Batteries, chargers and product safety

Connected pet products are ordinary consumer goods that happen to be sold for animals. The safety duties sit with the people who make and sell them. Your job is to buy something that is actually being sold as safe, and not to defeat the safeguards.

Safe products, and the marks

GOV.UK's guidance on the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 says those regulations require consumer products to be safe in their normal or reasonably foreseeable use. The same guidance says that in Northern Ireland the 2005 regulations were superseded on 13 December 2024 by the EU General Product Safety Regulation 2023/988. A product that is safe in a showroom and unsafe once a pet chews the lead is the sort of foreseeable use those rules exist for. This page is not a ruling on any particular brand.

For the marks you see on the box, GOV.UK's sector table says electrical equipment, radio equipment and electromagnetic compatibility equipment may be placed on the Great Britain market with UKCA or CE marking. It says batteries themselves have no product marking requirement in Great Britain. Legislation noted on the electrical equipment guidance continues recognition of CE marking in Great Britain, so a CE mark on a mains adaptor is not, by itself, a reason to reject it. Northern Ireland's column in the table is different. If you are buying for use in Northern Ireland, read that column rather than assuming the Great Britain mark is the whole story.

Ofcom's page on radio law identifies the Radio Equipment Regulations 2017 (SI 2017/1206) as the framework for making radio equipment available in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Electromagnetic Compatibility Regulations 2016 as the requirements before electrical apparatus is placed on the market. A GPS collar with a mobile radio, and a Wi-Fi camera, are radio equipment in that broad sense. The detail of licensing is in radio, Wi-Fi and mobile coverage.

Button batteries, and the charger you were given

GOV.UK's guidance on button and coin batteries says these batteries can pose a severe health risk, particularly to children and pets, if inserted, swallowed or ingested. It says the guidance does not create a new legal rule. It sets out practice for businesses: avoid these batteries where there is an alternative, and if there is not, use a compartment that stays shut and clear warnings, with PAS 7055:2025 as the specification it encourages. The public posters say that if you think a child has swallowed a button battery, go straight to A&E or call an ambulance, and that used batteries should be recycled rather than put in the household rubbish.

The Litter-Robot 4 manual says never use an external power supply other than the one provided, and to contact the maker if that supply is damaged. Substituting a spare adaptor because the plug fits is the opposite of that instruction. Unplug the unit before servicing, which the same manual also says. See automatic litter boxes and kittens.

A rechargeable tracker is a different battery from a button cell. Tractive says its tracker needs charging. This guide does not state a charge time, because the help pages opened for the tracker guides do not state one. Use the charger the maker supplied, and do not leave a swollen battery in use. If the maker's instructions say to stop using a damaged battery, do that.

Section 9 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats goods as having to be of satisfactory quality, and it lists safety and durability among the aspects of quality. A product that is unsafe can be a consumer-rights problem as well as a safety-report problem. How that section works is in buying a connected pet product.

Is a CE mark enough?

GOV.UK says electrical equipment and radio equipment can be placed on the Great Britain market with UKCA or CE. The mark is not a review of the pet features. General product safety still requires the product to be safe in foreseeable use. Northern Ireland is a different column in the marking table.

Are AA batteries in a cat flap the button-battery hazard?

Button and coin cells are the hazard GOV.UK's button-battery page describes. Sure Petcare's microchip flap, on the page opened on 14 November 2026, uses four AA batteries, which are a different format. Keep every loose battery away from children and pets anyway. The severe-risk wording on the button-battery page is about button and coin cells in particular.

Can I repair a chewed fountain lead with tape?

Do not. A damaged mains lead is not a tape repair this site will describe. Unplug it and follow the maker's replacement route. The Litter-Robot manual's rule, for that product, is to use only the supply that came with it.

Sources

• General product safety regulations: Great Britain — GOV.UK, accessed 14 November 2026.
• Product regulations by sector: UKCA and CE — GOV.UK, accessed 14 November 2026.
• Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016: Great Britain — GOV.UK, accessed 14 November 2026.
• Rules on using radio equipment — Ofcom, accessed 14 November 2026.
• Using button and coin batteries — GOV.UK, accessed 14 November 2026.
• New posters promoting button battery safety — GOV.UK, accessed 14 November 2026.
• Litter-Robot 4 manual — Whisker, accessed 14 November 2026.
• Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 9 — legislation.gov.uk, accessed 14 November 2026.