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Blog > Appliance safety warnings & recalls > Washing machine door glass danger

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.

Shattered washing machine door glass

Shattered door glass from washing machine pic

broken door glass from washing machine pic

Written By - Washerhelp on June 26th, 2008 with 13 comments
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13 Comments

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lemurtail lemurtail
#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?

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#2. July 24th, 2008, at 11:20 AM.


The chap involved is currently pursuing the washing machine manufacturer who seem to be taking the incident seriously. If I hear any significant news I will publish it.

I haven’t named the manufacturer because at this stage I believe most average washing machines would have done the same thing and this is a symptom of washing machines in general these days rather than one make. However, this would not have happened with a Miele washing machine – Miele washing machine build quality review

On your problem with your door, modern washing machines usually have a plastic cover over the front of the door glass acting as a second skin which prevents someone touching the actual door glass. Clearly a door glass shouldn’t get so hot as to burn a small child. Asking the retailer and manufacturer is the wrong approach I’m afraid, they would be implicating themselves. It’s independent bodies like the one you mentioned and trading standards that you should ask.

The “shoddy” build quality of many modern washing machines is due entirely (in my opinion) to the majority of the general public naively accepting poor quality products because they have lots of the features they desire and they are an acceptable price. The same is true for most products today where true quality that we took for granted in the past is just too expensive for most people because we won’t go without any more and there is just too much to buy and we want it all. If we limited ourselves only to high quality products we’d only be able to afford half of the things we have.

Washing machine manufacturers are only supplying what customers want and even demand. For decades they’ve demanded cheaper and cheaper machines and they’ve been happy to supply them. Even when people started to realise how rubbish they were they still refuse to spend more money on a proper washing machine.

Until people stop buying all the common household name washing machines and buy really high quality ones the status quo will prevail.

I’ve been harping on about this on Washerhelp for over 8 years now :-)

An example of this is you can buy a 1400 spin, 6Kg drum washing machine for £180. Miele make a 1400 spin, 6Kg drum washing machine that is £700 at most places. Many (if not most) people either believe Miele are ripping people off (they are totally misunderstanding how much a proper washing machine costs) or even if they accept it’s the true price for a “proper” washing machine they say “I’d love one but can’t afford it”.

Most people resent spending money on a washing machine and refuse to buy properly well made products so the rubbish flourishes.

I hope that didn’t resemble a rant :-)

Denise Denise
#3. January 28th, 2010, at 11:41 AM.


I myself am extremely dissapointed with how washing machine’s are made. At this moment I am waiting on an engineer comeing to my house to do a report on my washing machine . On Sunday night the glass exploded from the door shattering all over the floor and worktops when it was on the final spin,3mins to go. The machine is only 4 months old and luckily nobody was hurt. It was bedding and towels I had in the machine at the time.

Alex Scully Alex Scully
#4. March 29th, 2010, at 9:30 PM.


I have recently had the experience of the glass door in my Beko washing machine exploding / shattering on a 90 degrees hot wash and the machine is less than 4 years old. Beko were not very helpful and the issue has been raised with Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire Trading Standards. The machine has since now today been repaired but should I trust it with high termperatures again?
They only seemed to be willing to come back and finish the repair after contacting Trading Standards.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#5. March 30th, 2010, at 12:16 PM.


Hello Alex: If they didn’t explain exactly what caused the glass to shatter and what they’ve done to prevent it happening again (for example has the new door glass has been modified – presumably thickened – to prevent it happening again?) then presumably it could happen again.

If that’s the case you ought to be able to claim the washing machine isn’t fit for its purpose because it isn’t safe to use it on one of its programmes. If you have lost confidence in it you may be able to claim compensation from the retailer under the Sale of Goods Act which gives consumers up to 6 years (5 in Scotland) to claim compensation. Under the Sale of Goods Act it’s only the retailer who is responsible despite the fact that they didn’t make it and clearly aren’t “really” responsible.

If you pursue this line you can expect resistance from virtually all retailers who generally tend to just claim there’s nothing they can do because it’s out of guarantee, which is not true. If you do win compensation in the small claims court they will likely knock off about half the value of the washing machine because you’ve already had 4 years use from it.

Most people tend to think it’s not worth the hassle and stress pursuing a claim, but if you do want to pursue it further you need to read this article and its comments EU 2 year guarantee. Sale of Goods Act gives us 6 years to claim for faulty appliances

de jong de jong
#6. May 18th, 2010, at 1:53 AM.


hallo
ik heb een samsung van 2 jaar maar vorige week brak ook het glas in mijn wasmachine toen mijn zoon de deur open deed omdat ik het zelf niet kon vanwege pijn in mijn pols.
nu zit ik zonder wasmachine en kost het me een nieuwe deur dit mag toch niet gebeuren met zo een vrij nieuwe machine

[translation]

I have a Samsung for 2 years but last week broke the glass in my washing machine when my son opened the door because I myself could not because my wrist pain.
Now I’m without a washing machine and cost me a new door that it must not be done with a relatively new machine

Steve Seburn Steve Seburn
#7. May 23rd, 2010, at 9:40 PM.


We had just bought a Samsung washing machine never again we were doin laundry as normal towels ect, when we heard a bang went to investigate and the the glass inside the machine broke right in half and glass everywere.We have been waiting for 2 weeks for a Samsung tec to look at it.Be carefull with theses machines the glass could have really hurt someone if they were standing there.Theses washers are dangerous and can cause serious damage to someone.

Anika Anika
#8. June 5th, 2010, at 11:40 PM.


I am currently waiting for an engineer to come and fix the glass in my Zanussi washer dryer. I was doing a 40 wash not overly full and when I went to open the door I cut my hands on some glass.
The inner door had exploded all over my clothes…
I have never heard of this until it happened to me and I looked on the web abd saw your comments. I am really disappointed with how they are made, especially knowing that my mum has had many washing machines over the years and she has never come across this happening.

marilyn marilyn
#9. June 10th, 2010, at 11:46 PM.


my hoover washing machine had just exploded .All the inside is ruined,the detergent drawer was blown out,the top came off and the drum is literally out of shape. I could’nt believe my eyes. I was lucky that neither me or my 5 year old son were’nt there when this took place cause the door was wide open with the blast.I’ve bought this washing machine in Dec. 2008.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#10. June 11th, 2010, at 6:53 PM.


I would be interested to hear what the manufacturers blame for this problem, and more importantly are they replacing the door glass with exactly the same type as previously fitted or has some sort of modification been done?

A door glass should not break and it’s hard to imagine how they are shattering especially as all washing machines have out of balance protection now.

PAMELA ODELL PAMELA ODELL
#11. August 26th, 2010, at 9:53 AM.


I have had a BEKO WASHING MACHINE, for 10 days.

Last evening around 4pm, we were sitting in the living room, when we heard this loud bang, we found the cause, the DOOR ON THE WASHING MACHINE HAD JUST EXPLODED, the machine was not in use at the time.

There was no know reason for this, as the machine, was quite empty, and still, with not a soul any were near it.

On phoning BEKO, we were told, WE WOULD GET A PHONE CALL WITHIN THE NEXT 48 HOURS FROM A ENGINEER, mind you I know really don’t trust any machine, as he will be only fitting a new door.

Washerhelp Washerhelp
#12. August 26th, 2010, at 11:58 AM.


Pamela: Yours is the most bizarre case so far. It’s hard to imagine a cause for a door glass shattering whilst not in use – do you have a poltergeist? ;-)

Please keep us informed.

PAMELA ODELL PAMELA ODELL
#13. August 28th, 2010, at 3:46 PM.


BEKO has informed us they will be here some time on the 1st. SEPT.

To fit a new door, I must say, they didn’t sound a bit surprised, so I will let you know just what takes place.

 

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