5 ms·

Whirlpool told to recall dryers in 'unprecedented' government move

zeristor 7y ago
Surely other countries have the same model of dangerous Whirlpool dryers?
- hedora 7y ago
  Other countries are surely impacted, and probably under other brand names. We’ve had more than our fair share of whirlpool and Frigidaire appliances under various brand names over the years. They’re mostly (universally?) awful, though some of the planned obsolescence mechanisms are ingenious. Note they think that 90% of the ones sold have already died and been thrown out for some other reason. I’d bet these fires are an intentionally sabotaged mechanism triggering an otherwise minor fault. Anyway, here is a list of North American brands presumably affected by this recall, since they all come from the same upper management chain: Admiral (Canada) Chambers Coovert (ac's) Crosley (top-load/current front-load washers) Dacor ( 13 ) Danby ( 8 ) Estate Inglis Ikea Kenmore ( see Sears ) KitchenAid ( 4 ) Kirkland Maytag Epic® Roper Speed Queen (Canada only) Sub Zero (undercounter ice makers) Whirlpool Also, this site lists who makes which brand in the US: http://www.appliance411.com/purchase/make.shtml http://www.appliance411.com/purchase/make.shtml
  - dontbenebby 7y ago
    I can't suss out if my model is covered by this recall but I found a lawsuit alleging it is flawed from almost 2 years ago (!) https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Whirlpool.pdf https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Wh...
gambiting 7y ago
Crucially, this article provides no way to check if your dryer is affected. We have a Hotpoint dryer in the UK, I'd love to know if it's affected or not. Edit: it looks like it can be checked here: https://safety.hotpoint.eu/match.jsp?lang=en_GB https://safety.hotpoint.eu/match.jsp?lang=en_GB
tomatotomato37 7y ago
The average amount of residential fires in the UK between 2017-2018 that actually required rescue services is around 83,000[0], so only 75 extra a year does seem a bit excessive to do a full recall on; I feel a stop-sale order until the problem was resolved and saving full recalls for very dangerous items would have been a better choice [0]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/724327/Fire_and_Fire_Safety.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...
- freeone3000 7y ago
  This item causes a house fire while off. What threshold do you choose for "very dangerous"? Also, it looks like they tried that, and Whirlpool was unable to do a proper repair, so here we are.
  - tomatotomato37 7y ago
    Causing more house fires? Probably 1% of products sold/in use would be a good criteria
    - deng 7y ago
      I have a hard time parsing this. Do you mean no more than 1% of the sold product should cause a house fire? Anyway, 75 house fires per year from a certain product is a pretty big number. Comparing this with the total number of house fires is misleading, since house fires have many different causes. I don't have any numbers, but my gut tells me that if you'd compare this with the average number of house fires caused by sudden electrical failures from household machines while being turned off, this would be a pretty big outlier.
    - bb123 7y ago
      1% would be an insane failure rate for something this dangerous. Over half the households in the UK own driers [1] and there are 27.7 million households in the UK [2]. If 1% of driers were catching fire we would be seeing 138,500 extra house fires a year! Even 0.001% is too high. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/289140/tumble-dryers-in-households-in-the-uk/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/289140/tumble-dryers-in-... [2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...
deng 7y ago
From the article: > The fire report states that it's an internal wiring fault in the machine, and all of this was caused - approximately £8,000 worth of damage - when the machine was turned off Am I understanding this right? This dryer can catch fire while not even running, just by standing there connected to the power socket? That's insane. How in the world can someone mess up some internal wiring this bad?
- noonespecial 7y ago
  You may not have looked inside a modern dryer recently but the level of chincy-ness is unreal. The wires just hang off the parts held by the flimsiest of little twist ties. I just fixed a blower fan in mine. The plastic fan was held onto the motor shaft with tape. The fact that this crap doesn't instantly fly apart and catch fire is an admirable engineering feat in itself (in a twisted sort of way).
  - maxxxxx 7y ago
    I love it when you look at something that clearly works and you think "How did this ever work?". Happens to my code often.
  - deng 7y ago
    Well, I indeed haven't looked inside a dryer, but I am aware that dryers can burn while running. Indeed, as I just learned, they are #1 cause for house fires in Germany, and insurers will usually not pay if you let them run unsupervised. But burning while being turned off, powering some 5V circuit board... yes, it happens, but 75 times a year? But maybe that 'being turned off' was an outlier and most others were actually running.
  - tunap 7y ago
    If it was an apartment sized stacked unit, did you happen to notice the shaft not mounted in a bearing assembly, but instead turning inside a vinyl cup? Only took mine 2-3 years to fail to metal-on-metal... single male, bi-weekly usage equals <100 loads to fail. $10 part, took ~45 min to tear down, install & reassemble. Will be doing it again sometime this year. I think I can do it in 20 min next time... or I can buy the latest, cheaper built model for $600+... Hmmmm, decisions, decisions.
the_unknown 7y ago
And in other Whirlpool news - Dishwasher catches fire "You don't think the appliance filled with water is gonna catch fire". This one needed a class action lawsuit against Whirlpool but, of course, many peopole didn't know about it since the dishwasher often comes with the house they've bought. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-man-whirlpool-dishwasher-explodes-1.5138926 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-man-whirlpool-d...
- andylynch 7y ago
  And it was a fault in a Whirlpool fridge that sparked the Grenfell fire - 72 dead and worst UK residential fire since WW II - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/department-responds-to-police-identification-of-hotpoint-fridge-freezer-involved-in-grenfell-tower-fire https://www.gov.uk/government/news/department-responds-to-po...
rockdiesel 7y ago
Anyone know how to check this in the US? Only information I can find is for UK. I have a GE Hotpoint tumble dryer from about 4 years ago and would like to see if I'm at risk.

Surely other countries have the same model of dangerous Whirlpool dryers?

hedora 7y ago
Other countries are surely impacted, and probably under other brand names. We’ve had more than our fair share of whirlpool and Frigidaire appliances under various brand names over the years. They’re mostly (universally?) awful, though some of the planned obsolescence mechanisms are ingenious. Note they think that 90% of the ones sold have already died and been thrown out for some other reason. I’d bet these fires are an intentionally sabotaged mechanism triggering an otherwise minor fault. Anyway, here is a list of North American brands presumably affected by this recall, since they all come from the same upper management chain: Admiral (Canada) Chambers Coovert (ac's) Crosley (top-load/current front-load washers) Dacor ( 13 ) Danby ( 8 ) Estate Inglis Ikea Kenmore ( see Sears ) KitchenAid ( 4 ) Kirkland Maytag Epic® Roper Speed Queen (Canada only) Sub Zero (undercounter ice makers) Whirlpool Also, this site lists who makes which brand in the US: http://www.appliance411.com/purchase/make.shtml http://www.appliance411.com/purchase/make.shtml
- dontbenebby 7y ago
  I can't suss out if my model is covered by this recall but I found a lawsuit alleging it is flawed from almost 2 years ago (!) https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Whirlpool.pdf https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Wh...

Crucially, this article provides no way to check if your dryer is affected. We have a Hotpoint dryer in the UK, I'd love to know if it's affected or not. Edit: it looks like it can be checked here: https://safety.hotpoint.eu/match.jsp?lang=en_GB https://safety.hotpoint.eu/match.jsp?lang=en_GB

tomatotomato37 7y ago

The average amount of residential fires in the UK between 2017-2018 that actually required rescue services is around 83,000[0], so only 75 extra a year does seem a bit excessive to do a full recall on; I feel a stop-sale order until the problem was resolved and saving full recalls for very dangerous items would have been a better choice [0]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/724327/Fire_and_Fire_Safety.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

freeone3000 7y ago
This item causes a house fire while off. What threshold do you choose for "very dangerous"? Also, it looks like they tried that, and Whirlpool was unable to do a proper repair, so here we are.
- tomatotomato37 7y ago
  Causing more house fires? Probably 1% of products sold/in use would be a good criteria
  - deng 7y ago
    I have a hard time parsing this. Do you mean no more than 1% of the sold product should cause a house fire? Anyway, 75 house fires per year from a certain product is a pretty big number. Comparing this with the total number of house fires is misleading, since house fires have many different causes. I don't have any numbers, but my gut tells me that if you'd compare this with the average number of house fires caused by sudden electrical failures from household machines while being turned off, this would be a pretty big outlier.
  - bb123 7y ago
    1% would be an insane failure rate for something this dangerous. Over half the households in the UK own driers [1] and there are 27.7 million households in the UK [2]. If 1% of driers were catching fire we would be seeing 138,500 extra house fires a year! Even 0.001% is too high. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/289140/tumble-dryers-in-households-in-the-uk/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/289140/tumble-dryers-in-... [2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...

deng 7y ago

From the article: > The fire report states that it's an internal wiring fault in the machine, and all of this was caused - approximately £8,000 worth of damage - when the machine was turned off Am I understanding this right? This dryer can catch fire while not even running, just by standing there connected to the power socket? That's insane. How in the world can someone mess up some internal wiring this bad?

noonespecial 7y ago
You may not have looked inside a modern dryer recently but the level of chincy-ness is unreal. The wires just hang off the parts held by the flimsiest of little twist ties. I just fixed a blower fan in mine. The plastic fan was held onto the motor shaft with tape. The fact that this crap doesn't instantly fly apart and catch fire is an admirable engineering feat in itself (in a twisted sort of way).
- maxxxxx 7y ago
  I love it when you look at something that clearly works and you think "How did this ever work?". Happens to my code often.
- deng 7y ago
  Well, I indeed haven't looked inside a dryer, but I am aware that dryers can burn while running. Indeed, as I just learned, they are #1 cause for house fires in Germany, and insurers will usually not pay if you let them run unsupervised. But burning while being turned off, powering some 5V circuit board... yes, it happens, but 75 times a year? But maybe that 'being turned off' was an outlier and most others were actually running.
- tunap 7y ago
  If it was an apartment sized stacked unit, did you happen to notice the shaft not mounted in a bearing assembly, but instead turning inside a vinyl cup? Only took mine 2-3 years to fail to metal-on-metal... single male, bi-weekly usage equals <100 loads to fail. $10 part, took ~45 min to tear down, install & reassemble. Will be doing it again sometime this year. I think I can do it in 20 min next time... or I can buy the latest, cheaper built model for $600+... Hmmmm, decisions, decisions.

the_unknown 7y ago

And in other Whirlpool news - Dishwasher catches fire "You don't think the appliance filled with water is gonna catch fire". This one needed a class action lawsuit against Whirlpool but, of course, many peopole didn't know about it since the dishwasher often comes with the house they've bought. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-man-whirlpool-dishwasher-explodes-1.5138926 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-man-whirlpool-d...

andylynch 7y ago
And it was a fault in a Whirlpool fridge that sparked the Grenfell fire - 72 dead and worst UK residential fire since WW II - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/department-responds-to-police-identification-of-hotpoint-fridge-freezer-involved-in-grenfell-tower-fire https://www.gov.uk/government/news/department-responds-to-po...

rockdiesel 7y ago

Anyone know how to check this in the US? Only information I can find is for UK. I have a GE Hotpoint tumble dryer from about 4 years ago and would like to see if I'm at risk.