14 DAY TRIAL // Fitbit is the most recent company whose devices are hit by explosions, with a Flex 2 recently catching fire on the wrist of the owner, causing second-degree burns and worries that activity trackers are prone to issues similar to those that forced Samsung to recall its Note 7 flagship phone twice and eventually pull it off the market.
Fitbit last week promised to conduct a thorough investigation to determine what exactly caused the explosion, and in a statement provided this weekend, the company now says that the device did not malfunction, so the tracker cannot be blamed for catching fire.
“External forces”
The firm explains that it was all caused by external forces, but for some reasons, no specifics were provided, not only on what those external forces were, but also if they impacted the battery or another component that eventually triggered the explosion.
“We were greatly concerned by Ms. Mitchell’s report and took swift action to understand the situation,” Fitbit was quoted as saying. “Based on our initial investigation, including testing of her device by a leading third-party failure analysis firm, we have concluded that Ms. Mitchell’s Fitbit Flex 2 did not malfunction. The testing shows that external forces caused the damage to the device.”
Fitbit also added that it didn’t receive any other reports on devices that caught fire, which basically means that you’re safe to continue using the activity tracker if you have one.
For what it’s worth, Dina Mitchell, the Fitbit customer wearing the device at the time of the explosion, describes the whole incident as a horror story, revealing that doctors had to remove pieces of melted plastic from her burned wrist.
“The bracelet melted and I got pieces of plastic burned into my arm... I'm going to have a scar from this probably. Can you imagine what it would do to a child?” she said.
We’ve reached out to Fitbit to ask for more details about the results of this investigation and we’ll update the article should they be provided.