Indesit Tumble Dryer Fire Warning!

Pat75

Hi all I am new to this forum and this is my first post. I do not want to be placing blame or calling anyone a liar, but I believe there is more to the story than just excess fluff being the cause of these tumble dryers catching fire. Please if you can take 4 minutes to watch this video on youtube.

As a new member i cannot post links so please go to youtube and type:

How to Replace the Drain Pump and Float Assembly on a Hotpoint, Indesit or Creda Tumble Dryer

Now the reason I have told you to watch this video is to give you an idea of the area I am referring to with my concern. Last week while using my dryer, water started to appear from the base of the machine and began to flood my kitchen. I quickly turned off the mains and unplugged my Indesit IDC85K(UK) Tumble Dryer. As I pulled it out from under the counter I could hear water swishing around. Being no expert and probably very stupid of me I tilted the machine backwards and forwards and the water began to pour out the right hand side of the tumble dryer where the water pump housing in the video above is located.
I then watched the video above after making a call to Domestic & General who then passed me on to Indesit and told me my water pump had gone and this is what causes water to come out of the base. So luckily for me I have cover, and all the parts needed will be replaced free of charge.
But I was still concerned as to why the water was coming out of this area so watched the video above again to do a step by step removal of the housing, and this is what I found.

As a new member i am not allowed to post pictures either so please see my avatar lol, its a little hard to see but you should be able to see the size difference.

After I removed the water pump housing, the second housing that the water pump housing sits in that is attached to the tumble dryer was full of water and the item on the right in the picture above was floating around. I removed the item and wondered what the hell it was, after watching the video again I realised that this was what is known as the float and pin which the repairer in the video above replaces, so I ordered a new one with a pin which is pictured on the left next to the old one in the picture above.

You will notice the size difference as the one on the right has some how shrunk and hardened in size. Even though they have said my water pump has gone, this float sits in the base of the water pump housing and as the water is collected the float rises and activates a microswitch, that then activates the water pump and allows the water to be pumped up into the water container. But obviously if the float had shrunk, and come away from the housing, the water will just rise and rise, and this is where I think the story about fluff is to make us the buyers feel like we are not maintaining and cleaning our machines as we should be doing.

When the repairer removes the cover from the back of the tumble dryer you can see the water pump and the electrical wires. Two of the connecting wires on my tumble dryer are not covered by any form off insulation, so lets just imagine you have no idea your float has shrunk which I am putting down to a heat problem, the water then rises and some of us might be lucky like myself where the water spills out of the machine on to the floor, for others the water might rise, start to fill up the water pump housing and you do not have to be a genius to guess when water and electrical wires mix what can happen.

The first story on the news i saw regarding a fire, the person said the flames were coming from the back of the tumble dryer. I could be wrong but if you have an engineer coming out like I do please make sure you watch them to see if they change your float and pin, also try to see what condition your old float is in, and if it looks like my one above make sure they change it. I did put the new float in and the dryer is still not pumping out the water, so I will see when the repairer comes out what is the cause.

I hope this information will help some of you avoid losing your homes.

Fosterdog

The issue with the water pump it entirely different to the issue that the safety recall is linked to, after all there are also vented machines (such as my own) that are affected and they don't even have water pumps.

Pat75

May I ask do you know what the safety recall is linked to, has anyone actually explained what they have come out to actually do to make these dryers safer, all i am saying different issue or not it is still a fire hazard, if i could actually post my picture you would see how the heat has caused the float to shrink, that to me is dangerous.

grandma247

The man who came to do ours replaced something in the back. Apparently the heating elements were close to where the fluff collects so they were changing where it was sited.

Fosterdog

Same with mine when it was modified, they take off the old back panel, give the inside a quick clean and pop a new panel on that is a slightly different design and add a new support bracket to it. The actual recall is linked to lint getting through the filters and in some cases getting into the back where it could touch the motor and heat plus dry lint = fire hazard.

My own one was five years old when modified and had no lint at all that had got into the back to cause a danger. The particular engineer that did mine was employed just to do the modifications and said that apart from the training where he was shown what the potential fire hazard is he hadn't seen a single one in a customers home that had actually had lint near the motor and he had been doing 3 to 8 modifications a day for three months at that point.