Millions of Recalled Appliances, and Believe it or Not the CPSC Does Not Have a Search Function Let’s take one of the most recommended household appliances, the dehumidifier as an example
Home inspectors, mold testers and remediators and medical practitioners advise to use a dehumidifier to avoid mold. Mold grows the most when humidity is above 45% RH. Less moisture in the air, less mold in the home and a healthier environment.
Running a dehumidifier makes sense when you look at it that way. Who wants a child to have more Asthma attacks? Who wants mold and odor in the basement? GREAT SUGGESTION!
You know the old fire and water theme? Well, here is the rub with dehumidifiers. There are millions of them in service that could catch your home on fire. Now you would think you could just and look up dehumidifiers and know which ones to purchase.
You Will Not Believe the List of Recalled Dehumidifier Brands
Well, here is a list of the brands that have at least one model under recall: Danby, De'Longhi, Fedders, Fellini, Frigidaire, GE, Gree, Kenmore, Norpole, Premiere, Seabreeze, SoleusAir ,SuperClima. LG, Goldstar, Comfort-Aire, CEM,, Elecrtrolux Midea
These 19 brands were accumulated from a less than five minute Google search. There are more brands with recalls, but this was a long enough list to make a point.
Everyone should check their home for recalls on their appliances. It doesn’t happen very often. Nobody wakes up in a morning and says I am going to spend the day searching the CPCS site, one recall at time to see if my appliance is listed. The solution is to use the event of the home inspection as the opportunity to do this important chore. Recalls are not always about fires and injury. They can also be the result of defects that if know can result in the manufacturer paying for repairs instead of a homeowner.
How to Check Your Home
The best way to do this is to use a Home Inspector that offers the ReCallChek service at no additional cost as a part of the home inspection.
Not everyone is in the process of having a home inspection conducted. If you are concerned about your safety or have an appliance then needs repair, the second-best way is to do to a RecallChek portal such as www.ApplianceRecallCheck.com and enter model and serial numbers yourself for a small fee for all of the appliances in your home.
There are a Couple of Ways for Homeowners to Reduce the Moisture in Their Homes The most obvious one is to reduce water leaks in the home. Moisture into foundation walls, permeating from floors, leaking from plumbing, condensing from cold areas, roof leaks, condensation from exhaust fans, unvented or poorly vented gas appliances ………and a bunch of other sources can be reduced.
Then there are the sources of moisture that can’t do much about preventing. That would be breathing, perspiring, showering and cooking. If you want to email me that you can stop the shower and cooking things, go ahead…..but don’t invite me over to check.
Then there is the way to talk about moisture and humidity reduction that we talk about almst every day. That would be dehumidification.
Now to the question that we get ASKED everyday when we give that as the easy solution to elevated moisture.
The caveat good meaning mold professionals all tend to forget in the answer is to: NOT BUY ONE THAT WILL CATCH YOUR HOME ON FIRE!!!
Many of the dehumidifiers that have been produced are fire hazards. Complicating the issue is that the manufacturers that are making these units will put different brand names on the identical, hazardous, fire safety dehumidifiers. Retailer “A” does not want you able to comparison shop Retailer “B”, “C” and “D” for the same product.
Check out the dehumidifier you are considering or own:
http://www.wemakeitsafer.com/Humidifiers-Dehumidifiers-Recalls
https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2017/Gree-Reannounces-Dehumidifier-Recall-Following-450-Fires-and-19-Million-in-Property-Damage
www.ApplianceRecallChecks.com
Gree Reannounces Dehumidifier Recall Following 450 Fires and $19 Million in Property Damage; Brand Names Include Frigidaire, Soleus Air, Kenmore and Others