Nexus 4 battery bloating • Hacker News Board

Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating

#21

Post by VeejayRampay » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 4:14 PM UTC

ncantelmo wrote: post #13

I just replaced the battery in my Nexus 5 due to earlier stages of the same issue. The battery failure was causing a lot of random device shutdowns that I had initially thought were related to the rollout of Lollipop. There's a long support thread of people with similar issues at: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/IJSOuc7... Several of the posters there noticed that their battery had started bulgin…

Ah, the infamous "random shutdown" of the Nexus 4. It has caused me to be 30 minutes late at work a few times that one.

It's annoying really because in the end, there is absolutely NO accountability from either LG or Google that the battery won't work as expected after about two years. Thing is, the price range of the Nexus 4 doesn't exist in the Google mobile lineup anymore, with the Nexus 5 being about twice as expensive. So ultimately, I'll either have to stop buying Nexus phones or spend $400 on a Nexus 5.

Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating

#22

Post by hammock » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 4:15 PM UTC

rlpb wrote: post #11

"They told us the devices were out of warranty and that replacement (through repair and refurbishing) would cost $153 USD." This is a common trick attempted by the retail business - to focus on the warranty (where they dictate the terms) rather than your contract (where they often cannot). If you bought the device, you still have a contract of sale with the seller. The details depend on your jurisdiction. Perhaps in…

Discussion of the relevant law/code in the US:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implied_warranty

In most states, these warranties last for four years. It's common for them to be disclaimed, though.

Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating

#23

Post by lgleason » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 4:15 PM UTC

vonmoltke wrote: post #16

lgleason wrote: post #10

Sounds like you have a bad battery. This can happen with any device with a li battery. You shouldn't need to quarantine all of the devices.

They specifically stated it is happening to all of their Nexus 4 devices.

oops, missed that. Hmmm, that is a bit concerning. Wonder if they are all from the same manufacturing run.

Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating

#24

Post by fweespeech » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 4:15 PM UTC

rlpb wrote: post #11

"They told us the devices were out of warranty and that replacement (through repair and refurbishing) would cost $153 USD." This is a common trick attempted by the retail business - to focus on the warranty (where they dictate the terms) rather than your contract (where they often cannot). If you bought the device, you still have a contract of sale with the seller. The details depend on your jurisdiction. Perhaps in…

> tl;dr: "out of warranty" is not necessarily the end of the story, although I don't know about the US.

In the US, there is no "statute" for contract of sale like you have in the UK. Its entirely what is written by the seller [which is the warranty], so yes, it is the end of the story :P

Generally, if its nearly an immediate loss/failure, you can do something more but that is about the only situation. Months/years later its whatever the merchant & manufacturer stipulated.

Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating

#25

Post by laveur » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 4:15 PM UTC

I can confirm that this happens regularly. For the team I work with it has been all Samsung S4/S5's that have had this happen. And almost all happened within the first year. Our Nexus 5's though area all good and happy.

Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating

#26

Post by cenderin » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 4:16 PM UTC

ericabiz wrote: post #20

This is more common than you might think, particularly on older iPhones. I co-own a repair store in Austin, TX and we get several of these every month--usually on older iPhones that have been dropped "just right". (Not saying yours was the fault of a drop, but if you leave it plugged in 99% of the time, that was probably your issue.) Anyway, it's stupid easy to replace these batteries--they're just glued in, usually,…

What this guy said, I did so many iPhone 3g/3gs/4/4s. Not fair to call out nexus 4 as the only phone that does this. New battery and back assembly(which is removable) would do the trick.

Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating

#27

Post by _petronius » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 4:18 PM UTC

Although I really like my Nexus 4 as a piece of hardware (generally, it just works) I have run into this problem before. Some googling around the issue indicates that it's fairly common, and may be related to the way the device does a poor job of offloading heat. (Due to the arrangement of the internals, a lot of the heat conducts back through the battery connector instead of into the case of the phone, shortening the lifetime of the battery, or so I read somewhere.)

The heat sink issue can apparently be relieved[1], although I haven't tried this on my own device yet. I did replace the battery, though, after the first one failed and started swelling (not as badly as the pictures, but bad enough to deform the back case noticeably).

[1]: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/got-a-hot-nexus-4-heres-a-hack-...

Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating

#28

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 4:20 PM UTC

fredley wrote: post #18

ceejayoz wrote: post #4

The video of the battery catching fire is a little distressing knowing that I carry one of those in my pocket at all times.

That's actually a cut of a longer video. What's missing is the beginning, where they stab the battery with a knife. Unless you pierce a battery, that kind of combustion is unlikely to happen. If it swells up to the point where the casing fails it could, but you'd probably notice that before it became a dangerous issue.

There remains an apparently powerful explosive device a couple inches from my testicles.

Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating

#29

Post by dragonwriter » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 4:23 PM UTC

fweespeech wrote: post #24

rlpb wrote: post #11

"They told us the devices were out of warranty and that replacement (through repair and refurbishing) would cost $153 USD." This is a common trick attempted by the retail business - to focus on the warranty (where they dictate the terms) rather than your contract (where they often cannot). If you bought the device, you still have a contract of sale with the seller. The details depend on your jurisdiction. Perhaps in…

> tl;dr: "out of warranty" is not necessarily the end of the story, although I don't know about the US. In the US, there is no "statute" for contract of sale like you have in the UK. Its entirely what is written by the seller [which is the warranty], so yes, it is the end of the story :P Generally, if its nearly an immediate loss/failure, you can do something more but that is about the only situation. Months/years la…

> In the US, there is no "statute" for contract of sale like you have in the UK.

Depends on the specific US jurisdiction and the particular kind of sale, but this is often false. See, most notably, the Uniform Commercial Code. [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Commercial_Code

Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating

#30

Post by awfullyjohn » Tue, Jul 14, 2015, 4:24 PM UTC

chaostheory wrote: post #14

It's made by LG. Throughout their long history, they've never really had a reputation for quality. Keep that in mind the next time you shop for any electronics or appliances.

Source?