SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20120315-A3251-2147469239. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Matched catalog product: Kenmore 20232 (Type 587-20). Source model text: 587.15193402. Incident: Our dishwasher is about four years old and has had no previous issues. One evening it began to produce a strange smell during a normal wash cycle. The fumes grew stronger and more noxious the next time we ran it, so we turned off and opened the dishwasher before it finished the wash cycle. We could see no heavy scale buildup on the heating element nor obstructions in the drain. We then disconnected the power supply and removed the front base plate. On the underside of the dishwasher, we saw that one of the wires attached to the heating element was completely exposed. About an inch of insulation and the connector had melted away - the melting plastic was emitting the fumes every time the heating element turned on. There also appeared to be some corrosion on the brass connector to which the wire is soldered. We have not used the dishwasher since then because of concerns of a risk of overheating and fire.