Am I entitled to a free repair?

giraffejoe

I bought a brand new house in May 2009 with a fitted kitchen. The glass on the inside of the oven door has just shattered and exploded all over the kitchen. Luckily my gf was facing the other way so wasn't hurt. I she had been getting anything out of the oven though...

My point is that my oven was bought by the builder in around April 2009 (so I personally have no receipt details) and only had a warranty 1 year so it is well outside of this. Do I have any rights in terms of the product should be expected to last longer than 3 years before it explodes all over my kitchen? I haven't contacted the manufacturer yet but wanted to know if anyone could give me advise before I do so.

My oven is a Lamona HJA 3300 from Howdens. I have done a search on the internet and worryingly this is not a one off thing. Other people have also been reporting that this has happened to them but Howdens refuse to admit it is a design fault and say that it is 'user error', i.e. not cleaning it correctly.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

lateandlive

I would think your best bet is to get in touch with Howdens directly and explain your situation. They should have records of the original purchase. If you went through the builders I would think they will have an invoice for a job lot so won't be in a position to give you an individual receipt, so to speak.

You've had the house (and therefore the oven) for 2 and a half years, so in all honesty I very much doubt you'd get a free replacement - however bad the situation was when the front exploded, you've had 2 and a half years of good service out of it. Therefore I would think they'd offer you (at the most) a discount on a replacement, or a repair on the existing model.

The fact you go into detail about the front and the damage it could have caused implies that you might want compensation? Is that the case?

somethingcorporate

Spontaneous safety glass exploding is a well documented phenomena: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_glass_breakage

It's due to (tiny) faults or weaknesses arising from the manufacturing process and unlikely to be user error.

I would suggest that you should be able to get a repair but you may need to prove that the fault is inherent. This would be very difficult considering most of the support is anecdotal.

Have you spoken to either the builder or Howdens yet? what have they said or done?

giraffejoe

lateandlive wrote: »

The fact you go into detail about the front and the damage it could have caused implies that you might want compensation? Is that the case?

No I'm not wanting compensation. I just want to know where I might stand in legally. I wanted to know other people's opinion's on whether or not 2 and a half years is considered to be a reasonable length of time before something breaks. It is just a replacement part that I would need but after reading that it is a common occurance I'm wondering if the whole oven needs replacing with a different model.

withabix

Toughened (tempered) glass inner doors on ovens do shatter spontaneously.

Binding of the glass in the sliders on oven doors through lack of cleaning can cause this to happen, as can the tiniest chips from impact. The glass usually won't shatter at the time it is chipped.

Car windows can do it as well - the rear (row 3) window on my Ford Galaxy exploded in this way.

Tempered glass has high internal stresses, which are spread through the glass. Small changes in these stresses can result in the explosion, which results in thousands of small cubes of glass.

Providing you can source the spare inner door glass (which should be quite easy) it will only be about £30 - £50.

giraffejoe

somethingcorporate wrote: »

Spontaneous safety glass exploding is a well documented phenomena: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_glass_breakage

It's due to (tiny) faults or weaknesses arising from the manufacturing process and unlikely to be user error.

I would suggest that you should be able to get a repair but you may need to prove that the fault is inherent. This would be very difficult considering most of the support is anecdotal.

Have you spoken to either the builder or Howdens yet? what have they said or done?

I haven't spoken to either yet. From other people's experiences it seems Howdens are refusing to accept an error on their part so it seems that isn't an option.

somethingcorporate

If you read the link I supplied anything with toughened or safety glass can have this happening so the model is largely irrelevant as is whether you get a whole new oven or new door replacement. I've seen it coming up on this consumer board as coffee tables more often than anything else.

The issue comes down to proving it unfortunately.

edit: OP posted whilst I was writing this.

Talk to them both first and see what they say.

zoob

If the oven was supplied by the builder, why talk about Howdens, where the builder got the oven from is not relavent, the people you should be talking to is the company who you paid for the oven, if it's Howdens talk to them, and if not don't.
Also I think the Lamona oven is made by Beko, if your looking for a new door glass.

Flyboy152

giraffejoe wrote: »

I bought a brand new house in May 2009 with a fitted kitchen. The glass on the inside of the oven door has just shattered and exploded all over the kitchen. Luckily my gf was facing the other way so wasn't hurt. I she had been getting anything out of the oven though...

My point is that my oven was bought by the builder in around April 2009 (so I personally have no receipt details) and only had a warranty 1 year so it is well outside of this. Do I have any rights in terms of the product should be expected to last longer than 3 years before it explodes all over my kitchen? I haven't contacted the manufacturer yet but wanted to know if anyone could give me advise before I do so.

My oven is a Lamona HJA 3300 from Howdens. I have done a search on the internet and worryingly this is not a one off thing. Other people have also been reporting that this has happened to them but Howdens refuse to admit it is a design fault and say that it is 'user error', i.e. not cleaning it correctly.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Have you tried your insurers?

paddyrg

Maybe tell the manufacturer the circumstances of the failure, and ask if they can do you a deal on a replacement pane which you could fit yourself?

mttylad

A replacement glass is available here for £41 + postage.

May not be worth the hassle, I'd just get one and fit it.