SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20251112-02351-2147326401. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: viking VCSB5422DSS (Viking double door stainless fridge 42 inches with ice maker in door VCSB5422DSS model 051514R10025640 serial). Incident: Its an unfortunate and frightening incident that has led to my writing you this letter. I own a Viking fridge. I have loved the fridge and this is the second one that I have owned. My Viking Fridge was purchased in 2016 from Best Buy, so it is 9 years old. I have never had any significant issues with it. One day back in May of this year, 6 months ago!!, I started noticing a decline in its cooling abilityup until my fridge caught on fire. I corresponded with the customer service team. The Viking Company sent their licensed technician to check it. The report was that the insulation on the top of the fridge fell down into the fan and made it catch on fire, destroying the fan and other surrounding parts and the fridge no longer cooled. Additionally, had I not of been home, likely my entire house would have burned down. The technician that Viking sent was astonished that there was not some kind of grate or other divider to prevent the insulation from ever coming in contact with the fan. To make a long story short, I have been told by the Viking people that my fridge is unrepairable. It is still under the sealed system warranty and now it is a total loss. However, Viking states that the fan is not part of the sealed system. At this point, this is not about the warranty, but an unsafe produce for which I paid thousands of dollars and the company is unwilling to rectify the situation and either replace my fridge or make my fridge work again. The fridge is 9 years old but it should last for a minimum of 10 to 20 years, depending on factors like maintenance, usage, and model. While s