SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20130114-9581C-2147459860. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Matched catalog product: Kenmore 665.13543N412. Source model text: 665.17489300. Incident: Kenmore built in dishwasher's control unit on upper part of door caught fire. We were in the kitchen and were alerted by sizzling sounds. When we opened the dishwasher door, smoke and flames shot out and water sprayed over the kitchen since the cycle failed to stop. We were able to shut the unit down using the wall switch. The fire then extinguished itself. There was no damage other than to the machine itself, however had we not been in the room we most likely would have had a kitchen fire. This machine is 8.5 years old, so failure is not a big surprise. Nevertheless, the possibility of failure by burning up represents an unsafe design feature.