
Whirlpool told to recall dryers in 'unprecedented' government move - onetimemanytime
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48603753
======
deng
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
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).

~~~
tunap
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.

~~~
subculture
Yup, this is what major appliances have come to: Scheduled repair expectancy
of 2-3 years or several hundred to replace.

My dishwasher started leaking one night - luckily I was nearby when it began.
Upon researching I learned that it was caused by a failed grommet that's
installed with its garter spring facing towards the water-filled tub, which
causes premature failure after 2-3 years. Of course Whirlpool stopped selling
the grommet as a replacement part, instead requiring people buy an entire $150
sump assembly.

So I bought a few $5 grommets off a grommets-r-us site and have scheduled a
triennial dishwasher disassembly song and dance. Threw a simple leak detector
under the washer just in case. At least now I'm pretty knowledgable of the
secret life of the dishwasher.

------
gambiting
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)

------
the_unknown
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-d...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-man-whirlpool-
dishwasher-explodes-1.5138926)

~~~
andylynch
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-
po...](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/department-responds-to-police-
identification-of-hotpoint-fridge-freezer-involved-in-grenfell-tower-fire)

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

~~~
hedora
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
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/Wh...](https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/06/Whirlpool.pdf)

------
rockdiesel
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.

------
tomatotomato37
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/...](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/724327/Fire_and_Fire_Safety.pdf)

~~~
freeone3000
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
Causing more house fires? Probably 1% of products sold/in use would be a good
criteria

~~~
bb123
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-...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/289140/tumble-dryers-in-
households-in-the-uk/) [2]
[https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families)

~~~
sbov
Nevermind that your average household probably has at least 10 things hooked
into their electrical system. A 1% failure rate for all of them would be
rather insane.

