LG Dishwasher Owned Since 2019 Catches Fire, With No Recall on File

An LG dishwasher that a homeowner had owned since 2019 caught fire in their kitchen, according to a report by Yahoo based on a post in the r/Appliances community on Reddit. Nobody was hurt and the house was spared, but the machine was destroyed and the kitchen was left smelling of smoke.

The dishwasher was past its warranty, and the owner said a search for recalls on the model turned up nothing. That left them asking other appliance owners what to do next, and the most common answer was to file a report with federal safety regulators.

What happened to the LG dishwasher?

The owner wrote that they had liked the dishwasher until the fire and called themselves lucky that their family was fine and still had a home. Based on the post, the damage seemed mostly limited to the appliance itself. The post did not say what caused the fire, and LG’s response, if any, was not reported.

The owner asked the forum for advice on how to approach the company. Because the warranty had already run out, the usual path of a free repair or replacement was not available.

Where can owners report an appliance fire?

The top reply pointed the owner to SaferProducts.gov, the public reporting site run by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Several other commenters gave the same advice. Yahoo noted that reporting a fire this way could help spur a recall.

A recall gives owners a repair, refund or replacement for a product found to be hazardous. In this case, no recall showed up for the owner’s model.

What other options did commenters suggest?

Commenters offered a few routes beyond the CPSC:

• Calling LG customer service directly, which one person said should have been the first suggestion.
• Talking to a product liability attorney, who might send a strongly worded letter, although the same commenter said the damage here was fairly minor.
• Filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. One commenter said this approach got them $2,195 back from a refrigerator manufacturer.

Another commenter asked whether the owner had checked for recalls on the model. The owner said they had and found none.

Have other dishwasher brands had fire problems?

Other people in the thread described their own run-ins with dishwasher fire hazards, including safety notices and recalls involving brands other than LG. The thread did not tie those cases to this specific model.

What does this mean for dishwasher owners?

An appliance that is out of warranty and not under recall leaves owners with few direct remedies from the maker. Reports to SaferProducts.gov are the main public channel for flagging a fire that has not yet been linked to a known defect. Commenters in the thread treated it as the first step, ahead of contacting LG or a lawyer.

Source: Yahoo