There has been an on-going scandal in the UK with clothes tumble-dryers catching fire. They were made by Whirlpool but sold under the brand names Hoover, Creda and Indesit and the store “own brand” labels Proline and Swan. Over 5 million o the potentially dangerous machines were sold between April 2004 and September 2015. The company had already acknowleged there was a “slight risk” and advised that the machines be constantly monitored while operating and had offered a modification. Some of the modified machines are also reported to have caught fire.
The government blamed the dryers forat least 750 fires over an 11 year period Previously the company had played down the significance of the design error and the extent of the problem.
Whirlpool said it had logged 54 fires caused by fluff dropping from a collector by the drum onto the heating element in its tumble dryers in recent years.
Three of the fires were in machines that had been modified.
It argued that two official reviews, including one by the Office of Product Safety and Standards, had found the modification to be effective.
Although more than five million were sold, the company said the majority would have fallen out of use. It said it had resolved 1.7 million cases - a greater success rate than most recalls - and estimated that 500,000 affected dryers could still be in use. When pressed by MPs, it said some estimates had suggested as many as 800,000 remained in homes.
The recall, demanded by the government in an unprecedented move, came after nearly four years of the modification programme.
Owners have now been told to stop using their dryer immediately and unplug them. The announcement of the recall takes place nearly two weeks after Whirlpool told MPs investigating the situation that they would be doing so. Publicity over the recall alone will cost £1 million. Despite fires being blamed on modified dryers, these apparently will not be included. The owners of the dryers recalled will either receive a new replacement, be offered an upgrade to cost no more than £99 or cash compensation of up to £150. (So upwards of £70 million in total compensation/replacement costs.)
Whirlpool are known as Hoover in the UK and this is the second disastrous public relations problem they have had. In 1982, they decided to offer two free flights to customers buying over £100 worth of their products in order to clear a warehouse backlog. At first this was to a Europen destination but they later extended it to include destinations in the USA. The cany British consumer soon realised that if you got 2 tickets for the very cheap fare of £50 each, you got a free vacuum cleaner thrown in (well I did). The Hoover executives realised that there might be a problem when they had to put extra shifts on at the factories to meet demand. They had issued enough vouchers to fill 500 Boeing 747s.