BenQ America is recalling all 1,249 GV31 portable projectors it sold in the United States after three reports of the units overheating, one of them leaving a customer with burns on the hands. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission posted the recall on July 30 as number 26-647, a Fast Track action, and Health Canada issued a matching notice the same day covering another 240 units sold north of the border.
The hazard is the projector’s rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which the CPSC says can overheat and create a risk of serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards. Owners are told to stop using the projector immediately and register at BenQ’s recall portal, which sends out a prepaid shipping label and a package. Two remedies are on offer, both free and both including shipping: a battery replacement, or a swap for a different projector.
The GV31 arrived in October 2023 as BenQ’s answer to the round, speaker-shaped portable class — a 1080p DLP unit rated at 300 ANSI lumens, with a three-hour battery, a 2.1-channel sound system and a suggested price of 599 dollars. We covered its launch and later reviewed it; the battery and the tilting cradle were the reasons to buy one over a mains-only mini projector.
Recalls of this kind usually come with a serial-number window that narrows the problem to a run of cells from one supplier. This one does not. BenQ’s own support FAQ states plainly that all GV31 units qualify for the program, and neither the CPSC nor Health Canada lists a batch code. That is either an admission that the fault cannot be isolated to a production window, or a decision not to make owners prove which side of a cutoff date their unit falls on.
Identification is therefore simple. The projector is white and circular, roughly 5.2 by 8 by 7.5 inches, weighs about 3.7 pounds, sits on a grey base and has a yellow carry strap on top marked GV31; the model number is also printed on the label under the base. The recalled units sold from July 2023 through May 2026 for between 500 and 600 dollars through the BenQ Store, BenQ INFTY lab, Iconic Micro, Memory Express and Amazon.
North America was not first. The UK’s Office for Product Safety and Standards published its own recall notice on May 29 under case 2605-0190, with a blunter description of the failure mode: the battery may overheat and enter thermal runaway, causing a fire. The British notice also records that the product does not meet the requirements of the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016, and that BenQ had recalled it from end users.
The North American paperwork lands two months later, and the sales window closing in May lines up with the British action rather than the American one. Health Canada’s notice, filed as RA-82291, notes that as of June 23 there had been no incidents reported in Canada and one overheating report in the United States. By the time the CPSC published on July 30 that American count had reached three, including the burn injury — a reminder that these figures move while a Fast Track filing is being prepared.
The repair option is more than a cell swap. Units sent back get a replacement battery plus a firmware update that BenQ describes as introducing a dynamic battery management algorithm, and the company spells out what that algorithm is allowed to do: run health checks and tell the owner when the battery needs replacing, and restrict battery power outright if the pack is judged unfit for continued use, at which point the projector runs on the adapter only.
That is a sensible piece of engineering and an unusually candid disclosure. It also means a repaired GV31 carries a switch that can, in the right circumstances, take away the feature the machine was bought for. Anyone choosing the repair route should read that line on BenQ’s recall page before deciding.
The second remedy is a free upgrade to the GV32, the ceiling-throwing model BenQ launched in October 2025 at 599 dollars and which now sells for around 499. On paper it is the better machine: 500 ANSI lumens against 300, Google TV built in rather than bolted on, 135 degrees of vertical tilt with full horizontal rotation, and a 2.1 system with a 10-watt woofer. Its spec sheet lists 80 watts at 100 to 240 volts and no battery at all.
So the compensation for a portable projector with a battery problem is a brighter, smarter projector with no battery. For someone who used the GV31 in the living room and on the patio near an outlet, that is a straight upgrade. For someone who bought it to take camping, it is a different product wearing the same shape, and worth weighing against simply taking the new cell and keeping the machine that unplugs.
One piece of housekeeping applies whichever route owners pick, and the CPSC gives it unusual prominence: a recalled lithium-ion battery must not go in household trash, curbside recycling, or the used-battery drop boxes at hardware and electronics stores. Recalled cells carry a higher fire risk than ordinary ones and need a municipal hazardous-waste facility that has confirmed in advance it will take them.
Portable projectors are defined by the battery — it is the entire reason the category exists apart from mini projectors that need a socket. BenQ handled this one about as cleanly as the format allows: three incidents, a recall covering every unit sold, two remedies, no attempt to bill the customer for shipping. The uncomfortable question sits one tier down the market, among the sub-100-dollar battery-equipped units that now dominate Amazon’s best-seller list under brand names that rotate every few months. A company with a US importer of record and a service network can run a program like this. It is far less obvious what happens when the same cell fails inside a projector whose seller cannot be found by the time the report is filed — which is the part of the portable market that has been growing fastest.