SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20250531-AA93A-2147330939. Severity: No Incident, No Injury. Product: GE PDW9980N20SS (GE Profile PDW9980N20SS Stainless Steel built in dishwasher. Approximately 2008 model year.). Incident: We have a GE Profile Model PDW9980N20SS Dishwasher (approximately 2008 vintage). During the last wash cycle, the internal heating element failed to turn off at the end of the cycle. We were home and noticed the smell of burning plastic. By the time we discovered the problem, the counter above the dishwasher was very hot and the internal plastic spinner inside the bottom of the dishwasher was partially melted. The only way to shut down the heating element was to turn off the breaker. To check, we turned on the breaker the next morning and the heating element immediately turned on even though there was no cycle running. Had we not been close to the dishwasher when this incident occurred, and shut off the breaker, the result would have been a serious house fire. These older GE dishwashers that are subject to this failure should be recalled and taken out of service.