Exploding Samsung Galaxy SIII Was Cooked In Microwave
It didn’t spontaneously explode – the owner’s so-called friend fried it after it got wet
The Samsung Galaxy SIII phone which rerportedly exploded in a car in Ireland, was in fact cooked in a microwave oven, an investigation has revealed.
A student from Dublin reported on June 20 that his new Samsung SIII phone had spontaneously caught fire while plugged into a car charger. An investigation by Samsung has found out the truth: the phone got wet, the user’s friend tried to dry it out in a microwave and when it caught fire, he tried to convince Samsung it had happened spontaneously.
Galaxy SIII claim blows up
“I would like to retract my original statement. The damage to the phone was caused by another person, although they were attempting to recover the phone from water. This later caused the damage shown on the phone,” the student said on the boards.ie discussion forum, where he is known as dillo2k10 .
The student admitted that the problem was “due to a large amount of external energy” caused by a “stupid mistake”.
A report from fire investigators FI-UK, hired by Samsung to look into the matter, provided the detail, as reported on Samsung Tomorrow.
FI-UK could see that the source of the fire was not the charger cable or the battery, but the antenna. Antennas are designed to soak up microwave radiation, and this one had apparently been immersed in a very strong source of such radiation.
“The heat damage to the device appears to have been generated within the device,” said the report. However, the energy that caused the damage must have come from an “external source”, it continued.
“In the experience of Fire Investigations (UK) LLP, the antenna is a passive component and should not connect with the power source,” the report sauid. “It is, however, a suitable conductor for microwave energy and our tests clearly demonstrated this.”
Originally dillo2k10had claimed that he “was driving along … when suddenly a white flame, sparks a bang came out of the phone. That could have burned the side of my face or through my pocket and my leg, or set fire to my bed. It’s very dangerous.”
Exploding devices can be a serious issue. In 2009, Apple found that some of its iPhones were catching fire in Europe. In 2010, a Motorola Droid phone exploded, sending a Texas man to the emergency room for stitches to his head.
The Galaxy SIII has had a very successful launch, arriving in the UK on 30 May, with demand particularly high for more desirable models. The tale of the exploding Galaxy will probably not harm its progress, and may warn other hapless users from putting their phones in a microwave.
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