Two safety warnings touch things a lot of us own: a cheap power bank, where the seller decides if you’re paid back, and the French press.
Your Daily Dad Joke
I used to work at a cat shelter, but I had to quit.
They reduced meowers.
Two things worth a look this week
Most of us have one rattling around somewhere. The little battery pack in the bottom of a work bag, the car console, a kid’s backpack. You bought it for twenty bucks because your phone kept dying, and you haven’t thought about it since.
That’s why I wanted to pass this along.
You may have seen the government’s warning last week about HAIARA power banks. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says it knows of 600 reports of fire, explosion and other overheating, including three burn injuries and nine reports of property damage. It counts about 210,000 of them sold on Amazon.com and Newegg.com from January 2025 through October 2026, and it says to stop using them now.
So is yours one of them? Here’s the part that trips people up: the brand name may not be on the device at all. The CPSC says the HAIARA name shows up on some receipts. On the power bank itself, look for three things. It’s black, it says “20W” on the front, and “Model: W5 PRO” on the side. The warning covers the ones with no date code on the side (a string of eight numbers, written year, month, day).
Now the part the headlines mostly skip. The same power bank was sold by different sellers, and whether you get your money back depends on which one you bought from.
Mitrytech recalled about 11,000 of them that it sold on Amazon from May 2025 through September 2026, for $18 to $22. Its recall offers a full refund. You email HAIARArecall@outlook.com, send a photo of the power bank with the word “recalled” written on it in permanent marker, and confirm you got rid of it properly.
Woot, another Amazon seller, has refused to do a recall, the CPSC says.
Geralde-US hasn’t answered the CPSC’s requests at all.
I know. Same battery, same risk, and one buyer gets paid back while the next one gets nothing. That’s how it works when a seller won’t cooperate, and it’s worth knowing before you spend twenty minutes chasing money that isn’t coming.
The one thing I’d do. Pull up your order history and search “power bank.” Open the order and look at who it says it was sold by. If it was Mitrytech, ask for the refund. Whoever sold it, stop using it. And here’s the catch most people would never guess: the CPSC says not to put it in the trash or the recycling bin, and not to sell it or give it away. It goes to a household hazardous waste drop-off, and the CPSC says to call ahead first.
And while you’re in the kitchen. If you make coffee in a glass French press, there’s a good chance it’s a Bodum. The recall notice says they’ve been sold since 1974, at Target, Walmart and coffee shops, for about $15 to $65. On October 29, Bodum recalled 5.9 million of them, the 8-cup and 12-cup ones with a replaceable glass carafe (the Bistro, Brazil, Caffettiera, Chambord, Crema, Java, Jesper and Kenya). A damaged or cracked carafe can break while it’s full of hot coffee. Bodum has had 70 reports of carafes breaking during use, and 48 people burned.
Here’s what nobody expects: you don’t get your money back or a new carafe. The fix is a free plastic stirring spoon and a warning label. The CPSC says to stop stirring with a metal spoon right away, because metal can crack the glass, and the label says not to use a cracked or damaged carafe. You can ask Bodum for the spoon at 888-879-8213 or Bodum3302@sedgwick.com. The name is on the frame and engraved on the glass, so it takes about ten seconds to check.
Anyway, I wanted to make sure you heard about both before one of these ends up in someone’s stocking.
Which one turned up at your place, a power bank or a French press? Share it in the comments so we can all learn from it. I read every comment.
If this was important to you, share it with someone you care about.
Nobody reads the “sold by” line on a twenty-dollar charger or the fine print on a coffee pot, and nobody should feel bad about that. A two-minute look on a Monday is enough, and then that’s one less thing to wonder about this week.
— Steve
Also on the site since Friday’s issue: what to do if you rented from Progress Residential, now that the $49.75 million FTC settlement is announced, what to do when an eviction on your record has every landlord saying no, and Damon Day’s real math on driving Lyft Black and Uber in the rain on Halloween.
New podcast episode, out now: The $10,000 IRS Trap and Listener Questions Answered. You can also watch it on YouTube or listen here.
A longer video from me: What to Say When a Debt Collector Calls (Don’t Mess This Up!). It’s lesson one of my free class, and the heart of it is one calm sentence: “Can you please send me the validation notice in writing?”
SEE A SCAM? SAY SOMETHING. If one has landed on you or someone you love, tell me at tips@getoutofdebt.org. The ones that can warn other people may show up here. Leave out account numbers and passwords.
If this was important to you, share it with someone you care about. It’s free at yourmoneyactually.com, and I don’t sell the list. The places I actually use for my own money, and what I get out of telling you, are on one page where they’ll always be.
This is what I’m telling friends like you over coffee. But remember, you do you.