Washing Machine Fire - Refund?!

retepetsir

Am I glad that for once I was working at home today! :eek:

Walked in to the kitchen half an hour ago to grab a drink and smelt burning. Checked outside and nobody was having a fire....uh oh.

Using a torch I was then able to see smoke coming out from between the top of the washer/dryer and the worktop . Luckily I'd caught it before it got worse but this was with the washer/dryer off and not even running! I'm not usually at home so I reckon that could easily have spread in to a full fire .

I turned off the main electrical supply and the smoking stopped, then unplugged the machine (behind a drawer) and turned the supply back on = no more smoke. Just managed to pull out the unit and there's some black dust on the floor. Had a look under the machine and lots of the wiring at the bottom is blackened. I don't really want to turn it back on to 'check'.

Now what?

It's an Indesit Washer/Dryer and only purchased 3 years ago. Obviously out of the standard '1 year guarantee' but going up in smoke after only 3 years can't be right. It's also the fact it wasn't even turned on or in use, and would have happened when nobody was in.

Should I write to them?

I need another one so I'll have to drop £300 odd or more on a decent make this time round

fwor

Writing to Indesit won't harm, but I doubt it will do any good either.

Your statutory rights are with whoever you bought it from, so that's who you should contact if you want to try to use your rights under the SOGA. Be warned, at 3 years old they will be within their rights to require that you have it professionally inspected to show that the fault was inherent and not caused by misuse - though you can claim the cost of this back if the report confirms that it was.

Incidentally, you probably need to budget more like around £500 for a good make of washer/dryer these days!

retepetsir

It only gets used a couple of times a week so I was hoping for up to £400 or so. This one was £300 I think.

I will contact Comet in that case, just to see what is said. It's not been moved in all that time and nothing has touched that wiring at the bottom of the machine. The contacts appear to be blackened and burnt. Happy to have it inspected but just wondering if I should expect anything at the end of it?