A review of the UK product recall system is at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...5/ind-16-4-consumer-product-recall-review.pdf
Product recall review
- Thread starter stillp
- Start date
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Wonderful. My sister has a tumble dryer on the "it may catch fire" list.
Hotpoint say it will be 3 months before they can even schedule a visit for the necessary work to be done.
In the meantime she may use the tumble dryer, but she must not leave it unattended
Hotpoint say it will be 3 months before they can even schedule a visit for the necessary work to be done.
In the meantime she may use the tumble dryer, but she must not leave it unattended
Exactly the same here!Wonderful. My sister has a tumble dryer on the "it may catch fire" list. Hotpoint say it will be 3 months before they can even schedule a visit for the necessary work to be done. In the meantime she may use the tumble dryer, but she must not leave it unattended
Kind Regards, John
Two people I know have been told "safe if attended".
And if it catches fire while you are "attending" it ?
Are the early signs of a fire starting large enough to be noticed and still small enough to be safely dealt with. Will turning the power off be enough to allow the fire to subside. ( turning power of at the consumer unit if no safe to access switch by the dryer. )
What do Hotpoint reccommend you to do if it does catch fire ?
The machine is NOT certain to be safe if attended...... Only the family will be safe because they will be able to evacuate before the fire takes hold and spreads through the house.
And if it catches fire while you are "attending" it ?
Are the early signs of a fire starting large enough to be noticed and still small enough to be safely dealt with. Will turning the power off be enough to allow the fire to subside. ( turning power of at the consumer unit if no safe to access switch by the dryer. )
What do Hotpoint reccommend you to do if it does catch fire ?
The machine is NOT certain to be safe if attended...... Only the family will be safe because they will be able to evacuate before the fire takes hold and spreads through the house.
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With TTC's sister and myself, that makes four!
It actually happened to us with this machine two or three years ago. Whilst the machine was operating 'attended', smoke suddenly started billowing out of the machine. We immediately switched it off and the problem subsided very quickly. I subsequently dismantled the machine and cleaned out the ash and residual fluff that had somehow got past the filter into the ducting, and there has never been a repeat of the problem. I reported the problem to Hotpoint at the time, who thanked me for the report and said that it had been 'noted'.
If what we experienced is 'typical', I find it quite hard to understand how this can cause significant 'fires'. At least in our case, the problem was 'only' due to fluff in places where it shouldn't having ignited - something which I would have expected to be a pretty brief self-limiting situation. There is very little within the drier which is appreciably 'combustible', so I'm not sure how this 'burning fluff' can escalate into a serious fire.
Kind Regards, John
I believe that smouldering embers get into the drum where they ignite the clothes in the drum. Withe the fanned air combustion is rapid.
It does seem rather stupid to have heating elements that are hot enough to ignite material when the air being circulated to dry the clothes needs only to be 101° C to obtan rapid drying. Maybe it was ( short sighted ) cost saving that led to a design that has air passing over heating elements that are hot enough to ignite any fluff that gets past the filters.
It does seem rather stupid to have heating elements that are hot enough to ignite material when the air being circulated to dry the clothes needs only to be 101° C to obtan rapid drying. Maybe it was ( short sighted ) cost saving that led to a design that has air passing over heating elements that are hot enough to ignite any fluff that gets past the filters.
One imagines that the heating elements are no way near hot enough to ignite fluff when air flow rates are 'normal', and that they will only rise to such a temperature if air flow is impaired (e.g. by a build-up of fluff) - think what happens if the fan of a fan heater stops working.
Kind Regards, John
Within seconds an overheat trip cuts the power to the element. ( at least it does on the ones I have bought over the years )
Indeed so - but the fan completing stopping is obviously an extreme situation, whereas with the dryer (or is it drier?!) we're only talking about a reduced air flow rate due to partial blockage of the 'air plumbing'. They certainly have overheat protection, so it seems a bit surprising that it doesn't operate before the heating element gets hot enough to ignite fluff.
Kind Regards, John
I do not know if this is applicable to the Whirlpool incidents but naked wire elements can ignite fluff even though the overall air temperature is far below the trip temperature of the over heat sensor. Heaters using naked wire elements are the cheapest possible heaters but the wire can glow red hot if the air flow is restricted.
The large dryers in launderettes were gas heated with their heaters designed such that the metal surface in contact with air ( and therefor fluff ) was well below the ignition point of fluff.
The large dryers in launderettes were gas heated with their heaters designed such that the metal surface in contact with air ( and therefor fluff ) was well below the ignition point of fluff.
Sure - as with fan heaters. However, IIRC the heaters in these dryers do not involve 'naked wire elements' This is a picture of the heater in mine (from a listing of spare parts), and I think what one can see are the fins surrounding an 'enclosed' element (a bit like an immersion heater one):
Kind Regards, John
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From the web site http://www.ukanfixit.co.uk/content/creda-hotpoint-tumble-dryer-heating-element-c00206317-2500-watt
Whch looks like a naked spiral tape element
Whch looks like a naked spiral tape element
It does. The picture I found and posted was seemingly rather deceptive - as I said, it looked (at least to me) more like fins than the actual element!
What I'm wondering (and may eventually find out!) is what is the nature of the 'fix' that they are installing . One might imagine that it could consist of some sort of further 'filtering' - but if that is 'internal and inaccessible', it could end up causing more problems than it cures!
Maybe it is more clever than that!
Kind Regards, John
Speak of the devil! By pure co-incidence, I've just received an e-mail from Hotpoint, which says:
... and 'clicking here' gets:
... so your sister's "3 months" sounds pretty good!!
Kind Regards, John
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