Shipping lithium batteries has stricter carrier requirements. To keep your order shipped safely and in line with Royal Mail and courier rules, some lithium-containing items have delivery restrictions. This guide explains the two battery categories we use and what that means for where we can ship your order.
🔋 Why lithium items have shipping restrictions
In recent years, Royal Mail and our courier services have introduced much stricter requirements around shipping lithium. This means we have to take extra care to ensure these products are shipped safely.
✓ Tip: First, identify whether your item is Category 1 (battery in/with a product) or Category 2 (a “raw” battery). The shipping rules differ.
🧾 Battery categories
A number of our products contain lithium batteries and generally fall into one of two categories:
Category 1: Batteries in/with products
- Products with lithium batteries pre-installed
- Products shipped with lithium batteries but not installed
Category 2: “Raw” batteries (not with or part of a product)
- 18650/21700 cells
- LiPo cells
- Power banks
- Coin-cell batteries
⚠️ Important: Category 2 items have stricter shipping limits than Category 1 items. Check the destination rules below before ordering.
🚚 What does this mean for my order?
Use the table below to check where we can ship each battery category.
| Destination | Category 1: Battery in/with product | Category 2: “Raw” battery |
|---|---|---|
| England & Wales | ✅ We can ship | ✅ We can ship |
| Scotland | ✅ We can ship | ❌ We cannot ship |
| Northern Ireland | ✅ We can ship | ❌ We cannot ship |
| International (including Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man) | ❌ We cannot ship | ❌ We cannot ship |
⚠️ Note: For lithium shipping restrictions, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man are treated as international destinations.
🏴 Why can't you ship “raw” batteries (Category 2) to Scotland?
Whilst we can now ship Category 1 lithium products to Scotland via Royal Mail, unfortunately, we cannot ship “raw” lithium batteries (Category 2) to Scotland.
In short:
- Royal Mail will not handle “raw” lithium batteries (Category 2).
- The courier service that can handle them for us (DHL) moves these shipments by road within England/Wales. Deliveries to Scotland are handled via air, and lithium products are not permitted via air.
We know this is frustrating, and we’re continually speaking with our DHL account manager to identify ways around this or other methods, as we’d like all of our UK customers to have access to our full range of products.
⚠️ Summary: Category 2 items can only be shipped to England and Wales.
🚚 Why not just use a different courier for Scotland?
We've been shipping parcels since 2012 and we've learnt a lot over that time.
After trying pretty much every other courier company and service over the years, we've found DHL to be the most reliable overall. Other couriers have repeatedly caused issues such as missing or damaged parcels, missed pick-ups, and delays.
🔎 How do I know if a product contains lithium?
We've taken steps to highlight this on any product containing lithium. You'll see information on the product page (usually at the top of the description) and also in your cart in red.
✓ Tip: If you see a lithium notice in your cart, it’s worth checking the destination rules table above before you checkout.
💷 Does lithium shipping cost more?
On some occasions, having a lithium product in your cart will increase your shipping cost.
To see how much your shipping will be, go to the cart and use the Estimate Shipping option.
✓ Tip: Estimating shipping in the cart lets you see available options and prices before you place your order.
🔧 Why can't you just take the battery out for me?
We ship hundreds of parcels a day (thousands during big product launches) with a very streamlined process that ensures your parcel is shipped out quickly.
Manually picking out a single order and handling lithium battery removal (and then doing something safely with that battery) just isn't something that we can do right now, as it would cause a huge slowdown in our picking/packing process for all customers, as well as huge recycling costs on the batteries.
⚠️ Please note: We’re not able to remove lithium batteries from items as part of the fulfilment process.