SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20191216-CC124-2147375987. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: KitchenAid KCG5550ESS01 (KitchenAid Model KCG5550ESS01 gas cooktop). Incident: We recently purchased a KitchenAid Model KCG5550ESS01 gas cooktop for a new house we are building. We selected this appliance because it is very similar to a KitchenAid gas cooktop we purchased approximately 6 years ago for our current house. We were disturbed to learn the old and new units work differently in a material way. With the older unit when a burner knob is depressed and rotated to any position (ignite, low, medium, high or any point in between) the igniter continues to function until the burner ignites whether or not the knob continues to be depressed and regardless of whether the knob has been rotated to the ignite, low, medium or high positions. With the new one the igniter stops functioning once the knob is no longer depressed whether or not the burner is ignited. If the knob is rotated to "ignite" it functions property, but if the knob is rotated past "ignite" to another setting (and there is nothing to prevent that from happening) the igniter quits functioning but the gas continues to flow. To compound the problem, the lettering on the unit identifying the various positions of the knobs is so dim that you almost have to strain to read it. In other words, only a very attentive adult, familiar with the design characteristics of this unit, can operate it safely. An inattentive adult, one not familiar with the characteristics of the unit or a child can easily turn the gas on to a burner, inadvertently turn off the igniter and because the gas continues to flow cause a fire or explosion. At our request KitchenAid sent out a technician who said the unit was operati