November 30, 2025
Sweet deal, spicy battery drama
What's Hiding Inside Haribo's Power Bank and Headphones?
Amazon yanks gummy gadgets as hikers split: sweet deal or fire risk
TLDR: Amazon pulled Haribo-branded power banks and earbuds after scans showed sloppy battery construction that can raise fire risk. The community split fast: some question Amazon’s move and the silent manufacturer, others stick to safer brands, while skeptics say no real-world failures have surfaced.
Backpackers fell hard for Haribo’s ultra-light, super-cute 20,000 mAh power bank—right down to the gummy bear dangling off the cable. Then, boom: Amazon pulled the listing for a “potential safety or quality issue,” and CT scans revealed messy battery guts—wavy layers, torn electrodes, and thin margins that can make cells fail or even catch fire. In simple terms: uneven parts can cause metal spikes inside the battery, leading to thermal runaway (aka, it overheats fast).
Cue the comment brawl. Over on Hacker News, one camp is asking why Amazon acted at all, with krackers grilling: Did the manufacturer send a recall notice? and shading Amazon for letting “other junk” stay up. Another camp shrugs at the doom talk—charcircuit says they’ve seen no real-world issues and wonders if the defects are too small to matter. Brand loyalists chimed in too: Anker stans flexed their “stick with the grown-ups” energy, even shouting out responsive UK support.
And of course, the memes: mberger’s deadpan “Gummy bears?” turned into a whole bit about candy-powered chargers and “dendrites vs gummy worms.” Meanwhile, the CT scans of the earbuds looked even worse—torn layers and uneven “breathing room” for the battery inside tiny, airtight cases. The vibe: sweet price, spicy risk, and zero statement from the gummy overlords.
Key Points
- •Amazon removed the Haribo 20,000 mAh power bank due to a stated potential safety or quality issue.
- •CT scans of the power bank and earbuds revealed misaligned lithium-ion pouch cells and structural defects.
- •Power bank cells showed poor edge alignment and uneven electrode layering, increasing risks of dendrites and potential thermal runaway.
- •Earbuds exhibited torn cathode layers and inconsistent or insufficient anode overhang (as low as 0.072 mm vs. ~0.5 mm industry norm).
- •Similar defects in charging cases suggest systematic quality issues, possibly indicating a common low-quality cell supplier.