SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20160511-6AE95-2147419610. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Bosch SHV7PT53UC (Built-in dishwasher). Incident: My Bosch dishwasher stopped working; the control panel would not light up. I opened up the dishwasher's junction box and discovered evidence of a fire: the central plastic component had burnt and partially melted; insulation on the wires had burnt out and there was soot in the box. I had a Bosch technician visit and he indicated that one of the supply wires was loose, even through the screw which clamps the wire had been fully tightened. Bosch blamed this as an installation error and wants to charge me for repairs. I do not agree and am continuing to escalate with them. Upon close inspection of the junction box, the root cause of the problem appears to be a design flaw which allows the supply wire to be slipped into its receptacle *outside* the clamp that is supposed to hold it. (The clamp is a tiny piece of metal in the receptacle which moves when a screw is tightened.) Therefore an installer would tighten the screw and get the impression that the supply cable is being held in place firmly, when in fact it remains loose. The loose contact then causes the wire to overheat, causing a fire. The symptoms match the junction box problem that's been widely reported online and has been the subject of a recall. However my dishwasher model is not included in that recall, and it appears that the root cause has not been fixed.