Ring is recalling a bunch of video doorbells after it was found they can catch on fire

Ah, Amazon-owned smart home brand, Ring, is in hot water again. This time though, it’s not shady data protection practices at fault, but a physical issue that could lead to some models of its video doorbells to catch fire. Yikes.

According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Ring is recalling around 350,000 of its second-generation video doorbells due to this issue. The root cause? If you use screws that are too long when you install the doorbell, they can damage the device’s battery, leading to overheating issues and even fire. That doesn’t sound very safe at all, for a device sold as a safety feature.

Ring has received 23 reports of flaming doorbells causing property damage, and eight more reports of minor burn injuries. Ring does say you don’t need to return the doorbells, just make sure to read their updated installation instructions so you don’t damage the battery during the install.

The thing is Ring ships the doorbell with specially-shaped security screws for fastening the doorbell to the door frame mount. I guess some people either don’t read instructions or didn’t notice the oddly-shaped screws and the star-shaped security screwdriver that Ring sends to install it with, and just decided to use any old screws from their toolbox.

If you’re one of those instruction-haters, and you’ve already installed your Ring doorbell with the wrong screws, contact Customer Support for some next steps.

What do you think? Surprised that this is even possible? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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