SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20171227-B8B7D-2147394254. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: GE GFDR485EF1RR (GE� 8.3 cu. ft. capacity RightHeight� Design Front Load electric dryer with steam (GFDR485EFRR)). Incident: I had just put a load of wet laundry into my 18mo old, GE front loading, electric dryer. The appropriate settings were chosen, and the unit was turned on. Approximately 10 mins later, acrid smoke began to emanate from the front-right of the control panel, which set off my home fire alarm. The unit was still running, and I quickly turned the unit off via the panel, as well as unplugged the unit from the wall outlet. After the smoke cleared, I checked the vent to ensure it wasn't a lint fire (it wasn't). I subsequently hired an appliance repair company to come out and diagnose/repair the unit. Upon inspection and removal of the control panel from the dryer, significant damage was obvious on the control panel. Several electrical wires from the electrical harness were melted at their connectors, several panel relays were charred and melted. There was melted and burnt plastic and wiring in multiple places on the panel. It appears that 220v electrical arching across the wires led to melting of electrical components, but was not sufficient to trip the home (30A as code compliant) circuit breaker, nor enough to disable the unit. Had I not been present, it more than likely would have continued until a fire started, which could have burned down my home with my pets within.