Tesla Recall Notices Citing Burn Hazards: What the Official Records Say

Affected Products

The product named in the recall is the "Certain Tesla Powerwall 2 AC Battery Power System," according to the CPSC notice titled Tesla Recalls Powerwall 2 AC Battery Power Systems Due to Fire and Burn Hazards; Risk of Serious Injury or Death. That page is the official record and the source for every statement about the recall on this page.

The notice gives these details:

• Recall number: 26-092.
• Recall date: November 13, 2025.
• Manufacturer: Tesla, Inc., of Reno, Nevada, with the product manufactured in the United States.
• Units: about 10,500.
• Remedy: replace.

The notice describes the product as "fully-integrated AC battery systems used for energy storage for self-consumption, time-based control, and backup power." In plain words, it is a home battery that stores electricity for use in the house and for backup when the power goes out. The notice states that the systems were sold at Tesla.com/powerwall and through certified Tesla installers nationwide from November 2020 through December 2022, for about $8,000.

For an owner, the important word in the product name is "certain." The recall does not cover every Powerwall 2 ever made, only the units the recall identifies. The notice lists a consumer contact: the Tesla Support team at powerwallsupportna@tesla.com, toll-free at 877-961-7652 Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT, or online through the Tesla energy support pages the notice names.

Is Your Powerwall 2 One of the Affected Units?

The notice identifies one model. It states: "Model number 'Powerwall 2' is printed on the nameplate label on the side of the unit." It also includes photographs of the recalled system, its nameplate sticker, and an installed unit.

The notice does not list serial numbers or serial ranges. Instead, its remedy language describes how an owner learns whether a specific unit is included: "Consumers should ensure their Powerwall 2 system is online and check the Tesla App for a notification about whether their unit is included in the recall."

In practice, two homes can each have a Powerwall 2 with the same model number on the label, and only one of them may be part of the recall. The model name alone does not answer the question for a particular household; the Tesla App notification is the channel the notice describes.

If your unit is not online, the notice does not describe a separate way to check it through the app. The channels it does name for questions are the Tesla Support email, toll-free number and support pages listed above, and the CPSC recall page carries a complaint form for anyone who believes a company is not responding to a remedy request.

The recall is about this product only. It does not describe Tesla vehicles, other Tesla energy products, or any other model. For checking a different battery product, the site's lithium battery recall lookup guide explains how to read a CPSC notice field by field.

What the Recall Says Could Happen to Your Unit

The CPSC notice states the hazard in one sentence:

"The lithium-ion battery cells in certain Powerwall 2 systems can cause the unit to stop functioning during normal use, which can result in overheating and, in some cases, smoke or flame and can cause death or serious injury due to fire and burn hazards."

That sentence describes a sequence. The cells can cause the unit to stop working during normal use. That can lead to overheating. In some cases, overheating can lead to smoke or flame. And fire can cause burns, serious injury or death.

Readers often come across the term thermal runaway. It means a chain reaction inside a battery cell in which the cell produces heat faster than it can release it, so the temperature keeps rising and can lead to smoke, fire or a rupture. The notice's own words are "overheating" and "smoke or flame," and this page uses those words for the Powerwall 2 recall. For a general explanation of how battery fires cause burns, the site's page on lithium battery burn injuries covers that ground.

This sentence is a stated hazard: a description of what the cells in certain units can do. It is not a finding that any particular unit caused any person's injury, or that the firm is legally responsible for anything. A recall is not a finding that the product was defective in a particular case, an incident report does not prove what caused an injury, a lawsuit is not a finding of liability, and an allegation is not a fact.

For a family living with one of these units, the stated hazard is the reason the remedy exists. For a family after a fire, it is one piece of the record, not an answer to what caused their fire.

What Happens to Your Powerwall While You Wait for a Replacement

The notice states the remedy in full:

"Consumers should ensure their Powerwall 2 system is online and check the Tesla App for a notification about whether their unit is included in the recall. Tesla has remotely discharged (or removed energy from the battery of) affected Powerwall 2 systems that are online, to prevent overheating, until the replacement is installed."

There are two steps in that language. First, the notice ties the remedy to the unit being online, meaning connected so that it can communicate with Tesla's systems and the app. Second, it states that Tesla has remotely discharged affected units that are online. The notice explains the term in parentheses: energy is removed from the battery. The purpose given is "to prevent overheating," lasting "until the replacement is installed." The remedy listed at the top of the notice is "Replace."

In everyday terms, an owner of an affected, connected unit may find that the battery no longer holds stored energy for backup while waiting for a replacement. Because the notice describes remote discharge only for units that are online, it does not say what happens to an affected unit that is offline; that is a question the notice leaves to the Tesla Support contacts it lists. The notice does not state a replacement schedule, and this page does not describe the remedy as finished or still underway. The CPSC recall page shows the notice as it currently reads, along with its complaint form: in its words, "If you are experiencing issues with a recall remedy or believe a company is being non-responsive to your remedy request, please use this form and explain the situation to CPSC."

Federal law also sets out what a recall notice must contain when the notice is required under a Commission order under subsection (c) or (d) of the statute or under section 2061. Under 15 U.S.C. § 2064(i)(2), such a notice generally includes, among other items, "any remedy available to a consumer" and "any action a consumer must take to obtain a remedy." That is why remedy language like this commonly appears on such notices.

Incident Data the CPSC Notice Reports

The notice reports these incidents:

"The firm has received 22 reports of overheating, including six reports of smoking and five reports of fire, resulting in minor property damage. No injuries have been reported."

These are reports the firm received. The six reports of smoking and five reports of fire are included within the 22 overheating reports, not added to them. The notice describes the result as minor property damage and states that no injuries have been reported.

An incident report records that someone said an event happened. It does not establish what caused the event, whether the unit involved was a recalled one, or what role anything else in the home played. The figures are the numbers this notice gives for this recall, as of the notice; they do not describe other Tesla products or what happened in any particular home. Federal law lists incident information among the items a Commission-ordered recall notice generally includes: under 15 U.S.C. § 2064(i)(2)(G), that is "the number and a description of any injuries or deaths associated with the product," along with ages and the dates the Commission received the information.

If your own Powerwall 2 overheated, smoked or burned, the notice's statement that no injuries had been reported does not settle anything about your event. It reflects what the firm had received when the notice was written.

What a Recall Notice Does — and Does Not — Establish for Someone Who Was Hurt

If you are trying to understand what recall 26-092 means after a fire, it helps to start with what a recall is. A recall is a safety action by a firm, coordinated with the CPSC, that addresses a stated hazard and offers a remedy such as a repair, a replacement or a refund. This notice is labeled a "Fast Track Recall." It is a safety step, not a verdict.

The recall also sits inside a federal reporting system, which explains why a notice can exist without anyone proving fault. Under 15 U.S.C. § 2064(b), a manufacturer, distributor or retailer that "obtains information which reasonably supports the conclusion" that a product contains a defect that could create a substantial product hazard, or "creates an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death," must "immediately inform the Commission," unless it knows the Commission has already been adequately informed. Separately, the Commission may order repair, replacement or a refund after it determines, following an opportunity for a hearing, that a product presents a substantial product hazard. For an injured person, the takeaway is that a recall notice comes out of this safety system, not out of a court case.

Whether a company is responsible for an injury is a different question, answered by product liability law, which addresses whether a manufacturer, seller or distributor may be responsible for harm caused by a product. That law usually looks at three kinds of defect: a design defect (a flaw in how the product was designed), a manufacturing defect (a unit that came out different from its design), and a warning defect (a failure in the product's warnings or instructions). The CPSC's regulation, 16 C.F.R. § 1115.4, uses similar ideas for reporting purposes: "a defect is a fault, flaw, or irregularity that causes weakness, failure, or inadequacy in form or function," and "a defect can also occur in a product's contents, construction, finish, packaging, warnings, and/or instructions." These are legal categories, not findings about the Powerwall 2.

For someone who was hurt, the recall record can be one piece of the picture, alongside the unit itself, the scene and the medical records. Whether it matters to a claim depends on facts the notice does not contain, such as whether the unit was a recalled one and what actually started the fire. Other battery recalls on this site, such as the Galaxy Note 7 battery recall, are explained with the same distinction. A conversation with our attorney can help sort out how a record like this one fits the facts of a specific fire.

Records That Often Matter When a Battery Fire Causes Injury

When a home battery fire injures someone, the questions afterward tend to turn on documents and physical evidence. If you were hurt, the records that usually matter include:

• Medical records from emergency care, burn treatment and follow-up.
• Photos and video of the product, the room or wall where it was installed, and the scene after the fire.
• The product itself, or what remains of it.
• Purchase, installation or order records, including the installer's paperwork.
• Fire department, incident and police reports.
• The names of witnesses, including neighbors and first responders.
• Any Tesla App notification about the recall, and the unit's nameplate label.

These records matter because of what product liability law asks. A negligence claim generally asks whether there was a duty, whether it was breached, whether the breach caused the harm, and what damages followed. A defect-based claim generally asks whether the product had a defect and whether that defect caused the injury. A battery fire, on its own, does not prove any of those things. The product, the installation records and the scene are often where the link between the battery and the injury is shown or ruled out.

Time also matters. A statute of limitations is the period within which a legal claim must be filed. It differs from state to state, as do fault rules, damages rules and wrongful-death rules, and no single period applies everywhere. If you were hurt or lost a family member in a battery fire, a case evaluation is a conversation with our attorney about what happened, and it can help clarify which state's rules may apply.