At Least 75 Fires caused by defective

Whirlpool Dryers

A House of Commons Business Committee has been told by the manufacturers of Whirlpool tumble dryers that there could be up to 800,000 faulty Whirlpool tumble dryers in homes around the UK.

Whirlpool also said that it had documentation of 54 fires caused by a build-up of fluff in the tumble dryers manufactured by them in recent years. Three of those fires were caused by machines which had already been modified as a result of a recall.

The Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade also said that they had seen a wide range of faults in the machines which had caused fires, even machines which had been modified.

One member of the public who had her tumble dryer modified by Whirlpool was nonetheless the victim of a fire caused by a modified defective dryer and despite a number of requests Whirlpool had not apologised or provided her with a Report on the cause of the fire. A representative of Whirlpool told the Committee that the Company had modified every machine which had been reported to it.

The customer who gave evidence in relation to her modified dryer causing a fire said that Whirlpool had insisted that she sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) which Whirlpool said was a standard procedure. Despite signing the NDA the Customer nonetheless gave evidence of her experience to the Parliamentary Committee. The Government has called for a total product recall by Whirlpool.

Whirlpool have previously had serious problems as a result of safety concerns with regard to its fridge-freezers which were blamed as a cause of the Grenfell fire.

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This document is for information purposes only and does not purport to represent legal advice.  
© O’Rourke Reid 2019