SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20160827-8DEE8-2147414698. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Bosch SHE68T55UC (Bosch undercounter dishwasher). Incident: My wife and I own a Bosch Dishwasher model SHE68T55UC serial number FD941200047 which we purchased on June 27, 2015. Two weeks ago it started working erratically and then stopped working altogether. So my wife called Bosch customer service and made an appointment for a service call. When the service technician arrived, she ran her checks and in the process determined that power was not getting to the machine. This particular dishwasher uses an unconventional line connection. Instead of a 115 ac three prong plug or a UL approved standard junction box with hard-wired wire nut connectors, Bosh provides a plastic junction box with a proprietary pigtail to the dishwasher and a terminal board with screw terminals to connect the ac supply line. When the technician opened the junction box, it was readily apparent that the terminal board between the pigtail and the ac line had failed. She could not immediately replace it because she did not have one in stock. She commented that �This junction box had been the subject of a recall by Bosch,� and that �We carry them on the truck because we replace a lot of them.� She also told us how to contact Bosch to make a claim for a replacement unit but that she wasn't sure the recall applied to our model machine. When my wife called Bosch as instructed to by the technician, she was told that the recall did not apply to the model machine we own, that the machine is out of warranty and that the failure is due to a faulty installation not a defect in the design of the junction box. When my wife tried to speak with a manager, the customer service re