SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20240315-F13A7-4657444. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: John Deere LA120 (Lawn tractor/riding mower). Incident: The consumer viewed hundreds of Internet posts about this issue with the L or 100 Series mowers. He said there could be hundreds or 1000�s of posts online. He also reported this matter to CPSC in 2018. The manufacturer indicated that they were not going to address this issue. The gas tank design was defective. It�s a 2-piece, lower and upper half, plastic injected tank, which comes apart at the seam. If one went to the firm�s website as far back as 2018, the manufacturer sold a 1-piece gas tank, without any seams. So, they were aware of the problem. One now must guess how much fuel they pour in the lawnmower�s tank and hope they are don�t exceed where the seam is located. Fuel could leak on the user�s feet and start a fire from that point. He stores his mower in his shed, so if it caught fire, the damage would be limited to his shed. However, the consumer said millions of people park mowers in their garage, which could lead to a house fire. 1/4/2002. The firm had a recall for this same issue, back in 2002, [REDACTED]. So, they have known about this issue for some time and continued to sell mowers with this fuel tank problem. Lastly, he saw a potential fine online for automakers and their recalls. He said something similar should be done for this company. Leaking gasoline is an extremely substantial fire danger.