Whirlpool Panic in the Daily Mail

Read this morning, that Whirlpool may have to recall 500,000 tumble dryers of various makes as they are still catchig fire.
We've had a succession of Hotpoint tumble dryers over the last forty years or so. The present one we bought at the begining of 2014. Ours probabably gets more use than some, as my wife with her disability can't manage a washing line, so it's on for a few hours every day. It's been faultless from day one.

A year after we bought it, we read about the problems (in the Daily Mail) and I immediately contacted Whirlpool. An engineer came out in less than a couple of weeks and made some adjustments to it and he said it was fine.

He said the main problem was that many people didn't clean the filter. It got blocked and lint forced its way past it. Some he'd been to were actually nearly solid with lint. If it reaches the element it will catch fire. He and a few other engineers were altering them. He said he did six a day. He said the list was growing fast. I reckoned at that rate, it'd take them years to do all those that needed checking.

Our gets cleaned after every use. It's just a case of damping a finger and running it over the surface of the filter. It takes about five seconds. Every now and then, because of its high use, I take the filter out, (it slots into the bottom of the rim where the door closes over it) and check that there's no lint below it. I've a little cane with a net curtain hook on the end of it. Sometimes there's a bit of lint down there the size of a marble. So I hook it out. Now and again when I'm cleaning my car, I stick the nozzle of vaccum cleaner I use, into the dryer vent in the side of the house. But not much comes out.

A contributary problem which must cause many fires is fabric softener. My wife uses it with everything except towels. I say she uses it. It's in the "eco balls" she uses. There's a different one for towels. Some fabric softeners can make the lint a bit sticky, so any that gets past the filter might not all get blown out of the vent.
O.K. The filter can't be as effective as in previous models. But a lot of the problems are down to the, "contemporary malaise."

"Some people just can't be arsed."

 

I think the Americans were the first to coin the words "built in obsolescence" back in the 50s and it's always been with us.

The general standards of appliance manufacture in my opinion is poor. We've had problems with a top of the range Bosch washing machine and dishwasher, both failing within a year, then an expensive Bosch fridge/freezer that didn't last more than five years. The all singing and dancin' Miele fridge/freezer we bought laast year had to be replaced. Our Kitchenaid coffee nmachine kept going wrong after 5 years so last year we binned it and bought a Smeg. The very expensive Kitchenaid toaster has had to be replaced twice.

Thirty-odd years ago we bought a Hotpoint "Ice Diamond" fridge freezer which was two machines stacked, (two compressors with a central control) that lasted 20 years which we had to "beat to death with a stick," when we upgraded to a bigger one.

The problem with the Hotpoint dryer is really the filter. The model we had before had a double filter that fitted the whole of the door. The new one was obviously far cheaper to make. As I said, the engineer was finding machines where the owners were hardly ever cleaning the filter. It should be done after each use, but, Hey! Who reads the instructions?
It's impossible to make stuff completely "idiot-proof." But 'elf n' safety demand it these days.

 

Think about it.

Regardless of design, how many fires could have been avoided if some people, "could have been arsed and read the instructions?"

 

We had one of the 'problem' tumble dryers and requested an engineer visit in the early days of the problem. The date given for a visit was months away - can't remember exactly how long but it was too long.
Hotpoints answer was to watch the tumble dryer whist drying 'just in case theres a problem' in the meantime. This was clearly not an option so we escalated and were sent a new, upgraded tumble dryer that didn't have the issue.

On price / consumers driving price down etc. I can accept that some products are made to a price point and that compromises are made to get to that price. This does not mean that compromises can be made with product safety.
If a filter needs cleaning, the equipment should alert to that fact. In many cases the manual is turned to as a last resort. Manufacturers need to assume a level of stupidity / laziness from some of their customers.

 

My washing line has never caught fire, and it costs nothing to run.

 

I put it through the mangle first.

 

My Drumi hasn't either And my solar oven is cantankerous. It only operates on sunny days

I guess I've been lucky. My Miele dishwasher in the cellar is 20 yeRs old and the one on the main floor is 15 and both are operating fine. My Maytag front load washer and dryer set have been working quite nicely for 23 years. My oven and cooktop are the same age. I only get about 10 years out of my side by side refrigerators but I suspect that has something to do with the fact they are pushed to their ice making limits every day. Convection microwave ovens about 5 years.

I only bought my Drumi clotheswasher for small loads in between regular wash days and when weather permits dry my laundry outside. That time has not arrived. Too much pollen flying around right now.