SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Overheating

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20151201-235EF-2147426231. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Matched catalog product: Kenmore 795.77563600. Incident: Smelled something hot in my kitchen area and found that the lights in the refrigerator would not shut off. I double checked to make sure the doors were closed completely but the lights were still on. When I looked in the refrigerator I could see that the light housing cover was melted and the light ballast were discolored. I removed the melted cover and lights from the fridge. I later found that this is a known issue with these refrigerator and part of a class action lawsuit in 2012. I had Sears Repair come to the house and they confirmed this was part of the previously identified problem but they are no longer fixing it as part of the settlement according to his Service Flash on his computer and wanted $500 now to fix it. I should have been covered by Sears SF46-515R4 but he says that it shows on his computer but is grayed out so he can not access it. There is multiple reports of this same problem on the web. I'm glad I was home at the time and it didn't cause any further damage or spread beyond the refrigerator.