such as the Galaxy Z Fold 2 for instance (from 2020).

Mrwhosetheboss has close to 12 million subscribers on YouTube and he has collected every flagship Samsung phone since 2010. Indeed, one wall of a room was full of Samsung handsets. The other walls contain handsets from other manufacturers.

The Galaxy S10. Image credit: Samsung

Swelling battery

Mrwhosetheboss said he was about to made a video about his Samsung phone collection, when he noticed that the battery on his Galaxy Note 8 (from 2017) had blown up so much, it had “cracked the glass on the back and split the phone in two.”

He ordered a replacement, but before it could arrive he noticed two more of his Samsung handsets suffered the same thing. This was a Samsung Galaxy S6 from 2015 and the Galaxy S10 from 2019.

The YouTuber said he was unsure if this had just happened in the past couple of weeks or whether he had just noticed it now.

Mrwhosetheboss said all his handsets had been powered down and were not heavily used devices, having often only been used for a couple of weeks after release or during comparison tests.

He checked his collection of Apple iPhones and other handsets, all stored in the same environment, and found no issue with handsets from Asus, Google etc, but only with the Samsung devices.

He then tweeted about the matter and whether the UK heatwave in the summer could have impacted the Samsung handsets more than others.

Samsung’s press office immediately got in touch and began an investigation, collecting his impacted handsets that were sent to Samsung Labs, without saying if his handsets would be repaired or replaced.

Fifty days later and he heard nothing from Samsung.

Other reports

Then Mrwhosetheboss came across another person on Twitter (this time in America), who noticed the exact same problem with his collection of Samsung phones.

Matt.eh said the swelling problem was found on every single Samsung phone older than three years in his collection.

This alarming confirmation caused Mrwhosetheboss to hurriedly closely check his own collection of Samsung handsets.

As well as his existing three casualties, he found the same problem on his Galaxy S8, his Galaxy S10e, and his Galaxy S10 5G handsets.

He then found the problem also applied to Samsung’s much touted foldable handsets.

His Galaxy Z Fold 2 used for three weeks and only two years old, was also damaged by the swelling battery.

Other YouTubers

Mrwhosetheboss then contacted another big name YouTuber, namely Marques Brownlee (aka MKBHD) to ask if he found the same issue.

Brownlee admitted they always find one or two phones where the battery swells up and it is always Samsung phones.

Brownlee said it was weird it was only ever a Samsung phone.

Mrwhosetheboss noted the previous problem with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which saw the device being banned on airlines because of a fire risk.

The Galaxy Note 7’s fire-prone battery led Samsung to conduct a massive recall that for a time tarnished the firm’s reputation.

Mrwhosetheboss then contacted a teardown specialist (jerryrigeverything) who also noticed his old Samsung batteries were expanding. The teardown specialist said it was likely the electrolytes in the Samsung battery were decomposing and releasing a ‘gaseous substance.’

At this time, Mrwhosetheboss also then noticed that his Galaxy S20 FE (only released two years ago) was also being impacted by a swelling battery.

Fire risk?

He noted that Samsung batteries have a number 5 written on the back on them, indicating the battery should be defect free for 5 years.

He also noted an iFixit article that warned that swollen batteries are at risk of catching fire or exploding.

Samsung it should be remembered has sold 300 million handsets last year, and these findings could suggest more than 25 percent of those are at risk from this issue.

The problem is usually obvious (the phone back pops loose), but it can be subtle enough that a person may not realise their battery is in a dangerous state.

It should be noted that this is not a new issue or unique to Samsung.

It is well known that as lithium batteries age, their increasingly flawed chemical reactions can produce gas that inflates battery cells and increases the risk of a fire.

The risk of this happening becomes worse if a battery if left without charging or discharging for a long time, and many companies (including Apple) recommend that that smartphone batteries are kept at a roughly 50 percent charge if the device is not being used for extended periods.

Samsung response

Samsung has provided an update on this to Mrwhosetheboss , saying it was “aware of this matter and are looking into further technical assessments.”

It encouraged customers with questions to contact their local Customer Service representative.