Wer hat aus den unkontrollierten Powerbanks seinen “Goldsack” gemacht?

In the past half - month, how many people have become power bank refugees?

Xiaohongshu, Douyin, WeChat Moments, Bilibili... Almost all social media platforms are flooded with the same question:

What kind of power bank can be taken on a plane exactly?

Everything about power banks has a touch of black humor.

In the past, the keywords related to power banks always revolved around portability and fast charging. However, when searching for power banks nowadays, the keywords are closely related to "strict inspection", "verification", "violation", and "recycling".

Following the shared power banks, power banks have once again stabbed all consumers in the back.

According to statistics, in just half a month, domestic manufacturers have recalled millions of power banks with the risk of spontaneous combustion. Whether it's Romoss, which focuses on cost - effectiveness, or Anker, the industry leader and the same brand used by Trump, they can't escape the fate of collective recall. And the products of second - and third - tier manufacturers or even unknown small factories that are not on the recall list, although not on the list, have also become a hot potato in consumers' hands.

For a moment, the panic that no power bank is trustworthy has spread rapidly across the entire network.

Of course, compared with the risk of power bank spontaneous combustion, the anxiety about losing power bank charge is even more worrying. Compared with rights protection, people's more simple and urgent need is:

How to buy a power bank that can be taken on a plane?

Unqualified power banks stab everyone equally

When manufacturers first started recalling power banks, many people didn't take it too seriously. As long as their devices didn't appear on the recall list, they just regarded it as nothing had happened.

But a few days ago, the Civil Aviation Administration suddenly issued a mandatory new regulation. In addition to the power banks on the recall list, "power banks without a 3C logo or with a blurred logo" are also prohibited from boarding the plane.

Many netizens had managed to avoid the recall list, but when they got home and checked, their well - traveled and battle - tested power banks just happened to lack this unremarkable logo:

Source: Xiaohongshu @Matthew Loi

It wasn't until August 2024 that power banks were included in the mandatory 3C certification catalog.

All in all, the mandatory 3C certification for power banks has been in place for less than a year.

That is to say, the vast majority of power banks in people's hands were produced in the "pre - 3C era", so it's actually normal for them not to have a 3C logo.

Although it's rumored that many power banks produced by manufacturers passed the 3C certification when they left the factory, but since it wasn't required to be marked before, the logo wasn't printed on the device. But for airports, there's only one standard to follow:

Without a 3C logo, no boarding is allowed.

Source: Xiaohongshu @Dama Talks about Digital

Recently, the number of power banks recalled by manufacturers has exceeded one million, and the number of power banks that can't board the plane due to the new regulation is much larger than this.

Some media estimate that this number may be as high as 170 million.

Many people have become "power bank refugees" without even knowing it.

At first, the recall scope of manufacturers was limited to some batches of some models. Some manufacturers even thoughtfully created a verification page: Models that are not in the recall batches can still be used normally.

However, a strange situation has emerged.

The manufacturer says that your power bank is not in the recall batch and can be used normally;

At the airport, sorry, the security check only recognizes the model.

Even the recall batches given by the manufacturers themselves keep changing.

Someone's power bank wasn't on the recall list before leaving home, but at the airport, they were suddenly told that the list had changed.

Source: Xiaohongshu @Nanyin

Taking a power bank on a plane is like walking into a dark forest.

Domestic power banks with a 3C logo may be added to the recall list at any time;

Imported ones may be allowed to pass, but whether they can pass the security check on the return journey or at another airport is still a test.

It's not just power bank users who are affected.

Some bloggers have encountered the situation where their camera batteries were rejected by the security check:

Batteries in the camera can pass the security check without a 3C logo, but spare batteries carried separately will not be allowed to pass without 3C certification.

This has left many photographers in a daze. During high - intensity shooting, it's normal to use three or four batteries a day.

If they don't bring spare batteries, it's almost impossible to work.

Some more niche electronic devices have also been affected.

Some consumers have found that their Vision Pro has accidentally become a "glitched" device.

This smart headset is powered by an external power supply. From any angle, this external power supply looks like a power bank.

However, it just doesn't have 3C certification.

Moreover, completely different from the situation of power banks, without this external power supply, the Vision Pro simply can't work...

Regarding the "expansion" problem of power bank security checks, the airport has made corrections and clearly stated that the 3C requirement only applies to power banks.

Even for power banks themselves, there are currently problems with inconsistent standards.

For example, power banks produced abroad don't need to have a mandatory 3C logo to pass the security check; passengers on international flights also don't need this step...

This dizzying set of policies is really a headache.

Consumers who are eager to get rid of the hot potato in their hands have also been greatly troubled by the confusing operations of manufacturers.

Romoss, which was the first to have problems, after officially announcing the recall, initially proposed that consumers should send the power banks back by express delivery themselves...

However, no express delivery company was willing to accept them.

So consumers had to go through the online recall process and then got stuck in an endless wait. The customer service won't take the initiative to solve the problem. When pushed to the limit, they'll just arrange a robot to deal with you.

People don't know what to do with the old power banks. Express delivery companies won't accept them. Throwing them away is afraid of polluting the environment, and keeping them at home poses a risk of spontaneous combustion and explosion.

Once it's found that a power bank doesn't have 3C certification, it can't be carried on the plane or even checked in.

So, most people only have one choice: to discard the power bank at the airport.

Overnight, the airport security checkpoint has become the place with the densest concentration of power banks in China.

Hu Yanbin: Power bank, you make me cry (actually, it was his colleague's power bank that was confiscated)

On second - hand platforms, some merchants are selling second - hand power banks in bulk, by weight:

If you ask them where these goods come from, most sellers will be evasive. Some will directly imply that they come from airports, high - speed rail stations and other channels.

What the merchants say may not be true, but the fact that airport security checks have created a large number of "power bank refugees" in just a few days is undeniable.

How did power banks gradually get out of control?

The grand drama of power bank recall can be traced back to a flight accident in March this year.

On March 20th, during a flight from Hong Kong to Hangzhou by an Airbus A320 of Hong Kong Airlines, the luggage rack suddenly caught fire. Many passengers on the plane took pictures of the fire scene.

A fire at an altitude of tens of thousands of meters is still quite scary

Fortunately, the fire was extinguished in time, and the plane landed safely at Fuzhou Airport.

Shortly after this accident, the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department revised the regulations: It is prohibited to put power banks in the luggage rack and to use power banks on the plane.

Three months later, on June 16th, the accident investigation report was officially released, confirming that the culprit of the fire was a Romoss power bank with a rated capacity of 20000mAh in the luggage rack.

Almost at the same time, many universities in Beijing suddenly announced that Romoss 20000mAh power banks were prohibited on campus because this model was "flammable and explosive".

Now Romoss not only had a power bank catch fire, but also public opinion was on fire. Facing the public opinion, Romoss's first - time response was that the legal department would follow up.

Facts have proved that the department Romoss should have followed up with is quality inspection, not the legal department.

After insisting for only two days, Romoss issued an announcement to recall multiple models of its power banks, with the number reaching 490,000.

A few days later, following in Romoss's footsteps, Anker also announced a large - scale power bank recall, with the number even larger than Romoss's, reaching 710,000.