Washing machine door glass danger
I’ve been contacted by a Washerhelp user about a safety issue regarding the door glass in washing machines. His young son recently had an accident where he fell against the washing machine door and it broke away from the washing machine. As the flooring was tiled the door glass immediately shattered and his son fell onto some very nasty pieces of glass.
He is keen to warn others about this safety issue after his son suffered “large cuts to his arms and legs which required emergency hospital treatment”. His question to me was, is it acceptable that the door was not manufactured with toughened glass?
I’ve never heard of an accident like this and it sounds like a nasty incident. The glass used in a washing machine door has always been quite thick but I’m not aware of any washing machine door glass being made from either toughened, or safety glass. The onus is on a washing machine manufacturer to make the glass tough enough to stand up to normal use and extremes of use such as violent banging about if a badly out of balanced sheet goes into spin etc. but whether they should anticipate this kind of accident or not is something to be decided by Trading Standards or some other body.
I would guess that the majority of washing machines these days would have behaved in the same way because most washing machine doors are made of plastic, and many door hinges are fairly weak. The quality of many washing machine doors and possibly even the thickness of glass has been decreasing in line with the demand for cheaper and cheaper washers.
I’m confident that a washing machine door from 15 years ago or more would have stood up to a small child or even an adult falling against the door without it dropping completely off. The door glass from a washing machine from 15 years or more back may not have shattered so easily and into so many hazardous pieces either but the main thing is that it would have not fallen onto the hard tiled floor in the first place. Washing machine doors and hinges used to be made of strong metal at one time (not plastic and alloy) and if someone was strong enough they could have lifted the washer up with the door and swung it around, they were that tough. These days many doors even fall off without any impact under normal daily use, just because of poor quality materials.
This incident should serve as a warning for people with children to be aware of the potential danger. It would make sense to keep the washing machine door closed when not directly loading and unloading the washing machine if children (or anyone) could potentially bang into, or fall onto the door. The chances are the door glass would only shatter like this if it falls on a hard flooring rather than a carpet though.
Written By Washerhelp on June 26th, 2008 with
2 comments.
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#1. July 24th, 2008, at 1:54 AM.
Thanks for publishing that warning and showing the photos. It is truly shocking. Would something like the British Standards Institute be worth contacting for advice? They used to have a testing centre in Milton Keynes where they carried out rigorous tests on consumer goods. Might still be there.
Like yourself, I am shocked by shoddiness of modern washing machines as compared to their older counterparts.
My 14 year old washing machine was capable of doing a high temperature wash without the glass door becoming a lethal weapon. The 1st time I did a similar wash on my new (July 2008) machine, the glass got red hot - enough to cause a burn. Not that I routinely finger glass doors, of course! However, It would be too dangerous to use if there was a small child in the house.
I did question this with both the retailer and the manufacturer but was told that my machine was no different than others. Please tell me that that is not true! How do these things ever get passed for sale?