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Hotpoint urgent tumble dryer recall
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Hotpoint have been churning these dangerous machines out for 11 years and probably a lot of that time they knew full well their products were dangerous.
I haven't got one but if I did I'd just buy another make as I wouldn't be able to trust any modification that they have come up with.
It would be nice if they compensated people who would prefer to do this but I can't see that happening.0 -
We are still using ours, although not overnight or when out. As recommended.
Current status: not dead
I will keep you updated on my dead/not dead status.0 -
I have refused a modification, not prepared to take the risk.
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and I've given up waiting on a modification.
So which is it; refused or "given up"?I've now given them 21 days to replace it, if not I am starting court action.
If by "them" you mean "Hotpoint" then I do hope you purchased it directly from Hotpoint - if you didn't then your threat of court action is simply going to be glanced at, laughed at and then thrown in the bin. Your contract is with the retailer, not the manufacturer.
It would be wise to do your research and know what you are doing before you fire out further knee jerk reaction court threats.
If you did buy it directly from Hotpoint, good luck - though I suspect you won't get very far at all.0 -
So according to the Mirror, 6000 tumble driers have caught fire in the last 6 years - that's 1,000 a year or 500 over 6 months. Also according to the Mirror there are £5.3million driers affected by the recall.
So by a (admittedly fairly crude) calculation the chances of your drier catching fire whilst waiting for a repair are roughly 1 in 10,000. There is a list of other 1 in 10,000 risks here: http://www.thebody.com/cgi-bin/bbs/showflat.php?Board=infected&Number=265466.
This does help put things in perspective and actually the risk is probably lower than 1 in 10,000 since (presumably) not all of those fires over the past 6 years will have been Hotpoint\Creda\Indesit machines, and some will have been where fluff has been allowed to accumulate by not clearing out the filter/vent pipe and hopefully lower still if you do what I did and clear out underneath the element cover (it was simple to remove the cover - just 8 screws). It would still be helpful to know if some models are more at risk than others - I'm sure Whirlpool must know this?
I do agree though that Whirlpool should offer cash compensation (tiered to the age of your drier) for those who do not find the risk acceptable and do not want a replacement (I'm not keen on a replacement for reasons in addition to safety - the reviews aren't great - the replacement is less economical to run for my current one for example. Other people have issues with the size of the drier not fitting their space). Not saying that Whirlpool are legally obliged to do this, but it certainly wouldn't harm their reputation. The way it's going at the moment they look like obliterating their UK market...0 -
beefturnmail wrote: »So according to the Mirror, 6000 tumble driers have caught fire in the last 6 years - that's 1,000 a year or 500 over 6 months. Also according to the Mirror there are £5.3million driers affected by the recall.
Just to play devils advocate;
The problem with this data is that it isn't clear exactly how many of these 6,000 dryers are Hotpoint and even if they are - how many of them caught fire due to this particular defect vs poor maintenance etc...beefturnmail wrote: »I do agree though that Whirlpool should offer cash compensation (tiered to the age of your drier) for those who do not find the risk acceptable and do not want a replacement (I'm not keen on a replacement for reasons in addition to safety - the reviews aren't great - the replacement is less economical to run for my current one for example. Other people have issues with the size of the drier not fitting their space). Not saying that Whirlpool are legally obliged to do this, but it certainly wouldn't harm their reputation. The way it's going at the moment they look like obliterating their UK market...
Personally, I don't agree with a cash payout - we already have people refusing a repair due to not wanting to wait and people refusing a replacement because they don't want to pay and now you want to add in a cash payment to the mix? (which I can't see people being reasonable about).
Everyone is going to have an overinflated idea of how much their machine is worth and/or be wanting extra money for "inconvenience, stress, blah blah blah" - in real terms this translates into further delays on the phone lines while these people argue for more money, further complaints delaying repairs for those willing to actually wait, and generally slows things down even more due to time spent having to deal with the "that amount is unacceptable, my 5 year old dryer is worth £300, how dare you insult me by offering £100" brigade.
You'll then have people whom have already had a repair/replacement crawling out of the woodwork smelling money being offered and then start demanding "well I feel that I should be entitle to x because xyz".
Very bad idea in my eyes, because unfortunately the vast majority of people can not be logical or reasonable about how much money they'd be entitle to.0 -
Just to play devils advocate;
The problem with this data is that it isn't clear exactly how many of these 6,000 dryers are Hotpoint and even if they are - how many of them caught fire due to this particular defect vs poor maintenance etc...
Yes exactly - hence my point lower down in the post that the real risk will likely be lower than 1 in 10,000. In fact I don't think it can be that high as this would work out at about 20 new cases of fire per week, and given the way the press have latched on to it I think we would have heard about that!
Another way of estimating it may be by looking at how many fires have occurred since the recall started in November (3 months ago). From Googling I certainly didn't find more than 12 reports since November. If there were 12 since November, we may expect 24 more cases over the next 6 months. This works out about a 1 in 220,000 risk that a particular drier will catch fire before a repair (given a 6 month waiting time).
So we may say the risk is somewhere between 1 in 10,000 and 1 in 220,000. Even at the higher end of this estimate of risk, I don't think many people would be worrying too much about some of those equivalent 1 in 10,000 risks (i.e. by significantly changing behaviour) and we've still not factored in that risk is (presumably) reduced by maintaining regularly.
Personally, I don't agree with a cash payout - we already have people refusing a repair due to not wanting to wait and people refusing a replacement because they don't want to pay and now you want to add in a cash payment to the mix? (which I can't see people being reasonable about).
Agree some people will never be reasonable. Cash payouts would at least be fair though and have some parity with a refund reduced for number of years use that you might expect under SOGA. It need not be complicated. E.g. something like New drier costs £200 and you might reasonably expect a lifetime of 8 years, so your compo would be £200 less £25 for each year you've had it.0 -
AJXX I'm not being greedy I would prefer to consider a reduced price replacement as my Indesit Condenser 7 kg dryer is many years old but the £99 machine is an 8 kg and too deep to fit without rearrangement in the kitchen, also I think it is ugly and not match.
I have contacted Hotpoint Support several time via Twitter and each time they sat they will escalate my request to others regarding a 7 kg and then nothing heard.
I think Hotpoint CS is terrible and not fitting of that name.
Looks I will have to have the modification then later go out and buy another of course because of the lack of CS it won't be a Hotpoint, Creda, Indesit or Whirlpool as won't any other appliance replacement.0 -
I have been following this thread for a couple of weeks as we registered our very old Creda tumble dryer in November 2015 and I was interested to hear how others in a similar position were getting on. However, I have been really surprised at the posts with "copied and pasted" comments by other members, which then become the subject of ridicule and argument. Surely the point of this forum is to share experiences and help each other if possible? It seems to me that some people who have obviously been members on here for a very long time feel the need to make others feel small ... it seems a real shame as I'm sure some people who have interesting comments to make decide against posting.0
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I have been following this thread for a couple of weeks as we registered our very old Creda tumble dryer in November 2015 and I was interested to hear how others in a similar position were getting on. However, I have been really surprised at the posts with "copied and pasted" comments by other members, which then become the subject of ridicule and argument. Surely the point of this forum is to share experiences and help each other if possible? It seems to me that some people who have obviously been members on here for a very long time feel the need to make others feel small ... it seems a real shame as I'm sure some people who have interesting comments to make decide against posting.
Very well said, unfortunately the authors of this ridicule/argument will carry on posting regardless.0 -
Well to put my mind and mainly my other halfs mind at ease I had a quick look at the back of our 7 year old Indesit IDC75 heating element and amazingly no fluff build up. It just looks a grubby but after almost being in what seems like constant use since 2009 I cant complain.
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