Whirlpool, owner of Hotpoint and Indesit, defends failure to change its consumer advice until six months after serious blaze

An estimated 1m faulty tumble dryers at risk of bursting into flames are still in UK homes, the manufacturer has admitted to MPs.



Ian Moverley, communications director for Whirlpool, which makes Hotpoint and Indesit tumble dryers, said on Tuesday it had been difficult to get the message out to owners of the remaining faulty machines that they needed to be replaced or modified to make them safe.

He sought to justify the company’s decision not to change its advice to consumers until six months after an Indesit model caused a serious fire in Shepherd’s Bush, west London. Although nobody was killed in the blaze, more than 100 families were evacuated, with 26 temporarily accommodated in hotels owing to the extent of the damage. Whirlpool later told users they must unplug and not use the faulty machines.

Of the company’s decision to modify existing models rather than order a full recall, Moverley said: “We took our response very seriously and very diligently. We doubled the number of call centres and increased the number of engineers by 70%.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Damage to a flat in Shepherd’s Bush, west London, caused by a fire started by an Indesit tumble dryer. Photograph: London Fire Brigade

Pressed by the Conservative MP Antoinette Sandbach on how many faulty tumble dryers were still in British homes, he said: “What we have seen is that the number of registrations [for modification] has fallen, but we estimate 1m.”

Whirlpool had been replacing or repairing an estimated 3.8m potentially faulty dryers across the UK after identifying a fire-risk safety defect in November 2015, caused when excess fluff touches the heating element. Whirlpool did not issue a product recall, originally telling customers they could continue to use their tumble dryer while waiting for the modification, provided it was not left unattended.

Taking evidence about electrical appliances after a series of fires, MPs on the business, energy and industrial strategy committee were also warned by a trading standards chief that the current product safety system, which relies on local trading standards services, was close to breaking point and might not survive Brexit.

Leon Livermore, chief executive of the Trading Standards Institute, told MPs that council funding cuts had affected the work of local trading standards services, slashing the amount of “market surveillance” they were able to do. “The current product safety system is already under pressure and won’t survive Brexit – which will make trading standards officers’ work more complex – or further austerity cuts,” Livermore told MPs.

He agreed with earlier witnesses representing the Which? consumer group, fire chiefs and the Electrical Safety First group that an overarching product safety body was needed to help protect consumers and advise them on what to do when products were faulty and potentially dangerous.

During a series of heated exchanges, Moverley was strongly criticised by the committee’s chair, the Labour MP Rachel Reeves, for Whirlpool’s failure to send a more senior representative from the company on the operations or safety side, who would have been able to answer the more technical questions that Moverley struggled with.

The hearing came after a series of high-profile fires, with evidence suggesting a wider problem of electrical fires and safety concerns around specific products such as tumble dryers and flammable plastic-backed fridges and freezers.



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In February, six months after the Shepherd’s Bush fire, Whirlpool changed its advice to the owners of millions of potentially dangerous machines, telling customers to unplug the appliances and stop using them until they were repaired.



Asked by MPs about the severity of the Shepherd’s Bush fire, Charlie Pugsley of the National Fire Chiefs Council warned that it might have led to deaths had it not taken place at 4.30pm, rather than at night.

After the hearing, Alex Neill of Which? said: “It is shocking that despite admitting that there are 1m potentially dangerous tumble dryers in people’s homes, Whirlpool is still failing to recall these machines voluntarily. Whirlpool must no longer ignore its responsibility for the safety of its customers and must conduct a full product recall. If it does not, the government must intervene.”

