Will your tumble dryer catch fire?

In November last year, the American company Whirlpool announced a major recall of tumble dryers, after it emerged that hundreds of them have caught fire.  The dryers which caught fire were apparently manufactured by either Indesit or Hotpoint, both of which are subsidiaries of Whirlpool.

The affected dryers were apparently all manufactured between 2004 and 2015, and so it seems that for around eleven years a large multinational company was selling large firebombs without apparently realising it.  I can't help but wonder how many overpaid muppets were on the payroll of Indesit and Hotpoint during those years.

People who report owning one of these dangerous tumble dryers are being put on a waiting list to be visited by a repair man (described as an engineer) who will supposedly make the appliance safe.  To speed things along, some people have been given a free replacement, while others have taken advantage of an offer to buy a new dryer at a discounted price.

While it might seem at a glance that Whirlpool are taking this seriously, the truth would appear to be very different.  Consider the following points:

• At least one national newspaper has reported that it may take more than three years for Whirlpool to fix every faulty tumble dryer in the country.  How many houses will burn down in the meantime?
• People who are disabled or who care for disabled people are rarely given any priority.
• A Hotpoint tumble dryer owned by Dennis Marinakis caught fire even after it had been modified and supposedly made safe.
• Modification work is prioritised by date order, which hardly makes sense in rural areas.  Once an engineer has driven a long distance to a remote town or village, it would make sense to modify all the dryers in that location on the same day.

Reading the comments posted in the national press about the ongoing recall, some people are saying that Whirlpool should be made to reimburse the Fire Brigade for all of the tumble dryer fires they have to attend.  At least one person has argued that someone should to to prison over this debacle.

I find it curious how - so far as I am aware - not one of Britain's elected politicians has dared to speak out on this matter.  Surely it would not be hard for either David Cameron or Jeremy Corbyn to make a public statement urging Whirlpool to move a bit faster.

Update: a national newspaper has recently observed that:

Leon Livermore, the chief executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute has ... told the Observer: ‘Central government itself does have back-up powers to force companies into recalls and to take action. So we would call on the government, in particular the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, to take action before someone dies.’

Another update: Whirlpool has now given in to pressure from Trading Standards, and is now advising customers to disconnect their faulty tumble dryers until the modification work has taken place.

It appears that this in turn resulted from Trading Standards giving in to pressure from Which Magazine and from London Fire Brigade, who believe that a faulty tumble dryer caused a fire in a tower block in Shepherd's Bush in August 2016.  I wonder if anyone in either Whirlpool's head office or in the British government is going to resign over this fiasco.