Dear Yoto Community,
We have some important news affecting all Yoto Mini owners. We’ve become aware of an issue which may affect the battery in Yoto Minis and we’ve been working with the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and other regulators around the world to follow the correct process and to develop a solution.
As a result, today, we are announcing what is known in the US as a ‘voluntary recall’ of Yoto Mini, and in the UK and other countries as a corrective action. Please be assured this does not mean you have to send your Yoto Mini back. Instead we have developed a hardware and software solution to mitigate the issue. We will be providing a replacement charging cable - the Yoto Mini Smart Cable - which is available to all Yoto Mini owners for free, from today.
We will be notifying all customers directly but, most of all, we wanted to write to the community directly to apologize, and explain. We’re very sorry for the concern and hassle we know this will cause. As founders of Yoto and parents of kids using their Yoto Minis daily, we remain deeply involved in leading the company. This has been a challenging period but the safety of our customers is our top priority. We are confident that we are doing the right thing by taking the steps outlined below. This is indeed why Yoto Mini has been out of stock, as we halted production of Yoto Mini while we worked on investigating and resolving this issue.
This does not affect Yoto Player (all generations) - only Yoto Minis manufactured between 2021 and 2023. There is a large waiting list for Yoto Mini and we are working to get it back in stock, but our priority at the moment is to get Yoto Mini Smart Cables out to existing Yoto Mini owners.
What Happened?
In total, we have received seven reports directly from Yoto customers of battery failures in Yoto Minis. Six of these were in the US and one in the UK. For context, around 340,000 Yoto Minis have been sold globally. In every case, the battery was full, or close to full, had recently been charged and then overheated. There have been no injuries, and no reports that overheating has led to any fires.
As soon as we became aware of a potential issue, we reported it to the relevant regulator. Since then, independent experts have been carrying out a thorough investigation which has established that Yoto Mini battery manufacturing variations could cause overheating in rare cases. We have ceased all supply from this Yoto Mini battery supplier. The affected customers have been incredibly helpful in assisting us with the investigations and every affected customer has had replacement Yoto players.
It’s important to stress that the Yoto Mini battery is relatively small and contains a low amount of energy compared to a smartphone, tablet or a larger device like an e-bike. Also, the Yoto Mini casing is flame retardant/flameproof and behaved as expected in each of the seven cases we have seen.
Yoto Mini Smart Cable
In consultation with, and approved by, the UK and US regulators and battery experts, we have designed and produced the Yoto Mini Smart Cable which is a replacement charging cable that works to minimize the possibility of a battery failure.
The Yoto Mini Smart Cable has its own embedded microchip that works with software to protect your Yoto Mini by adding several layers of protection to the USB-C charging system.
Firstly, it protects the battery by dynamically ensuring it doesn’t reach a high state of charge - the cable periodically communicates with the Yoto Mini for optimal charging at a safe level.
It also protects against over/undervoltage (for example, caused by faulty wall chargers) and can also cut power in the case of a short-circuit caused by, for example, liquid or a damaged pin inside the USB-C port (which could cause excess heat and melting around the port and cable).
Finally, as Yoto Mini Smart Cable is able to control the charging of Yoto Mini, it uses a faster charging protocol that allows your Yoto Mini to be charged at 2x the normal speed. The Yoto Mini Smart Cable is supported by a Yoto OS software update that has already been rolled out to all Yoto Minis.
The Yoto Mini Smart Cable is available to order from today for free (one per affected Yoto Mini and with free shipping).
What you need to do now
The Yoto Mini Smart Cable is only available via a dedicated Yoto Mini portal. Further info will be emailed in the next couple of days and cables dispatched from next week via a tracked service. We know this is an inconvenience so we’ll also be sending a $20 (USD) / $30 (CAD) / £15 / €15 voucher as a goodwill gesture per affected Yoto Mini. Vouchers will be sent via email 4 weeks after your Yoto Mini Smart Cable has shipped, as we have to prioritize getting the cables out.
You do not need to wait for an email from us. To order your Yoto Mini Smart Cable now, simply go to this site and follow the instructions:
We recognise that this is an added inconvenience to already busy family lives and again we wanted to say how sorry we are - we’re committed to putting things right.
We understand you will likely have more questions, and we are here to answer them. We have a dedicated FAQ available. If your question is not listed and you would like to speak with us directly, you can reach us in the usual ways or via email on minihelp@yotoplay.com.
Ben and Filip, Yoto co-founders