Nokia charger recall: What you need to know

File under: 'Can you hear me –– OW!'

Nokia, the world's largest cellphone manufacturer, on Monday announced a recall of some 14 million faulty cellphone chargers. The problem? The plastic outer casing on the chargers can separate, exposing the internals (read: shocky parts).

How can you tell if your ringtone-spewing-candybar's charger could jolt you? Nokia says three models made by an outside supplier are affected, and has posted instructions for determining if you've got one of them. These are Nokia-branded, but made by BYD, and may have come bundled with a new phone or been purchased separately. Other, third-party chargers aren't affected (score one for the mall kiosk!)

Basically, check your Nokia's charger to see if it's got a model number of AC-3U, AC-3E, or AC-4U. If it's one of these, head to chargerexchange.nokia.com and enter the details in the form provided, and Nokia will ship one off to you.

We all knew to stay away from spinach a while back and some peanuts were a no-go for a time there, as well as some Chinese drywall, and uh, lead-tainted toys. But how do you stay up on what's been recently recalled? Head over to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, where you can search by type of product, brand name, and type of hazard.

Of course, for EU residents, all of this charger checking may soon be a thing of the past. A proposed universal cell phone charger would use the micro-USB standard, and is gaining traction – even with Apple. Tired of dealing with cellphone charger wires altogether? We profiled the Duracell MyGrid wireless charging mat and liked a lot about it – except its price.