SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20210919-06E0B-2147360465. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: General Electric Model PDW 9700J11 (GE Profile dishwasher Model PDW 9700J11). Incident: Fire close call caused by GE dishwasher model PDW9700J11, serial number LH8112948. The dishwasher was in an "off" condition, not being run. No one was using the machine. Problem discovered when an attempt to turn on and machine would not come on. Attempt to turn on was to wash a full load of dishes. There were no injuries from this close call, however the interior of machine electrical systems were discovered burned by GE repair on Sept 2, 2021 when diagnostic visit was completed. House fire was averted because surge protector shut off power but was severely damaged as result of dishwasher electrical failure. The GE recall repair in 2011 only put a [REDACTED] on the problem, did not fix the cause of the fires. Wednesday�s repair was another [REDACTED]. A fix would require a door redesign to prevent condensation from entering the electrical controls of the machine. There is currently a big hole in the door stainless interior panel where the door latch is located that encourages condensation to enter the door electrical connections. I would bet there are house fires around the United States where my dishwasher model was the cause of the house fire but evidence would have been destroyed in the fire. Fires would have been attributed to a house electrical connection problem and not having been generated by the dishwasher failure. This is true if the machine had been directly plugged into an electrical socket. My house close call fire was saved because a surge protecter between the machine and electrical socket protected my house from the electrical fault of the machine. Burn evi