Dishwasher Fire Risks to Pets

I’m always keen to write about appliance safety, and publish any manufacturer safety notices I find which affects any of our white goods appliances.

Sadly there are far too many. Recently I added a Bosh dishwasher fire risk safety notice and I’ve just discovered that a couple from Norfolk have suffered the very sad loss of their pet dogs.

Couple lose pet dogs to Bosch Dishwasher fire

According to the reporter in the video there have been 259 “incidents” already. The disturbing thing is that Bosh have allegedly said that it can take up to 14 days for an engineer to visit an affected appliance, and the couple involved say they were not advised to stop using it – so they carried on using it and it caught fire. Look at the photo in this ITV news report to see how serious this fire was Faulty dishwasher causes blaze at Norfolk home

It seems outrageous that it could take so long for an engineer to make an appliance safe, you’d expect they’d have someone round within a day or so. However, there’s a very real possibility that the task of visiting and modifying tens of thousands of appliances simply overwhelms a company and sadly nothing can be done about it. Having said that, surely they should always advise everyone with an affected appliance to stop using it immediately?

The official message from Bosch (according to this video and the official safety notice on their web site) is that owners can still use their dishwashers – but they should not leave them “unattended”. Unattended normally means don’t leave the house empty, or go to bed, so there’s no one close to it.

Don’t leave the dishwasher on whilst no one is within earshot, or available to notice any fire or smoke. This is advice I’ve always strongly recommended for any dishwasher, washing machine or tumble dryer (Fire risks in appliances) but an appliance with a known issue is very different.

I personally feel they should be advising to stop using any affected dishwasher immediately!

Surely it’s reckless to take the risk, especially on an appliance we can easily manage without for a few weeks if necessary. If everyone with an affected dishwasher continues to use it – even if they are present in the house whilst it’s running – then some of them may well catch fire. And what use is it being there if that happens? What use would it be to suddenly smell smoke whilst watching the TV and run into the kitchen to see it on fire? How many have fire extinguishers in the kitchen, or would be able to pull out the plug etc?

Manufacturers usually try to play down risks by telling us only a very small percentage of appliances are affected but house fires, and deaths, are way too serious to play down with the excuse it’s only a small percentage that are affected.

More fire risk safety warnings

• Dishwasher safety notices (NOTE: Not a full list – only the ones I know of)
• All appliance Safety Notices published on Whitegoodshelp
• More appliance related safety warnings and advice

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