SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Electrical shock / short

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20200903-DF0CE-2147370066. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: MacKissic Might Mac LSC shredder chipper with Tecumseh HM80 LSC Chipper Shredder, HM80 Tecumseh Engine (MacKissic Might Mac LSC shredder chipper with Tecumseh HM80 engine. The unit is dark green in color.). Incident: I was using my MacKissic Mighty Mac LSC chipper shredder to reduce my pruning of a forcithia bush on my property. As I was shredding the trimmings, the Mighty Mac began to vibrate quite vigorously, the engine cut off, and the flywheel continued to spin for about a minute when it ran out of energy. Looking to see why the machine stopped running, I was shocked to see a softball sized hole on the side of the engine on the side opposite to where I was standing. Please see the attached images. Had I been standing on the opposite side of the Mighty Mac, I would have had serious injury to my legs from the shrapnel of the engine at a minimum. I have used a variety of yard equipment for the last 20 years maintaining several properties with both new and used machines. I have never seen such a catastrophic failure of an engine. Looking at the metal where the hole was blown in the engine, the grain pattern suggests metal fatigue as the reason for failure. I have a [REDACTED] chainsaw from the late 1980s, that still starts quickly and reliably cuts wood. Working as a biomedical engineer at a local hospital supporting a variety of medical equipment, I find it unconscionable to sell a piece of equipment that could fail in such a hazardous state. Especially since this is a wood chipper that chips up to 2.5� limbs, one would expect a higher level of engineering to prevent such a failures knowing the forces involved. I am thoroughly disappointed that I have purchased one of these Mighty Macs knowing that reliability, safety, and robustness of design was not part of the design process for thi