With (almost) everyone owning a smartphone these days — and with many of those devices not being charged regularly or dying halfway through the day — convenient charging accessories now come in all shapes and sizes. Some types of furniture even come with built-in USB ports these days, and while most of them are just a nice bit of added convenience, one company is now recalling over 100,000 of them because they could literally shock you.
Jimco Lamps is recalling a whole bunch of its J Hunt Home and J Hunt and Co. accent tables that have built-in USB charging ports and/or regular power outlets. The issue is that the charging ports have reversed polarity due to a wiring error, and that can pose an electrical shock hazard to someone trying to use it. Roughly 99,000 of the tables, which come in a variety of styles and colors, were sold in the United States and a further 11,000 were sold in Canada.
As the official recall bulletin states, the tables are made of a variety of materials including wood and MDF, and have either one or two drawers. All of the recalled units have “convenience receptacles” for regular power plugs and USB charging ports. The reversed polarity due to the error with the wiring can cause an electrical shock when using the ports, though the company states that no injuries or incidents have been reported thus far.
The tables were sold from between $60 and $130 and were available at retailers such as HomeGoods, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Amazon, and other brick-and-mortar and online retailers. They were available for purchase from May of 2019 through December of 2020, meaning that there are a lot of homes that have had these tables for a while and may not even think to check if there’s been a recall. The company says that it is correcting the error by offering a refund or replacement of the recalled tables. The new models that are being offered as replacements should not have the polarity problem.
“The different styles of the recalled units measure about 14 inches by 14 inches by 28 inches high for many of the units up to 24 inches by 15.5 inches by 74 inches high on certain other bookcase style units,” the recall bulletin explains. “The tables weigh between 13 and 26 pounds. All recalled units have a white adhesive label on the underside or back of the unit with the item number and date codes between April 2019 and November 2020. The date code is listed as a two-digit month followed by a slash and a four-digit year code such as 04/2019.”
The full list of recalled item numbers is available on the recall page, so if you think you might have one of these tables, check the numbers on the body of the table and compare them to the numbers in the recall. If you do in fact have one, unplug it and contact the company via the contact info on the recall bulletin.
