SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20200118-C6CEB-2147375353. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Samsung RF4287HARS (Samsung Free standing refrigerator with French Doors & bottom freezer.). Incident: In October 2012, I purchased a Samsung refrigerator, this was to replace a [REDACTED] one I had. The model #RF4287HARS. It was manufactured in March 2011. From the beginning, I was having issues with the ice maker. I called Sears out to check it out. The repairman told me I needed a new ice maker & it would cost around $600. As time progressed, it started leaking & freezing up around the outside of the ice maker, getting the box that the ice dropped into frozen to the sides. It also started leaking into the dispenser of the door, meaning that when you went to get ice from the door & hit the button to get ice, water would come out first. Water also started leaking down into the bottom of the freezer at the bottom of the whole unit, creating the freezer door to stick, having to defrost it when it's a no defrost unit. Since I have not been able to afford a new refrigerator, I have just been living with it, not knowing there has been issues with this product with other people, lots of other people. On Thursday, January 16,2020, the ice maker was just pouring out water from the ice maker, I pulled the box that ice would be in out & found the ice maker burning hot & smoking. I immediately turned off the ice maker & pulled it out & disconnected it. Upon removing the ice maker, I found it had gotten so hot that it melted the plastic in the ice maker & created bubbles in the box of the ice maker. While I was removing the unit, the heat was so intense that I burned myself. It was a blessing that I was home that day, if I had not been, I can only imagine that the unit would have caugh