SAMSUNG
After the Samsung top-loader washing machine was found to explode when operating at high speed, the company has recalled 2.8 million washers – just a month after having to recall its Galaxy 7 Note smartphone prone to catching on fire.
Complaints started emerging of exploding Samsung washers a year ago, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission only announced on Friday that Samsung was issuing a recall for 2.8 million machines. CPSC received 733 complaints and said that nine people were reported injured from the top-loaders – including a broken jaw, injured shoulder, and a fall.
“We’re talking about … a very serious hazard of the top of these washing machines completely blowing off,” CPSC chairman Elliot Kaye told ABC News. “It is a lot of reports.”
One woman was hit after the lid of her machine became airborne during its final spin cycle and hit her so hard she ended up in a cabinet sustaining blows to her jaw and head and bruising to her hip, according to ABC News.
Two women filed a class action lawsuit in Indiana federal court against Samsung in March.
Indiana resident Suzann Moore and Texas resident Michelle Soto Fielder said “Samsung Electronics America Inc. exposed them to unreasonable harm and unjustly received their money by selling them brand-new washing machines that exploded violently in their homes just a few years later, causing significant damage,” according to Law360.
Kaye told ABC the problem was a design failure where the lids of the units weren’t “secured enough…the top just completely blows off.”
In its recall notice issued, CPSC said the 733 complaints it had received were of washers experiencing “excessive vibration or the top detaching from the washing machine chassis.”
The South Korean company has issued a recall on 34 different models of the top-loader that were sold after March 2011. Purchasers of 2.8 million machines can get the unit repaired for free in their home, get a rebate to purchase any new machine, or receive a full refund.
But Wait…What da hell is wrong with Samsung?
