SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20201102-3C4B3-2030178. Severity: No Incident, No Injury. Product: Rheem Platinum Water Heater XE40M12EC55UO (Rheem performance platinum electric water heaters. 50 gallons. The control panel on the water heater is overheating and posing a fire and burn hazard. Model XE40M12EC55UO). Incident: For the last few days, my wife and I have been noticing a burning smell coming from the garage. We couldn't determine the source of the smell until late yesterday when I was in the garage while my wife was taking a shower. The smell was originating from our RHEEM Platinum Water Heater. I immediately shut off the breaker to the water heater and proceeded to open the digital control panel where I noticed smoke and black marks around one of the wires connected to the panel. I immediately went online to determine whether any one else may have reported a similar problem. I immediately found information related to a recall with my very same water heater; however, when I enter the model and serial number, the site tells me my water heater is not part of the recall. This simply is not true. My water heater is the same brand and it was purchased at a Home Depot. Furthermore, my model number is the same as those listed XE50M12EC55U0 and my serial number A081520571 falls within the series of numbers displayed online "A0114XXXXX to A5214XXXXX". Again, this could have been a much more serious problem had I not been in the garage. We have two kids and a dog and we could have easily lost all or a part of our home to a fire.