SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20180925-70A69-2147385365. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Samsung ME16H702SES (Samsung 16 Cu Ft OvertheRange Microwave Stainless Steel Model: ME16H702SES). Incident: I have a Samsung over the range microwave, model ME16H702SES serial 078N7WOGB00268N manufactured Nov-2015, purchased 1/27/2016. The unit was on and cooking 4 large potatoes for a few minutes, when it lost power and started producing a strong smell similar to burning plastic. The unit tripped a dedicated, grounded 20A circuit breaker. We removed it from where it was mounted in the kitchen, after ~15 minutes the unit was still producing a strong smell and was quite warm to the touch on the top, in an area that would have been in contact with the bottom of our wood cabinets. If it was any worse we would have called the fire department. Contacted Samsung, they were not interested in helping or understanding the potential fire risk unless we were willing to pay for a service call which was likely to be more than the cost of the unit new. We were not interested in having the unsafe unit in our house even if repaired, since I believe it should not have failed in this way.