SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20240112-C471F-2147342831. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Frigidaire fpec3685ksa (Frigidaire Professional 36" Electric Cooktop, black/stainless). Incident: I have reached-out to Frigidaire in the past. After many threats, they replaced the original cooktop (~$1,300.00), which was turning itself on and eventually caught fire. They chose NOT to collect the unit that turned itself on and caught fire. It cost me ~$400 to have a wider cut-out created in my quartz countertop to accommodate the replacement cooktop. The replacement then did the same thing; turned itself on and caught fire. Many more contacts ensued with Frigidaire telling me to contract for service and pay the bill, but they would give me 20% off of parts. I had the cooktop analyzed, informing Frigidaire the FMEA found: "The component potentiometers for your dual-burners have faulty, potentiometers with traces which, literally, corrode-away causing the dangerous failure in the performance of your cooktops" Frigidaire took no action, so I ordered parts and had the cooktop repaired. This cost me ~$700. Now the same thing has happened - this company KNOWS these units are catching fire, knows the burners turn themselves on "high," while unattended; this time a nearby towel went up in flames! My house has been filled with toxic fumes, four times, now. It is unacceptable that this company sells these dangerous units; declaring they have zero responsibility once the limited warranty period expires! I still have an >30 year old [REDACTED] cooktop installed in my home; it has never turned itself on nor caught fire...