SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20121113-84B49-2147461999. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Matched catalog product: Kenmore 665.13543N412. Source model text: 665. Incident: I started the dishwasher as normal on a regular cycle in the evening. About 15-20 minutes into the cycle I heard an unusual noise coming from the dishwasher. I came into the kitchen and could smell melted plastic and could see smoke (not steam) coming out of my dishwasher. I then opened up the door and when I did a snapping sound occurred and a horrible odor came out with more smoke. This happened again when I opened the door again to show my husband. I then removed all the dishes, unplugged the appliance, and left the door shut. I had a repair person come to check on it who said there was a fire in the front panel and the entire dishwasher would need to be rewired, which is illegal for them to do. She called to the service department to check on a recall, and they told her they had a number of written complaints about the dishwasher but did not see a recall. I then called Sears and after approximately 6 phone calls I was told there was no recall and was informed that all service calls related to any faulty appliance is directly reported from the service company to the Federal Agency in charge of recalls. I then contacted the service company and they told me that Sears had misinformed me: I would have to report the incident myself. My concern is that someone could have a fire, lose their home, or worse yet, their lives, because there is a fault in this dishwasher. If I had gone to bed, been out of the house, or even been in a different part of the house and not heard the nois