Dell XPS 15 explodes, but is not part of the company’s recall program

Have you ever worried about leaving your laptop or smartphone on charge overnight? Almost all modern devices of which we are aware stop charging once they reach 100% battery, including the Dell XPS 15 series. There have been issues with at least one generation of 15.6-inch laptop draining its battery heavily when asleep, but Dell has attempted to address this and improve thermal stability with several BIOS updates.

However, one post on r/Dell has highlighted the consequences of when laptops explode. We have been unable to confirm the authenticity of the post despite reaching out to the original poster, but they paint an alarming story of their XPS 15 9560 bursting into flames. According to u/mdntfox they woke to the following, having put their laptop on charge before going to bed:

I heard a fiss sound, similar to the sound fireworks make before they go off. A split-second later, a bright orange inferno covered the corner of my room...I ran back to my room, only to discover a strong smell and smoke filling quickly filling my room.

You can read the full timeline of events on the corresponding Reddit post that also contains links to pictures of the damage, some of which we have included below. According to u/mdntfox, their experience of talking with Dell has been "for lack of better words, unpleasant", but pictures of the device point towards the cause of the issue being battery-related rather than something specific to the XPS 15 series.

As the photo below shows, at least two of the six battery cells have swollen before shorting out while charging and exploding. We would not want to trivialise what sounds like a terrifying experience, but this can happen with any brand of laptop or smartphone. Dell has offered to replace swelling XPS 15 9550 batteries even if they are out-of-warranty, but we are unaware of any widespread battery issues with the batteries in the XPS 15 9560, XPS 15 9570 or XPS 15 7590. 

Thanks for the tip from [email protected].