- One Reddit user said they “almost started a fire” with the Steam Controller’s charging puck.
- This happened when the metal strap of their smartwatch came into contact with the exposed pins of the washer.
- This caused a short circuit and “started to sizzle” – although Valve warns of this in the manual
A Reddit user warns that they “almost started a fire” with the Steam Controller’s charger when it came into contact with the metal strap of their smartwatch.
This happened while charging the smartwatch near the puck, with the watch band accidentally touching the Steam controller’s charging puck at “the wrong angle.”
The Redditor explains: “So the metal band on my smartwatch accidentally touched the exposed contacts of the Puck and started to sizzle due to a short circuit.”
They also added that they consider it their own fault, and as several other Redditors posting to the thread point out, Valve warns about this in the Steam controller manual.
There is a section in the health and safety booklet that warns that the charging puck contains a magnet and that: “Magnetic parts may attract metal objects.” To reduce the potential risk of sparks and possible property damage or injury, make sure the wireless adapter, charging puck, and controller are free of metal objects before connecting them. »
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The problem with textbooks, of course, is: who reads them? Many don’t – it’s just human nature to not care – but it’s a pretty important nugget of information to ignore.
Even if you read it, it’s possible that other people in your home – or even visitors – may not be aware of this potential problem at all and may place something metal next to the charging puck without realizing what could happen.
Which begs the question: Should Valve have designed the charging puck better? This point is brought up in the Reddit thread and the original poster observes that Valve’s hardware isn’t the only device experiencing this issue. They note that the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller has a similar exposed pin design, but that the charging dock has a raised ridge around the pins that makes accidental direct contact more difficult.
Valve could then have made a similar move or, as others suggest, used a sort of “handshake” to ensure the controller is the device connected before sending power from the puck.
We have asked Valve for comment on this issue and will update this article if we receive a response from the company.
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