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Yeah, li-on batteries do this. Computers, watches, cars, even aircraft. Just ask Boeing.
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Random battery fires all over the place keep life exciting.
 
I have a 2013 rMBP and the battery has swelled to the point where the case will not shut. I am more than a little concerned now that I have a fire hazard on my hands.

According to what I have read in other threads, you might want to take your Macbook Pro into an Apple Store to replace the battery, it is unclear from my reading if it definitely poses a fire hazard, I started a thread on this topic because my mid-2015 Macbook Pro is having lid closing issues but nobody has responded with definitive info.

My case will shut if I attempt to close it again or if I hold the lid closed for an extra second, I don't know if it is just a magnet issue because if the battery is the issue I doubt I would be able to close it normally with any techniques.
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You 100% do have a fire hazard on your hands. It also probably damaged the computer once it swelled that much.

Anybody here experience a Macbook Pro that does shut off or go to sleep when you close it but it remains slightly ajar, if you close it again quickly or force it closed for an extra second it will fully seal, does this mean it is not a battery issue since I am able to close it fully with these techniques?
 
I have a 2013 rMBP and the battery has swelled to the point where the case will not shut. I am more than a little concerned now that I have a fire hazard on my hands.

Why in the world are you still using it? Throw it away, send it for repair or buy a new one. No amount of money saved is worth risking life and limb if it actually sets of fire and/or explodes.
 
I have a 2013 rMBP and the battery has swelled to the point where the case will not shut. I am more than a little concerned now that I have a fire hazard on my hands.

If you're in the US, take it to an Apple store and for $199 they will replace the battery. If you're in another country with authorized Apple service centers, the price should be similar in your local currency.

Legally, what would Apple be required to do for him assuming there was no accidental damage? A 2015 is unlikely to be in warranty anymore, and there is inherent risk in using any devices with lithium-ion batteries.

I’m not asking what should Apple do, but just about their legal requirements to act in this case.

IANAL, so take with a grain of salt. I believe companies generally have no legal responsibility for a product which fails outside of its warranty period unless it can be argued that the failure was caused by a design or manufacturing flaw. This is a difficult thing to prove in most cases, and most of the time it's not worth the effort.

The calculus changes when a product fails spectacularly and injures or kills someone, or damages a significant amount of property (e.g. burning down a house). In situations like this it can be worthwhile to try and prove a design/manufacturing flaw (usually via a lawsuit or implied threat of a lawsuit), and companies will often decide it's in their best interests to settle.

This is one of those in-between cases. The product is not that old, failed in a notable way, and some limited property damage to the owner's home may have occurred. Potentially appropriate responses from a manufacturer span a wide range, from "tough luck," to offering a goodwill discount on a replacement device, all the way up to replacing the device for free and providing additional compensation for damage caused (in exchange for agreeing not to sue, of course).

Unless there are mitigating details which come out later, given Apple's strong positive reputation, their desire to maintain that reputation, and the possibility of this owner being able to generate negative media attention, I would guess that Apple will lean closer to the latter than to the former...
 
As unfortunate as this, unless there is widespread reporting of similar incidents I feel comfortable not feeling too concerned. All lithium ion batteries have the rare potential to have this happen. There are millions upon million of this 2015 MacBook Pro out there so a few out of those numbers (while still unfortunate) is likely within the realm of expected statistics. This isn’t comparable to the Note 7 at all.
 
Hahaha... When you want to have a good case in court, make sure you refer to a smoking battery as an “explosion”.
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Guess Apple fans can’t make fun of Samsung anymore
Haha when these videos start showing up on a daily basis, then you can say that. This is the first time I’ve seen this happening since... Apple started to exist?
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From his twitter thread.

He said it is a 2015 15" MBP, track pad and display were replaced under warranty by Apple.

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Interesting. I wonder if Apple technicians don’t know what they’re doing half the time or if they use crappy parts for replacements, cuz my brother-in-law got his iPhone 7 battery replaced and within a month the new battery had expanded to the point that the screen was separating from the body.
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Not really. This was a one-off issue with one specimen from a single skew that came about 4 years after manufacture. Samsung's issue was a fundamental design flaw in an entire line of products with hundreds exploding, often violently.
I totally agree with everything you just said, except for the last few words. Exploding violently??? Hahaha the only thing the note 7 ever did was get hot and blow a little smoke. Just like this MacBook did. I laughed every time someone would post a new story about this happening, “Note 7 violently explodes and puts hundreds of innocent bystanders at risk!!!” Then you watch the video and it’s literally someone standing a foot away from the phone just watching it blow smoke out of the frame. Lol, where’s the explosion??? Again, like I said previously, if you wanna have a good case in court, make sure you refer to a little puff of smoke as an explosion lololol
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Legally, what would Apple be required to do for him assuming there was no accidental damage? A 2015 is unlikely to be in warranty anymore, and there is inherent risk in using any devices with lithium-ion batteries.

I’m not asking what should Apple do, but just about their legal requirements to act in this case.
Apple shouldn’t have to do anything if the laptop is out of warranty. This is a rare case, as well as an unpreventable one. People need to stop being so trigger-happy with sending people to court.
 
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We can absolutely make fun of Samsung for one simple fact that escapes you:

Lithium batteries catch fire. The failure rate for lithium batteries is extremely low. The reason the Note 7 was such a complete and utter disaster for Samsung was because those batteries had failure rates between 100 and 1,000 times higher than normal.

It wasn’t just the batteries (use of very thin electrode separator film), a bigger issue was that Samsung didn’t leave enough space for the normal minor expansion that can occur with batteries when they get warm/hot. It was a fundamental design flaw. Initially yes they blamed issues with just battery manufacturing. I believe they figured the second component of the problem out after replacement batteries from another source also led to similar events.
 
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The reality is that Apple produces millions of lithium-ion batteries, and while they are typically safe, a very small percentage may experience failure.


Article Link: Smoking MacBook Pro Caught on Video, Battery Failure Likely to Blame

No, the "reality" is that Apple produces zero lithium batteries. What Apple does is sub-contract the manufacture of batteries that meet their specifications and Apple has better than average quality control with those suppliers.
 
There are 1.4 billion active Apple Devices out in the open and many of which are with Lithium-ion Batteries.
He means it would be more accurate to say "The reality is that Apple produces millions of devices with lithium-ion batteries," not the batteries themselves which come from a third-party like many of the other internal components in modern Apple devices.
 
Guess Apple fans can’t make fun of Samsung anymore

You're probably to young to remember the introduction of the unibody macbook pro then... we still made fun of samsung, though.

Btw, "exploding Battery"... bursting into flames is not an "explosion"
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In the older MacBook Pros you could remove a problem battery in a few seconds by just pulling back two tabs.

And what a great design that was. Still, there were a few igniting and bulging batteries back then, but as far as i can remember, nobody had the nerve to remove a smoking, scalding hot battery even if it was remivable.
 
Seriously? A four year old retina MBP battery problem and you take it to the Apple store? I would’ve opened it up myself in a second. AT LEAST taken out the SSD. It’s simple. And then replaced the battery.
 
One fire??? Why is this even news when there have been 1000's of Laptop and notebook fires worldwide since 2000 with well over 2 Billion Laptops and 1.5 Billion tablets sold. Just google "Laptop fire" if you want to see 1000's of images of burnt laptops. laptop fire

This reminds me of the Gas powered auto industry that's in desperation. So when a one Telsa catches fire, It's all over the news but when 171.500 Gas powered cars burn. Only a few are covered. Quote: 2014 to 2016, an estimated 171,500 highway vehicle fires occurred in the United States,
 
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Legally, what would Apple be required to do for him assuming there was no accidental damage? A 2015 is unlikely to be in warranty anymore, and there is inherent risk in using any devices with lithium-ion batteries.

I’m not asking what should Apple do, but just about their legal requirements to act in this case.

Flash the ca$h!
 
Dear MacRumors author, how do you know this is an isolated incident? Do you know every MacBook on Earth?
 
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