SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20221201-5983F-2147352284. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Maytag MER8700DS1 (Whirlpool Corp, Maytag Electric Range Model MER8700DS1, Serial # R62563138, 3 wire, 12.4 KW @ 120/240 Volts, stainless steel range, single oven, 4 stovetop heating elements. Purchased at Home Depot 6/11/16). Incident: Maytag Electric Range Model MER8700DS heating element catches fire, explodes and vaporizes the metal in the bottom of the oven resulting in a large hole. My wife and I had been cooking a turkey in the oven, at 325 degrees for about 3 hours when she came to get me and stated that she thought she saw flames coming from the bottom right side of the oven. I went to the oven and looked thru the glass window and did not see any flames. About 10 minutes later we were sitting in our living room with the rest of the family when we lost power in the house momentarily and all electronics reset themselves (our town loses power frequently and we were not concerned). About 5 minutes later, while still gathered in the living room, the power went out momentarily again and immediately turned back on. When the power came back on my wife heard a bang while I simultaneously heard a very loud, deep "humm" that lasted about 1 second or so which I assumed had come from the television speakers in the kitchen. Soon after this my wife went to check on our dinner and again informed me that she saw fire in the bottom of the oven. I went to the oven and looked thru the glass window. This time I did see blue colored flames rising up about 1" high and emanating from between the right-hand side of the oven and the floor of the oven cavity. I then examined the left-hand side of the oven and observed the same blue flames there at the bottom as well. I assumed at that moment that the heating element was burning out and it would need to replace it. I shut the oven off using the control panel and we removed th