The Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled about 51,000 reclining chair battery packs on September 24, 2026, after four reports of the packs overheating, smoking or igniting. The Blue Cactus Company sold the black, 2,500-milliamp-hour packs on Amazon.com for about $105 apiece between May 2023 and July 2026, and they were designed to power several brands of electric recliner rather than a single chair line. No injuries were reported, but the agency says the hazard sits inside a battery already installed in living rooms across the country.
A battery pack built for someone else’s recliner
The recalled unit is a black battery pack, model RWX-RBP02, with the Blue Cactus Company name printed on the front and the model number stamped on the back. It was marketed as a universal power source for reclining chairs rather than a proprietary part, which is why the roughly 51,000 units reached buyers who owned recliners from several different manufacturers rather than one captive customer base. Cordless, battery-powered reclining and lift mechanisms have become common because they let a chair sit anywhere in a room without a cord running to an outlet, and the battery pack that makes that possible is exactly the component now under recall.
The recall notice is blunt about why that matters: “The lithium-ion battery in the recalled battery packs can overheat, posing fire and burn hazards to consumers.” The packs were imported and sold under the Blue Cactus Company name, but the manufacturer of record is Go North Rocket 28 AB, based in Sweden, according to the same notice.
Four overheating reports behind the recall
Four consumers reported their battery packs overheating, smoking or igniting before the recall was issued, the notice states, though it does not describe any resulting injuries or property damage in detail. That is a small fraction of 51,000 units, but the Commission treats even a handful of thermal-runaway reports in a lithium-ion product as reason enough to pull an entire production run, since a battery that fails once under normal use can fail again without warning in an identical unit sitting in another living room.
The remedy is a free replacement pack, not a refund, and the notice tells consumers to “stop using the recalled battery packs immediately” and contact the Blue Cactus Company at [email protected] or through the “Important Recall Information” link on the company’s website. The recall carries CPSC number 26-791, the identifier investigators and retailers use to track it once it circulates beyond Amazon’s own listings.
A regulator increasingly focused on battery packs
This recall lands inside a broader pattern at CPSC. Commissioner Richard Trumka has been blunt about the scale of the underlying problem, telling the agency’s own Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Forum that “lithium-ion batteries are a leading cause of fatal fires in New York City,” adding that “these batteries have led to 87 injuries and 13 deaths in NYC alone” in a single year, and that “the problem is not isolated to New York City.”
The agency has since moved toward tighter rules elsewhere in the lithium-ion category. A proposed CPSC standard published June 24, 2026 would require tamper-resistant enclosures and stronger labeling for batteries in e-bikes, e-scooters and hoverboards, a category the agency links to 227 incidents and 39 deaths between 2019 and 2023. That proposal does not cover furniture battery packs like the recalled recliner units, but it reflects the same underlying concern: a battery that can enter thermal runaway does not need a defect rate in the double digits to justify a recall.
Getting a replacement from a manufacturer overseas
Because Go North Rocket 28 AB is based in Sweden and sold exclusively through Amazon, the practical path for an affected owner runs through the Blue Cactus Company’s consumer-facing recall page rather than a domestic retailer’s return counter. Owners who no longer have the original packaging or receipt can still request a replacement, since Amazon’s own purchase records typically confirm the sale. The more than three-year sales window, May 2023 through July 2026, means some of the roughly 51,000 packs have been charging and discharging in daily use for years before the hazard surfaced, which is part of why the Commission treats a small number of overheating reports as an early warning rather than a fluke.
Consumers who spot a battery pack overheating, discoloring, swelling or smoking, whether or not it is part of this recall, can also file a report through the CPSC’s SaferProducts.gov database, which the agency draws on when deciding whether a pattern of complaints justifies a new investigation. The agency’s own guidance on lithium-ion batteries calls the devices “marvels of technology” that also drive “a growing number of serious fires,” a tension this recall captures in miniature. The Blue Cactus Company recall started with four such reports; the next one may start with the report a reader files this week.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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