Australian wall adaptors for iPads and Macs have been recalled.
Apple devotees, who hoard everything made by the company, will be feeling anxious now that it has instigated a massive international recall of power point adapters across its range of portable devices. A small number have been found to have broken, causing risk of electric shock.
It comes only a week after Microsoft recalled 285,000 power cord sets which shipped with its Surface Pro tablet range.
The affected Apple adapters were shipped with MacBooks and iPads, and older models of iPhone and iPod, between 2003 and 2015, including in Australia and New Zealand. Also included in the recall are adapters purchased in the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit, which includes wall adaptors for multiple regions.
It’s believed that hundreds of millions of customers have been affected as sales records show that Apple has sold nearly 300 million iPads worldwide since the product was launched in 2010. It has sold 147.7 million computers since 2003; at least 60 million of these were laptops (Apple stopped publishing standalone sales figures for MacBooks in 2013).
The company said it was aware of 12 global “incidents” however it’s not clear whether this involved customer’s actually suffering electric shocks as a result of the adapters breaking.
The affected adapters attach directly to a power brick to connect devices to the wall. New MacBooks also come with an adapter on a long cord, which is not affected by this recall. The recall does not affect smaller USB power adapters which ship with the latest models of iPhone and iPod.
Consumers can take the recalled models into an Apple store to be replaced. If there is a country code written on the underside instead, e.g. AUS or EUR, then this is a newer model and is not affected.
“Because customer safety is the company’s top priority, Apple is asking customers to stop using affected plug adapters,” the company said in a statement.
The recall also affects adapters sold in Argentina, Brazil, Continental Europe and South Korea. It does not affect products sold in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK or the US.
Apple previously recalled an iPhone power adapter sold in some countries after it was found the prongs could snap off and expose users to risk of electric shock.