SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20190618-FD79F-1881304. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Frigidaire FGBD2438FP7A (Frigidaire Gallery Dishwasher). Incident: On June 1, 2019 about 30 minutes into the dishwasher cycle I noticed that there was a leak and a pool of water on the kitchen floor. Upon investigation I observed that the heating element warped down and contacted the bottom of the machine burning a hole all the way through it. The heating element contacting the dishwasher and potentially the floor is a fire hazard that could cause significant damage, burn down the entire house, as well as injure or kill my family. In addition to the severe fire hazard, the leak was dripping down the electrical cords and created an electrical shock hazard. This is unacceptable as my small children could have been electrocuted and died because of this defective machine. The safety hazard from this defect must be addressed to safeguard people and property. I contacted [REDACTED] with the above info and a request to safeguard families from this danger and she responded by phone on June 17, 2019. Her response was to deny that it was a manufacturer defect and blame it on me stating the the heating element was warped from repeated pressure / pressing on it. She did not know how much pressure or how many times someone would have to press on the element to cause it to warp. To the best of my knowledge no one has ever pressed on the heating element and it would be difficult to put pressure on the element based on the design. The lack of company responsibility concerns me and forced me to escalate this to safeguard others.