You may have recently become aware that the giant American consumer goods company, Whirlpool, has been forced to recall some 800,000 of its tumble dryers in the UK as they are dangerous and may catch fire. Apparently there is a fault in the manufacture of the machines within the heating element that means excess fluff could be caught inside causing the potential risk of fire.
The recall was announced by The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy following a review carried out by the Office for Product Safety and Standards and means that all unmodified tumble dryers must be recalled from consumers homes with immediate effect.
Consumer Affairs Minister, Kelly Tolhurst, said: ‘The UK has some of the toughest consumer protection laws in the world. Our intervention demonstrates that we will take all the necessary steps to keep consumers safe.
‘I want to reassure consumers that we are doing everything to ensure consumers with unmodified machines are made aware and have their tumble dryer replaced. Consumers with an unmodified machine should contact Whirlpool to arrange a free replacement.’
The Recall Notice states that any consumer with an unmodified, affected Whirlpool tumble dryer will be entitled to a new replacement machine, which will be delivered, installed with the old one removed, at no cost. A refund based on product age or a modification will be available to consumers who do not want to take up the offer of a replacement dryer.
The recall covers all models of vented and condensing tumble dryers produced between 1 April 2004 and 30 September 2015 and sold in the United Kingdom under the Hotpoint, Indesit, Creda, Proline and Swan brands.
You can check if your unit has already been modified or is unaffected quite easily, just look inside the dryer door and if you see a green sticker then you know that your machine is safe to use. If your machine has not been modified and is subject to the recall then you should switch this off, unplug it and do not use it until you have contacted the company to ascertain whether you are affected or not.
If you think you may be affected but are not sure then you can:
- call the Whirlpool helpline on 0800 151 0905 for more information.
- visit the safety website at www.safety.hotpoint.eu/ where you will find a full list of affected machines.
- or visit the Government product recall website at www.productrecall.campaign.gov.uk.
