SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20121119-EBEF8-2147461785. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Amana AGR5844VDW (Amana 5.0 cu. ft. Self-Cleaning Gas Range Model AGR5844VDW). Incident: The Amana 5 cu.ft Self Cleaning Gas Range, model AGR5844VDW2 is unsafe, in that the knobs on the front of the stove do not lock in the off position and easily flip to the gas-on position before finding the "light" position, causing gas to emit into the room without lighting. In other words, this has happened to me twice when just brushing by with a towel or bag of lettuce, without my knowledge until the gas smell filled the house. The first time was when I wiped down the surface of the range. I had a cold and was home alone for several hours before my husband came home and noticed the "funny smell", which due to my cold I could not smell. We evacuated and aired out the house. The second time was when I carried items from the refrigerator and it was probably the bag of lettuce that brushed against the knobs. There is no noise when it happens, as it doesn't turn all the way to the "light" function wherein the clicking sound happens until the unit fires up. Again my husband happened to be in the kitchen, and after the first incident watches the knobs more closely and noticed that it happened again. We caught it before we had to evacuate, or worse before we lit something else in the vicinity. The range was purchased at The Home Depot in The Dalles, Oregon, on May 14, 2011.