More than 554,000 Kobalt cordless trimmers, blowers, mowers, chainsaws, and pruning saws sold at Lowe’s are being pulled back after 34 reports of their batteries smoking, sparking, or catching fire while charging, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s July 9, 2026 recall. The tools themselves were sold from January through May 2026, meaning a large share of them spent the summer sitting in a garage or shed, right where fall yard cleanup is about to send millions of these tools back out again.
The Battery Feature Causing the Problem
The defect isn’t in the tools’ motors or housings; it’s specific to a convenience feature built into the batteries themselves. Manufacturer Greenworks Tools designed the 24V and 48V battery packs, sizes 3.0Ah through 8.0Ah, with a USB-C port, letting owners charge the battery like a phone without needing the full tool charger. According to CPSC, charging through that USB-C port while the battery is still inserted in the trimmer, blower, or saw can cause the battery to short-circuit, creating a fire hazard. The tools work fine; it’s the specific act of USB-C charging with the battery seated in the tool that triggers the risk.
Which Tools and Models Are Covered
The recall spans Kobalt’s 24V and 48V cordless yard lineup broadly: trimmers, blowers, mowers, chainsaws, and pruning saws, sold at Lowe’s stores nationwide and on Lowes.com between January 2026 and May 2026. Prices ranged from $20 for standalone batteries up to $482 for full tool kits. Specific model numbers include the KOC 1024-06, KM 4224A-06, KM 5224A-06, KMS 6224A-06, and KCS 4224-06, among others in the same battery-platform family. That means a household that bought more than one Kobalt 24V or 48V tool this year likely owns multiple affected batteries, not just one.
Why Fall Timing Makes This Recall Matter More
Cordless yard tools tend to go quiet over summer once spring lawn care settles into a routine, then come back out hard for fall cleanup: clearing leaves, cutting back growth before frost, prepping beds for winter. A battery that’s been sitting untouched since a spring purchase, then grabbed for a weekend of yard work and plugged in overnight to top off before the next day’s mowing, is exactly the scenario CPSC is warning about. A short circuit that happens while a battery is charging unattended, especially overnight or in an attached garage, is far more dangerous than one that happens while someone is standing right there.
No Injuries Yet, But the Company Isn’t Waiting
CPSC’s recall notice states no injuries have been reported among the 34 fire and smoke incidents so far. Greenworks isn’t treating that as reassurance. The company is offering a full remedy rather than a warning label, which is a stronger response than many recalls in this category get. That’s worth noting for anyone tempted to keep using an affected battery carefully rather than swapping it: the manufacturer’s own data, 34 incidents against roughly 555,000 units sold, is enough of a pattern that it triggered a nationwide fix.
What to Do Right Now
- Stop charging affected batteries through the USB-C port immediately. This is the specific action that triggers the hazard, and stopping it removes most of the risk while you arrange a fix.
- Check your battery’s amp-hour rating and model (3.0Ah, 4.0Ah, 5.0Ah, 6.0Ah, or 8.0Ah with a USB-C port) against the full list at greenworkstools.com/pages/kobalt-product-recall.
- Register online to receive a free replacement battery without USB-C charging capability, along with a charger adapter, a warning label, an updated manual, and a prepaid shipping label for the old battery.
- Keep using the standard charger that came with the tool in the meantime; the recall targets USB-C charging specifically, not the tool’s normal charging dock.
- Don’t leave any lithium-ion battery charging unattended overnight regardless of brand, a general practice that reduces risk even for tools that aren’t part of any recall.
A battery that’s been sitting in a shed all summer doesn’t announce that anything’s changed about it before you plug it back in for fall cleanup, which is exactly why checking the model number before the first charge of the season matters more than it would have back in the spring, when the tool was still new and the recall didn’t exist yet.
