According to the CPSC, Hyper has received seven reports of overheating of its stackable GaN chargers “resulting in damage to the changing units,” plus two reports of overheating the battery pack and causing “smoke, melting, and property damage.” No injuries were reported due to defects in both devices. According to the government agency, Hyper sold more than 18,200 stackable GaN chargers in North America between October 2020 and August 2022, and more than 13,800 of its battery packs between October 2018 and April 2022.
What’s odd is how Hyper responded earlier this year to the first reports of its stackable GaN chargers overheating. Initially, the company said: The edge that it had identified some issues with both the 65W and 100W units, withdrew them from sale and offered to replace devices with alternative units under warranty for anyone who asked. But shortly after, the company’s CEO, Daniel Chin, reached out to deny that the products had been intentionally withdrawn from sale due to a defect, instead blaming a shortage of parts. Chin downplayed the complaints, admitting that while there were some issues with early versions of the 65W charger, all reports of issues with the 100W version were simply “part of the normal defect rate.”
“We’re not doing a full recall as we don’t see any systemic outage,” Chin told us in June.
We were really excited about Hyper’s stackable GaN chargers when they were first announced in 2020. In addition to working as a standard USB charging brick (the 65W version offers two USB-C and one USB-A ports while the 100W model has an extra USB-C port), each charger also has an extra power outlet on the top. As a result, you can stack them to get even more charging ports, up to a total of 16 bricks for a maximum combined charging power of 1600W.
