SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20200106-89FFF-2147375566. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Whirlpool WRS588FIHZ00 (Whirlpool Refrigerator models WRS588FIHZ00, WRS571CIDM02 and likely others). Incident: Several similar Whirlpool refrigerator models have a defect that causes electrical wires to become severed, causing a fire hazard and preventing the refrigerator from working properly. There are two of these products in our home and both are exhibiting the same issue. The wire bundle connected to the freezer door rubs on a sharp edge each time the freezer door is opened, eventually exposing the wires and cutting them. Our refrigerators were manufactured in August and November of 2017 and the newer one is worse. Another consumer documented the same issue at [REDACTED] and five other consumers found that report useful (i.e., had the same problem). In our case, when the wires were severed, the ice maker stopped working. I called the Whirlpool Customer eXperience (sic) center at 800-253-1301 on 1/6/2020 to identify the hazard and they offered to send a repair technician out at my expense to give me a price quote to fix it. I realize that the refrigerator only had a 1 year warranty, but I'm worried that other consumers think the issue is minor and "just live with" the inconvenience of not having a working ice maker on a $1,300 refrigerator. While these are relatively small wires, they are in close proximity to the highly flammable "dust bunnies" that commonly live under most refrigerators.