SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Electrical shock / short

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20120428-04A81-2147468049. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Matched catalog product: Shark S3501. Incident: I have a Shark Steam Pocket Mop model 3501. I have had it approximately 3 years. I only use it occasionally. I have always made it a priority to clean it properly as I paid a lot for it and cannot afford to just ruin it. I was using the mop as usual yesterday. You have to pump the handle to make it have steam. I had been using it for probably 5 minutes and I was pumping the handle and it would not pump, then it exploded! There are two windows on each side and one window on the front where the water goes in. Hot water came flying out of each window. Luckily my one year old was far enough away and luckily I did not bend down to see what was going on with it or we would have been burned. I immediately sent an email to the company explaining the above. I then looked online to see if there had been any other incidents like mine and I was shocked at how many there were. Today I got an email back stating that they are glad that no one was hurt and because the mop is out of warranty there is nothing they can do except give me a discount on a new one. I feel like they know there is a problem with that model and are refusing to do anything about it. I paid around $150 for this mop and cannot afford to buy another one. I think something should be done. Thanks.