Home Battery Recalls and Safety Notices

The largest home battery recall a UK householder is likely to encounter is the LG Energy Solution ESS Home Battery recall, which covers the RESU range of home storage batteries. The hazard is serious: LG states that an affected battery "may overheat and catch on fire, which can result severe property damage or serious injuries", and that "incidents have occurred and caused damage to property"¹. The recall has expanded over time to include additional models and batteries, so a battery that was outside the original scope may now be inside it¹.

The remedy is free. LG Energy Solution will either replace an affected battery and remove it from your property at no cost, or apply a free diagnostic software update that identifies batteries at risk of overheating and shuts them down, with replacement following if the software finds a problem¹. The company also pays compensation for the extra electricity costs a shutdown causes¹. The first step for any owner is a serial number check, which LG provides online¹.

Recalls of this kind are rare in domestic storage. Government guidance notes that "there have been few recorded fires involving domestic lithium-ion battery storage systems"², so the LG case is the exception rather than the pattern. But it shows exactly how a recall reaches a household, who issues it, and what an owner is entitled to expect, which is what this page sets out.

The LG ESS recall: batteries that can overheat and catch fire

The LG Energy Solution ESS Home Battery recall exists because a defect in certain batteries creates a fire hazard. The maker's own description is blunt: an affected battery may overheat and catch on fire, and the consequences can be severe property damage or serious injuries¹. This is not a precautionary notice about a theoretical risk. LG confirms that incidents have occurred and have caused damage to property¹.

The recall has also grown. LG states plainly that "the recalls have expanded to include additional models and batteries"¹, which matters for owners who checked their battery when the recall was first announced and found it clear. A battery that was outside the original scope may now be covered, so a serial number checked years ago is worth checking again. The full picture is on our page about the LG ESS battery recall, and the maker's own serial check is the authoritative test¹.

For context, this hazard is the same failure mode that sits behind general fire service advice on lithium-ion products: the average UK household has many rechargeable items containing lithium-ion batteries, from laptops and mobile phones to e-scooters and mobility vehicles⁵. A home storage battery is a much larger quantity of the same chemistry, which is why the recall response, replacement and removal, is handled by the company rather than left to the owner. The general fire risk of storage is covered in are home batteries safe and home battery fire safety.

Affected models: RESU3.3 to RESU10M

Two lists describe the affected models, and they differ in how they are grouped. LG's recall guidance names the RESU3.3, RESU6.5, RESU10 and RESU13, together with the RESU7H in Type C and Type R versions, the RESU10H in Type C and Type R versions, and the RESU10M¹. Electrical Safety First's recall listing for the LG ESS battery division names the RESU7H Type R, RESU7H Type C, RESU10H Type R and RESU10H Type C as models subject to replacement of all potentially affected ESS Home Batteries³. The two lists overlap but are not identical, so the serial number, not the model name, is the decisive test.

These batteries reached UK homes through more than one route. Which notes that the LG Chem RESU was sold in the UK via Eon surveyors⁶, meaning a household may have a RESU battery without ever having chosen the LG brand directly. The wider RESU range is described on our LG home batteries page. If your model appears in either list, the next step is the serial check, because the recall is applied to specific serial number ranges rather than to every unit of a model¹.

Checking your serial number and registering your battery

The serial number is on the battery casing, and LG gives the exact location for each model group. On the RESU3.3, RESU6.5, RESU10 and RESU13, look to the right-hand side of the battery; the label may be partially obscured by battery cables or conduit¹. On the RESU7H and RESU10H in their Type C and Type R versions, there are two places to check: underneath the battery, adjacent to the cable entry, and behind the access cover at the bottom right of the battery¹.

The instruction that matters most is a prohibition. LG states: "Do NOT attempt to dismantle the battery or cabling for easier access to the serial number."¹ A battery that is already a fire hazard should not be opened or disturbed by the owner. If the label cannot be read from where it is, contact the company through the routes below rather than forcing a better view.

Once you have the serial number, enter it in the online serial check on LG's recall site¹. Registering through the recall process creates the record that leads to a replacement or the software update, and it is how the company reaches you as the recall expands¹. Data given in the recall form has a stated limit on its use: it will not be used for sales advertising and will only be used for product support, campaign and recall purposes, unless you opt in to marketing¹.

What the company does about an affected battery

The recall offers two routes depending on which batteries a household has. For batteries subject to the recall itself, LG states that it "will replace your battery for free and remove the affected battery from your property at no cost to you."¹ The owner pays nothing for the new battery or for the removal of the old one.

For batteries subject to what LG calls the Voluntary Corrective Action, the remedy is different. The company is rolling out a free diagnostic software update "which is intended to identify and shut down batteries at risk of overheating"¹. This update is delivered by a technician site visit, at no cost to the owner¹. If the software then diagnoses a battery as at risk, LG "will replace batteries diagnosed by diagnostic software and remove those batteries from your property at no cost to you"¹.

Two practical points follow. First, the software route is not a repair: it is a screening tool that finds the batteries that need replacing, and the replacement that follows is free in the same way as the direct recall route¹. Second, if an installer or qualified electrician needs to visit as part of the process, LG asks to be told, "so we can provide technical guidance and arrange payment for their time"¹, meaning a household should not be out of pocket for a professional visit connected to the recall. The general process of having work done on a storage system is described in home battery installation.

If the diagnostic software shuts your battery down

A shutdown is the software doing its job. The update identifies batteries at risk of overheating and shuts them down, and a shutdown means the battery has been flagged and will be replaced and removed at no cost¹. In the meantime the household loses the use of its stored electricity, which is where the compensation element of the recall applies, covered in a later section.

The practical effect is that the home runs on imported grid electricity again, in the way it did before the battery was installed. Energy Saving Trust describes the normal pattern of a storage system, in which a battery charges from solar or cheap electricity and discharges until it reaches a set level, "maybe 20% of the total storage capacity", at which point the system stops⁷. A shutdown removes that buffer entirely, so the household buys all its electricity from its supplier at its tariff rates until the replacement is in.

That gap is the cost the recall's compensation is designed to cover: LG states it is providing compensation "to cover any additional expenses incurred due to increased electricity bills or costs associated with using alternate energy sources after the shutdown of the affected batteries"¹. Keep bills and records from the shutdown period, because the claim rests on showing the additional expense. What a battery normally contributes to a home's running costs is explained in battery payback and savings.

While you wait: switch it off and do not dismantle it

The maker's instruction while a battery awaits replacement is to leave it alone. The explicit rule is not to attempt to dismantle the battery or cabling, including for something as minor as reading a serial number¹. A battery suspected of being affected should be switched off and not used, because the hazard is overheating and fire¹.

Fire service guidance on lithium-ion batteries in the home fills in the precautions around any battery left in place. North Wales Fire and Rescue Service advises not to charge devices overnight when anyone is asleep, or to leave them on charge when the home is empty, and to charge in a room with a working smoke alarm that does not compromise an escape route, keeping the door closed and the device away from any heat source⁵. If a device or equipment is stored without being used for any length of time, the battery should be removed⁵. A recalled storage battery cannot be removed in that way by a householder, which is exactly why the recall provides free removal by the company¹.

The fire response rule is the one to hold on to. The fire service's advice is: "In the event of a fire, don't try and tackle it yourself - leave and call 999."⁵ A lithium battery fire is not a fire to fight with an extinguisher or water; it is a fire to escape from. The failure process behind these fires is explained in what is thermal runaway, and the risk of a battery fire reigniting is covered in can a lithium battery fire reignite.

Affected batteries inside systems that are not LG-branded

The recall notice carries a warning that widens its reach well beyond households who know they own an LG product. LG states: "Affected batteries may be inside your energy storage system even if it is not LG-branded."¹ RESU batteries were sold as components inside other manufacturers' storage systems, so the casing, the app and the installer paperwork may all carry a different name while the battery module inside is an affected LG unit.

This is why the serial number check matters even for a household that has never heard of LG RESU. The battery's own label, in the locations described above, is the only reliable identifier¹. A household that cannot see the battery, because it is built into a larger unit, should contact the company through the recall routes rather than opening the system, given the prohibition on dismantling¹.

The scope of the recall also has limits worth knowing. Government product guidance on plug-in solar equipment states that plug-in battery systems fall outside that particular specification⁸, and the recall process itself is aimed at installed ESS home batteries rather than every battery product on the market¹. The overall fire record for the technology remains reassuring: government guidance notes there have been few recorded fires involving domestic lithium-ion battery storage systems². The LG recall is the notable exception, and the non-branded warning is the part of it most easily missed.

Moved house? What former residents should do

A storage battery stays with the house, so a recall can reach a household that never bought the battery and does not know its history. If you have moved into a property with a battery installed, the same serial check applies: find the label, enter the number, and register the result with the company¹. The recall obligations, free replacement, free removal and compensation, attach to the affected battery, not to the person who originally bought it¹.

For a former resident who has moved out, the position is the mirror image. The battery belongs to the property, and the new occupier is the person exposed to the hazard, so the useful step on leaving is to pass on what you know: the make, the model and, if you have it, the serial number, together with the recall site address¹. Sellers and landlords have an obvious interest here, since a battery that is later found to be affected is a defect in the property, not a purchase by the current occupier.

Where a dispute arises around a home energy measure, there are established routes for consumers in different parts of the UK. Guidance for heat network consumers in England and Wales directs people in premises within the scope of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 to the Housing Regulator, the Regulator of Social Housing, LEASE (the Leasehold Advisory Service) and the First Tier Tribunal⁹, and the back-billing protections that apply across Great Britain are set out in Ofgem's published guidance¹⁰. A recall dispute with a manufacturer is a different matter from a billing dispute, but the same bodies are the reference points for who regulates what, and the four-nation picture differs: schemes such as the chargepoint grant for landlords apply across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland¹¹, while other consumer protections are set at Westminster or Great Britain level¹⁰.

Compensation for the extra electricity costs

The compensation element of the recall is specific and worth claiming. LG states it is providing compensation to affected consumers to cover additional expenses from increased electricity bills or the costs of using alternative energy sources after a battery shutdown¹. A household that had been running on stored solar electricity, or charging from a cheap overnight rate, will see its bills rise while the battery is out of action, and that rise is what the payment addresses.

To size what the loss can amount to, Ofgem's published benchmark maximum charges show what annual electricity costs run to under the charge restriction. These are benchmark maxima rather than typical bills, but they give the scale of a year's electricity that a shutdown pushes back onto the grid.

The figures differ by region, metering type and period, which is why a compensation claim should rest on the household's own bills rather than on any published average¹². A battery that was cutting the household's electricity bill by a meaningful share is cutting nothing while it is shut down, and the claim is for the difference. Keep the bills from before and after the shutdown, and any receipts for alternative sources used in the meantime, such as heating or generation the battery had been replacing¹.

Contact routes for the recall and for wider disputes

The recall has its own contact routes, published by LG Energy Solution. UK owners can leave an enquiry through the LGES customer portal¹. Two phone lines serve Europe: +49 (0) 6196 5719 660 for Europe generally, and +39 02 3859 4420 for Italy¹. For questions about how personal data collected in the recall is handled, the company gives a dedicated address, privacy.es@lgensol.com¹.

• Serial check and recall registration: the online serial check on LG's recall site¹
• Customer portal: leave an enquiry via the LGES customer portal¹
• Europe phone line: +49 (0) 6196 5719 660¹
• Italy phone line: +39 02 3859 4420¹
• Data protection queries: privacy.es@lgensol.com¹

If an installer or qualified electrician will visit in connection with the recall, tell the company in advance so it can provide technical guidance and arrange payment for their time¹. Beyond the maker, there are consumer routes for the wider context of home energy work. The Renewable Energy Consumer Code can be reached on 0207 981 0850¹⁵, and the Energy Ombudsman handles disputes about energy products and services, with registration by phone on 0330 440 1624¹⁶. For finding a competent person to check an installation, government guidance points households to a competent person register such as TrustMark¹⁷. These bodies do not run the recall, but they are the escalation routes if something around it goes wrong.

How recalls are handled in the UK, and Electrical Safety First's guidance

Recalls of electrical products in the UK rest on a legal power. Regulation 12 of the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016 provides for enforcement measures that can include a requirement to "recall the electrical equipment", and it applies in England, Wales and Scotland⁴. The LG recall is described by the maker as voluntary in part, but the legal framework behind product recalls exists regardless, and Electrical Safety First maintains a public listing of the LG ESS battery recall among the product recalls it tracks³.

Electrical Safety First's wider campaigning shows why recalls matter in the home. The charity reports that "Every year, half of accidental domestic fires in the UK are caused by electricity", and that there are over five fires a day in England caused by white goods such as tumble dryers, washing machines and dishwashers¹⁸. It attributes these fires to misuse of appliances, poor regulation of electrical safety checks, particularly in the private rented sector, and faulty appliances¹⁸. A recalled battery is a faulty appliance of the highest-energy kind, which is why the response is removal rather than repair.

Recalls reach households through published notices, and the pattern is consistent across products. When government intervened with gas hob manufacturers over safety risks, the response included published safety notices with freephone contact numbers, such as Belling's 0800 041 8831¹⁹. The LG recall follows the same shape: a published notice, a serial check, a free remedy and a contact route¹. Certification also has a role before any recall is needed: BSI offers combined MCS and BSI Kitemark certification for microgeneration products, a process it says improves products and manufacturing procedures through testing and audit²⁰. Standards and certification for storage are covered in battery installation standards.

What the recall means for your energy independence

A home battery is a household's step away from buying every kilowatt-hour at the supplier's price, and a recall is the moment that independence is suspended. Energy Saving Trust describes the arrangement: solar or cheap-rate electricity charges the battery, and the home runs from the stored power until the battery reaches its set floor, perhaps 20% of capacity⁷. A shutdown ends that, and the household is fully dependent on its supplier again until the replacement is installed¹.

The recall also shows where dependence remains even when the battery works. The household depends on the manufacturer's company for the safety of the product, for the software that screens it, and for the compensation if it fails¹. It depends on the installer route through which the battery arrived, since the RESU reached UK homes via Eon surveyors⁶. And it depends on the grid as the fallback, which is why the recall's compensation for increased electricity bills exists at all¹. Independence from the grid is a matter of degree, not a switch.

The wider context is that storage is becoming normal in UK homes. Existing homes will all need to be retrofitted¹¹, and the government collects and publishes official statistics on domestic retrofit battery installations, with a contact address for the statistics themselves²¹. Published guidance on domestic storage draws on fire safety work covering solar PV systems²², and the consumer advice framework for home energy measures stems from the Each Home Counts review, commissioned by the UK Government in October 2015²³. A recall is a disruption inside that growth, not a verdict on it: the remedy is a working battery, replaced free, with the costs of the gap paid back¹. What a battery contributes to independence in normal operation is set out in batteries and energy independence, and the end-of-life route for any battery, recalled or not, is covered in battery recycling and disposal.