SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20120130-BE638-2147470778. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Matched catalog product: Kenmore Kenmore 796. 91383410. Source model text: Kenmore Elite 796.81022900. Incident: My lint trap filter was not fitting into my dryer properly. This bugs me because I know how important it is in keeping lint from entering the duct and causing a fire. I always clean out my lint trap filter. I decided to take a look at the hang up. Upon inspection I noticed that some lint had passed by the filter (I did not know how) and got caught on a plastic cross piece. It seemed to be caught on this one piece because of the close proximity to the outside housing. The buildup of lint was preventing the filter from fitting all the way into the filter housing. I went to clean it out and could not get it all out. I decided to remove the housing that holds the lint trap. Upon removal it appeared that lint had been passing by the filter for some time. The design of the lint trap housing did not seal and exhaust air leaks around it. This allows a large amount of lint to slip by from what I found. My dryer was installed May 2011. Not even a year old and already a large lint build up. This seems to me that it could be a big fire hazard (I wonder if some dryer fires caused by excess lint passing by have been caused by this already) and should be addressed.