Steam Controller puck charger nearly catches fire after contact with Pixel Watch 3 — sparks fly after the metal wristband magnetizes to the puck's pogo pins
A Steam Controller charging puck nearly causes a fire after the wristband on a Pixel Watch 3 magnetically attaches to the charger, causing the exposed pogo pins to arc electricity.
Steam Controller puck charger nearly catches fire after contact with Pixel Watch 3 — sparks fly after the metal wristband magnetizes to the puck's pogo pins | Tom's Hardware
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It has been less than a month since the Steam Controller launch, and the device has already nearly caused a fire for at least one person. Redditor Toikka on the Steamcontroller subreddit revealed a nearly catastrophic incident involving their Steam Controller’s magnetic puck charger arcing electricity after attaching itself to foreign metallic material.This unfortunate circumstance occurred when the Steam Controller owner was charging their Pixel Watch 3 in close proximity to their Steam Controller charging puck. The puck's magnetic attraction was strong enough for the Pixel Watch’s wristband to contact the puck's pogo pins, causing the device to short-circuit and heat up. Luckily, the owner managed to remove the wristband from the puck before any real damage occurred. The damage was purely cosmetic, consisting of dark spots on the Steam Controller puck and burn marks on the Pixel Watch wristband.PSA: Watch out for the exposed contacts of the Puck! Almost started a fire due to metallic smartwatch strap from r/SteamControllerThe event exposed a design oversight in the Steam Controller’s charging puck. The exposed pogo pins will conduct electricity to any metal surface that makes contact with them. Many of the responses in the aforementioned Reddit post highlight this oversight, with several comments recommending that Valve add a data pin to the charger to ensure it knows it is connected to a Steam Controller rather than some random object.Latest Videos FromThankfully, Valve responded to Toikka and is reportedly investigating the charging incident. Valve may release a revised charging puck in the future that addresses this issue, but we’ll have to wait and see.
For now, this story serves as a good lesson to Steam Controller owners to proactively watch where their charging pucks are located, especially surrounding other magically attracted objects and devices. For more details, the Steam Controller’s manual also highlights this problem and warns against putting magnetically sensitive devices near the puck. Valve even mentions possible disruptions to some medical devices if the puck is in close proximity.The Steam Controller is Valve's latest gaming product that takes the input controls from the Steam Deck and squeezes them down into a controller form factor. The controller is available for $99 on the Steam store and features 35+ hours of battery life.
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Aaron KlotzContributing WriterAaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.
6 Comments
Comment from the forums
Exposed live pins? How did this pass QA testing? If CE wasn't a self-declared certification it surely would have failed.
In this day and age a) why doesn't it have a data pin to talk between controller and charger to negotiate charging like 99% of all other modern devices. And b) why does it not just have USBC?????
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TechGuy_93 said:Exposed live pins? How did this pass QA testing? If CE wasn't a self-declared certification it surely would have failed.
In this day and age a) why doesn't it have a data pin to talk between controller and charger to negotiate charging like 99% of all other modern devices. And b) why does it not just have USBC?????It's bad enough that I'm a little sceptical if it is actually true; don't believe everything you read on the internet after all, and there are certainly plenty of people out there who would fake it either for clicks and likes or out of animosity towards Valve. It's not impossible for something to be made that badly either though, unfortunately I don't have a Steam controller or I'd test it myself. ...With a voltmeter, not just by putting a random piece of metal on it, I feel I ought to stress that...
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Did Tom's Hardware......... you know, a hardware testing website........... actually test this?
Or is this just I heard it on reddit so now I'm passing on the unverified information?
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I don't think they're live as exposed. Instead, they're spring loaded, so they become live once depressed (when connected to controller). Metallic watch strap. Magnetic. It depressed the pins and stuck to them, creating a short.
Least, that's how I can see this happening.
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I doubt the puck can catch fire. Melt, maybe, but 5V 1A is 5W It's not even enough to cause a spark.
On the off chance the puck has no power control circuitry and you hook it up to a charger that doesn't care about what it pumps out, it's 5V 3A, or 15W. 15W could potentially melt plastic, but still won't cause a fire, unless it's dumped into a lithium battery with no battery safety circuitry. https://static0.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/steam-controller-puck-oncontroller.jpg?q=49&fit=contain&w=4032&h=3024&dpr=2 With that said, I've noticed most other wireless game controllers with a charging dock feature 4-pins.
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How to create fuss out of nothing. I have devices with exposed magnetic pins and never had any problem because i don’t magnet a metal sheet on it, yeah. And if you don’t slide your hand against a knife, it won’t get cut neither….
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