Fire risk in Indesit Washer-Drier!!!

Emma_Em

I set my Indesit IWDE146 Washer-Drier to a regular cotton drying cycle last night and within 15 minutes the machine got so hot the glass door cracked and fell out. The glass was so hot, I couldn't handle it without an oven mit.

Luckily we were in the house and were alerted to the issue when we head the glass thunking around in the drum. If we hadn't been around, I have not doubt this would have resulted in a fire.

I've contacted Indesit and they would like to charge me to have an engineer visit and 'assess the situation'. I've assessed the situation and my washers knackered (I'll try to attach a picture). It doesn't feel right that they are tryign to charge me for such a major fault that potentially put me and my house at risk! Has any one else experienced this?

Emma_Em

I'm not sure how to post an image showing the issue

another_casualty

Wow! Sorry to hear about that . I would think that you just received the standard spiel about them thinking it’s just another run of he mill call out . Maybe a swift email to head office should be done ASAP .
You shouldn’t have to pay for the callout as this is serious .

Take pictures and post it onto email.

How old is the machine ?

Don’t know what else to suggest .

Best of luck

Emma_Em

Yes, standard sales spiel:

Option 1: £119.99 call out and repair, if machine is unfixable (which I already know it is) then this is reduced to £54 call out fee and you're left with a broken machine.

Option 2: £15.99 x 12 months (£192) for unlimited call out, repair and replacement if needed (installation not included).

Nevermind, that it's only a few months since I completed my last 12 months service plan with them for a previous fault (I think these machines have a break-down timer).

I wouldn't trust an engineer fix on this, the machine needs more than just the door replacing to ensure this doesn't happen again. I wouldn't be happy with anything other than a new machine. Never ever am I setting a dry cycle when I'm not in the house again.

shaun_from_Africa

How old is the machine in question?

Emma_Em

The machine is only 4 years old and not really heavily used (there's only two of us in the house). It had a different fault last year which I took a service plan out to fix, unfortunately this plan expired in July.

Emma_Em

Reply from Indesit/HotPoint: Hello Emma,

Thank you for getting back to us.

I understand your comments and frustration, I would like to assure you that as a Company, we are committed to producing good quality products satisfactory for normal domestic use. As I am sure you can appreciate, no manufacturer can 100% guarantee that an appliance will not experience a failure at some stage in its life, nor can we give a life expectancy of a product or part.

Unfortunately as your appliance is outside of the manufacturer's warranty an engineers visit would be chargeable.

GDB2222

Emma_Em wrote: »

Reply from Indesit/HotPoint: Hello Emma,

Thank you for getting back to us.

I understand your comments and frustration, I would like to assure you that as a Company, we are committed to producing good quality products satisfactory for normal domestic use. As I am sure you can appreciate, no manufacturer can 100% guarantee that an appliance will not experience a failure at some stage in its life, nor can we give a life expectancy of a product or part.

Unfortunately as your appliance is outside of the manufacturer's warranty an engineers visit would be chargeable.

Emma

You clearly don't want a service visit. You don't even want the company to visit. You want to report this to Trading Standards so that a safety recall can be considered.

You can also sue the retailer who sold it to you, if you think that's worthwhile. Although you had a lucky escape, you haven't actually suffered any major damage, apart from the broken machine and any ruined clothes. So, any compensation would be limited to the value of a 4 year old machine and the clothes.

Emma_Em

You're right. I think a service visit is pretty worthless as previous experience with the Whirlpool service engineers is that they take a 'try-it-and-see' approach; if they can't diagnose the problem the have a tinker then leave you to see how it get's on. For obvious reasons, that's not an approach I'm comfortable to take in this case.

What I want from Indesit/HotPoint/Whirlpool is acknowledgment of how serious this fault actually was - and, honestly, a new washer wouldn't go amiss but it was 4 years old.

EssexExile

I haven't worked in the industry for many years but when I did, washer dryers had a plastic cover in front of the door glass because the glass got so hot you couldn't touch it. That's perfectly normal.
Your door glass broke, nothing more has happened. Get it fixed or buy another machine.

I do hate the attitude of manufacturers now though, we used to go & see the machine then worry about who's paying later, now they want the money up front.

another_casualty

Looks like it’s best to buy another machine from another brand .
I bought a new washer drier a few months ago. I was going to go with a service plan , but after mulling it over On here , I’d decided against .
The way things are with white goods, it would appear that 3-5 years is what is to be expected before getting another model.