SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Overheating

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20240110-F0B69-2147342865. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Whirlpool WFE525S0HZ0 (Whirlpool Electric Range Model: WFE525S0HZ0 Description: Whirlpool 30-in Glass Top 5 Elements 5.3-cu ft Self-Cleaning Freestanding Electric Range (Fingerprint Resistant Stainless Steel)). Incident: My Whirlpool electric range model WFE525S0HZ0 overheated food and filled the house with smoke. Bake temp was set to 450 degrees F. to toast bread. After allowing the oven to pre-heat, the food was inserted. Two to three minutes after inserting the food, the house filled with smoke released from the burning food in the interior of the oven. No injuries or damage to the house occurred due to smoke detector alarming, direct supervision of the oven, and actions taken by the user which included turning off the oven, opening the oven door, opening the house windows, and letting the oven cool off and the smoke clear. After letting the oven cool down, I attempted set the bake mode to 350 degrees F., allowed the oven to pre-heat, then inserted a fresh set of bread. While observing the oven cooking the food, the bread began to overheat within a minute after closing the door. I removed the food before it began to burn. The ambient heat from within the oven felt much higher than usual. It appeared that the broiler element was red-hot and may have been stuck in the on position which caused the food to overheat. It appears that this caused the inside of oven to reach a much higher temperature than the 350 F. which was reported on the control panel. The product documentation indicates that the broiler element is used during the pre-heating cycle and should turn off after the oven has come up to temperature. The broiler element remaining on leads me to believe that the product failed to switch off the element after the pre-heat cycle and caused it to overheat. My safety concern is that the