SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20201013-CF96D-2147369257. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Simpson #13SIE-170 (Simpson power washer model # 13SIE-170. Serial number J1311008958. Color red and black.). Incident: My husband purchased a Simpson power washer approximately 5 years ago. It is model #13SIE-170, serial number J1311008958, He used it to wash our cars at most 20 times and to power wash our outside fence twice. On approximately September 20, 2020 he was using it outside and began to smell smoke, see smoke. Then flames appeared from the machine. He shut it off. I contacted Simpson (now apparently Gardner, Inc) via email on 9/24 to [REDACTED] and explained the situation. She requested photographs which we provided. She replied on 9/25 to confirm receipt of the photos and to confirm my email address and telephone number. She forwarded this information to someone by the name of [REDACTED] in customer service. [REDACTED] called me on 9/28 and said she would talk to my husband in the future. We did not hear from her. I called again on 10/5 and spoke to [REDACTED], who said she would leave a voice mail for [REDACTED]. [REDACTED] did call me back on 10/5 and told me that the pictures did not show evidence of a fire, but carbon buildup. So, they are taking no responsibility for this machine catching on fire. I believe that this could have resulted in a catastrophic injury. We wanted the company to be aware of it. We also wanted to know if this had happened to other machines, but were told by [REDACTED] that she didn't believe so. We are concerned, still, that this needs to be reported.