Take a look at the Kobalt trimmer, blower or mower sitting on the garage shelf — especially if it came home from Lowe’s this year. More than half a million of those tools and their batteries have been recalled because charging the battery a certain way can end in smoke, sparks or an outright fire. The fix is free, shipped to your door, and starts with reading a model number off the tool.
Which Kobalt 24V and 48V Tools Are on the List
The recall covers Kobalt-branded yard power tools — string trimmers, leaf blowers, push and self-propelled mowers, chainsaws, pruning saws, even a power cleaner and a bristle brush kit — that run on 24V Kobalt batteries with a USB-C charging port. The port is the tell. Batteries without a USB-C port are not part of this recall, and neither are the tools that use them.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recall notice, about 554,780 units are affected. The tools were made for Lowe’s by Greenworks and sold at Lowe’s stores nationwide and on Lowes.com from January 2026 through May 2026, priced between $20 and $482. The recalled batteries come in 3.0Ah, 4.0Ah, 5.0Ah, 6.0Ah and 8.0Ah sizes, and the 3.0Ah and 6.0Ah packs were also sold on their own — so a spare battery bought separately is in scope even if the tool it powers is not. The CPSC notice carries the full model-number table, from the KOC 1024-06 trimmer-and-blower combo kit to the KMSD 8224A-06 dual-blade mower, so matching your tool takes about a minute.
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The USB-C Short-Circuit Behind 34 Fire Reports
The danger comes from one specific habit: plugging a USB-C cable into the battery while the battery is still seated in the tool. Charged that way, the lithium-ion pack can short-circuit, and the CPSC says the result is a risk of serious injury from fire. Greenworks has received 34 reports of these batteries producing smoke, sparking or catching fire during in-tool USB-C charging. No injuries or property damage have been reported so far — which is exactly the window in which a recall is worth acting on.
The immediate instruction from the CPSC is blunt: stop charging the battery through the USB-C port while it sits in the tool, starting now. That applies even if yours has behaved perfectly all season. Lithium-ion fires are fast, hot and hard to put out, and a garage full of fuel, cardboard and gas cans is about the worst room in the house for one. The recall was announced July 9, 2026, under recall number 26-611, and it ran through the CPSC’s Fast Track program, which companies use to get a remedy out quickly.
The Free Fix: A New Battery, an Adapter and a Prepaid Return Label
The remedy costs nothing and does not involve hauling anything back to Lowe’s. Register at the Greenworks Kobalt recall page, where the form asks for your model and serial number to confirm the product is included. Greenworks then ships a replacement battery without the USB-C port, along with a charger adapter, a warning label to stick on the tool, an updated product manual, and a prepaid shipping label with instructions for sending the old battery back.
Two details make the wait easier. First, the recall does not order anyone to park the mower for the season — the hazard the CPSC describes is specific to charging through the USB-C port while the battery sits in the tool, and that is the practice to stop immediately. Second, the replacement package arrives with instructions covering the battery swap, the return of the old pack, where to place the new warning label, and how the charging adapter works on the 48V tools that run two batteries at once.
Prefer a phone call? Greenworks takes recall questions toll-free at 888-266-7096, weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, or by email at [email protected]. Do not toss the old battery in the trash or a recycling bin in the meantime — recalled lithium-ion packs are exactly what the prepaid return shipping exists for. And a note for bargain hunters: federal law prohibits selling recalled products, so a suspiciously cheap Kobalt USB-C battery at a yard sale or online listing is one to walk past.
If the Replacement Never Ships, Tell the CPSC
Most Fast Track recalls run smoothly, but if you register and the package never arrives, or the company stops responding, that is worth reporting. The CPSC runs SaferProducts.gov, the public database where consumers file safety complaints about products; the agency’s investigators review each report and use them to decide whether further action against a product or company is needed. A report there also warns the neighbors — anyone can search the database before buying.
The sequence, then, is short: check the battery for a USB-C port, match the model number against the CPSC’s table, stop in-tool USB-C charging today, and register for the free replacement. The commission’s notice puts the affected count at 554,780 units sold in just five months — which means an awful lot of garages have one of these on the shelf right now, most of them owned by people who have not heard a word about it.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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