SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20240824-5E821-2147336955. Severity: No Incident, No Injury. Product: LG LFDS22520S ASTCNA4 (Bottom Freezer Refrigerator, stainless steel finish, French doors, water dispenser,). Incident: I purchased an LG refrigerator, model# LFDS22520S, on 11/12/22. The fridge stopped working and tripped the AFCI breaker in my home, and continued to trip different breaker after plugging into different outlets. After some troubleshooting and a technical breakdown of the fridge I found what was causing the fridge to continuously trip the breaker. I found a broken shorting wire in the Front Plate Assembly (flapper), part# AGU73767912, of the fridge. I have pictures of broken wire. The flapper piece is between the two french doors of the fridge, it continuously gets banged when fridge door is closed. Not every time but maybe 10% of the time. Having the fridge for a year and half was enough time to cause this failure. I called LG customer service and they would not replace this part since it is out their 1 year warranty period. I explained to them that not only is this a new product and shouldn't be breaking but this is a health and hazard safety risk. Arcing inside a door can cause a fire or possibly shock someone.