Last night ITV aired a Tonight program called “How safe is your kitchen?” highlighting the dangers of domestic appliances and failures to reach owners who own products that are affected by a recall.
We do not have the ability or permission to embed the show but, for the next month the show is available to view on the ITV Player from this link.
https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/tonight/series-18/episode-5-how-safe-is-your-kitchen-tonight
The program was pretty stark in outlook and demonstrated the dangers that some products could possibly represent which range from minor inconvenience to smoke damage, a full blown fire and even potentially death in rare cases.
However, there has been some criticism of the manner in which these issues have been reported from within the industry although the show did highlight some very good messages and, drew people’s attention to the fact that appliances can be dangerous.
Beko ( Flavel, Belling, Leisure, New World ) Hotpoint ( Indesit ) and Bosch ( Neff, Siemens ) were all highlighted in the show for largely failings with cookers, tumble dryers and fridge freezers in the case of Beko and dishwashers by Hotpoint and Bosch in the spotlight. All these products that have been mentioned present a fire risk.
If you own any of the above you can find out if your appliance is one that may be affected by using the websites and telephone numbers at the bottom of this article. We will not be able to tell you if your product is affected or not, you will need to confirm any need for action with the manufacturer.
We would like to stress that most manufacturers are responsible and do act to put right any failings in their products when there is a serious problem and that failure to do that is very rare.
One of the big challenges faced and, highlighted to some degree in the show is that, if there is a recall issued on an appliance, there is often a large apathy from people to respond, if they even read the recall notice that they receive.
People often dismiss any mail from a manufacturer as being junk, trying to sell them an extended warranty or something else and don’t even read the letter let alone act upon it.
But, the largest problem by far is to track down where the appliances are and then, to get owners to act.
Tracking Down Appliances
If a manufacturer wishes to find out where their products are and they use the usual routes to market through various retail channels tracking down who sold machines, where, when and to whom is next to impossible.
People outwith the retail industry may not understand this but normally it is the case that less than half of all appliances sold go unregistered for warranty with the manufacturer just because of the way things work. Without fundamental changes to the system that would likely prove both onerous and expensive, this could prove to be an almost insurmountable problem.
To buy any appliance you can do so online, from a store and from any number of sources in either. There is no mandatory registration system for warranties and often little record of who the owner is, other than to try to sell an extended warranty, accessories or consumables, service plans or some other product at some point in the future.
So people ignore the letters even if the manufacturer has the details of where to send them which, they often don’t.
There is also the problem of people moving home. It is rare, almost unheard of, for manufacturers to be notified of an owner moving so the notification may not reach the owner.
On top of that there is a large number of appliances that will be “scrapped” due to repair costs or other reasons and that are no longer in use. Manufacturers would not know this as they have no means by which to be notified. The WEEE system could be adapted to negate some of that but achieving 100% would be at best a mammoth challenge.
Keeping in mind that most recalls in the appliance industry will often take place years after the machines were originally sold.
Exactly the same principal applies in other industries. We’ve all seen recall notices in Next, Tesco and many other retailers pinned on the end of an isle or the wall behind the cash register for potentially faulty and even possibly dangerous goods because it is all that they can do. They do not have the information to be able to track down owners.
Even if they could track the sale to an owner through the transaction by using the payment information from a card, they would all need to have access to our banks information but that would likely raise serious privacy concerns.
If the goods were bought using cash there would be no hope of tracking the owners.
Manufacturers are left with only one option, to advertise a recall but this is notoriously ineffective.
Unlike recalls on cars, there is no mandatory registration system and no huge government department watching over where all these products are and who owns them. Largely, responsibility is divided between the product manufacturers and owners with the people that actually sell the goods, retailers who should have a better idea of who they sold the machines to, seemingly being ignored.
Do Owners Put Safety First?
One of the biggest challenges that the appliance industry faces is people that buy the products installing and using them safely. We see many problems that can often be a mild to extremely serious risk being caused by installation alone where appliances are mis-installed or installed in places or environments that they should not be.
Through use we see many serious safety issues caused that can represent real danger to owners.
People drying things in tumble dryers at night, dishwashers left on and all other appliances, completely unattended. When that is the case and something does happen, the level of risk ramps up hugely as, by the time someone sees that there is a problem the damage can be huge.
Our advice, like the fireman’s in the show is, do not leave appliances running unattended or put them on then go to bed, work etc, it is a serious safety risk.
The most important point we would make however is that, if you receive a letter from the manufacturer of any products that you own, open it, read it and if it is a recall notice, act on it and do so as soon as possible.
Do not under any circumstance ignore it.
If you do not register you appliances however and, there is a recall, the manufacturer will quite likely have no clue who you are, where you or have any way to contact you.
Industry Comments
The ITV show brought some criticism from appliance repairers for not explaining that, in a good many cases that owners were just as much to blame as manufacturers for ignoring recall notices. People seem to think that they are not important or perhaps don’t affect them.
Comment has also been directed at the notion of asking electricians, plumbers and so on to report potential recalled appliances when, there is a large number of appliance repairmen out there that know what they are looking at, what they are looking for and can advise owners correctly.
It would seem to be logical to lever that resource. Crazy not to.
It has also been pointed out that the real level of serious risk from appliances is generally very low in general terms unless there is a specific issue such as is the case when a recall notice is issued. They are not usually a danger.
It is important to note though that any electrical product can potentially be hazardous as well as the power supply that it uses.
Current Appliance Safety Recalls
Current ongoing recalls for domestic appliances reported in the tonight program that we are aware of are as below.
For other recalls please see our news as we do report any appliance recalls brought to our attention and also you can find many of the Recall UK website.
Please use the links and numbers given, we will not be able to offer you any information that you cannot get from these sources.
Beko Safety Recalls
Information on current recalls on Beko products is available here:
http://www.beko.co.uk/Pg/ProductSafetyNotices
Phone: 0800 917 2018
Bosch Dishwasher Safety Recall
Phone: 0800 023 4881
Hotpoint Dishwasher Recall
http://www.hotpointservice.co.uk/fdw/
Phone: 0844 891 0094