SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20210210-06012-2147365955. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: HoMedics UHE-WM350 (Room humidifier.). Incident: My HoMedics UHE-WM350 Humidifier began to give off an electrical smell. It was still running. Since it sits on a Hardwood floor, I have an oval plant tray underneath in case of leaks. The tray was full and slightly overflowing (maybe a pint of liquid). I unplugged the unit. I emptied the tanks and thoroughly dried the unit overnight. I inspected the water channels under the tanks and the membrane for obvious cracks or leaks and found none. I plugged the unit back in to see if it powered up. It did. I refilled the tanks, restarted it, and watched it carefully, the same thing happened again. I decided that the unit needed to be retired. Out of curiousity, I opened the fairing and discovered affected electronics from an unidentified internal leak. The affected electronics were high in the compartment, and there is some sort of tray/cover that shows and ongoing leak. The rust makes it appear that this was an ongoing issue, and a very likely fire hazard. I contacted HoMedics via email with pictures. They created a case number, but when I called 48 hours later, they still hadn't looked at the photos. I informed them that I thought this unit may deserve a recall.