Rechargeable hand warmers: what the 2026 US recalls of OCOOPA, HotHands and Gobi Heat models say

Rechargeable hand warmers, battery heaters sold in pairs and charged over USB-C, have been the subject of three US recalls this year, by our search of the CPSC's recall database for "hand warmer" on November 12, 2026. On July 30, 2026, OCOOPA Direct recalled about 1.5 million of them, sold online at Amazon.com, Walmart.com and its own websites from September 2018 to May 2026, after reports of overheating that included one death. On October 1, Kobayashi Consumer Products recalled about 77,000 HotHands rechargeable hand warmers, sold in stores and online, and Dragon Gear, which trades as Gobi Heat, recalled about 5,500. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced all three, and each notice says the lithium-ion battery inside can overheat and ignite, causing fire and burn hazards.

The three recalls

The OCOOPA figures are the starkest. The company has received 1,480 reports of its hand warmers overheating, which resulted in 15 fires and 350 burn injuries, according to the notice. The death it cites is that of an 83-year-old consumer in California in February 2026. Set against 1.5 million units, the reports amount to about one for every 1,000 warmers sold, by our arithmetic; the notice does not say over what period they arrived.

Three products described in almost the same words

Read side by side, the notices describe very similar products. Each brand's warmers were sold as a pair that can be joined magnetically, with a charging cable, a USB-C port, built-in lithium-ion batteries, adjustable heat, LED indicator lights on a hard plastic shell and a silicone lanyard. All three were made in China. By our comparison of the notices, the Gobi Heat model number, UT3053, printed on the underside of its warmers, is the same as the first model on the OCOOPA list. The notices do not link the two recalls or say whether the products share a manufacturer, and the CPSC names no maker in any of the three.

The hazard wording differs slightly. The OCOOPA notice points to the lithium-ion battery alone. The HotHands and Gobi Heat notices say the battery and electrical components can overheat and ignite. Neither October notice reports any incident, and the CPSC lists both as carried out together with Canada.

What a UK report found

The UK's Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has also reported on this kind of product. In February 2025 it published a report on a rechargeable hand warmer sold via Amazon and eBay, listed as a 5,200mAh hand warmer and power bank with a digital display, model HZU003, from Fuzhou and Yue Electronic Technology. OPSS rated the fire risk as high. Its report says wires were soldered directly to the circuit board with no secondary restraint, in what it calls a high vibration and shock environment, and that the cells had no thermal protection, which could lead to thermal runaway and fire. Both marketplaces removed the listings, and OPSS recommended that owners stop using the warmer and ask the distributor they bought it from for redress.

What the notices tell owners

All three US notices tell owners to stop using the hand warmers immediately and contact the company for a refund. Each asks owners to write "Recalled" on the warmer in permanent marker and send a photo showing that marking and the model number; OCOOPA also asks to see the three-digit batch number, and HotHands the four-digit batch number and a claim number. The notices then direct owners to dispose of the warmers under local and state hazardous waste rules.

On disposal, the notices say a recalled lithium-ion battery should not go in household trash, curbside recycling or the battery collection boxes in some stores, because such batteries carry a greater risk of fire than others. They suggest calling a municipal household hazardous waste collection center first to ask whether it accepts them, and contacting the municipality if it does not. Incidents can be reported to the CPSC at SaferProducts.gov.

What the records leave out

None of the notices names a safety standard that the hand warmers failed, or explains how the faults arise. The OCOOPA notice does not break down its reports by model or year. Each recall covers only the brands and models it lists, so other hand warmers of a similar design are not part of it, and the UK report covers one listing that was removed. Nothing in these records measures how warm or how long-lasting any of the warmers are.

How this guide was put together: we found the three recalls through a search of the CPSC's recall database, then read the three CPSC recall notices and the OPSS report cited below. We have not tested any hand warmer.