Beko has issued a “voluntary repair programme” for its 8kg and 9kg Beko and Blomberg condenser tumble dryers, after a woman reportedly died last year from a fire caused by one of the models.
According to Beko, it is attempting to locate 3,450 of the dryers, which were manufactured between May and November 2012, as a “precautionary measure” and the company stated that a “third party-supplied component” could, in “rare circumstances”, fail and overheat, leading to the risk of fire. It has advised customers with the affected models to stop using them immediately "as a precaution".
The machines at risk were sold between May and November 2012 carrying the model numbers DCU9330W, DCU9330R, DCU8230, DSC85W and TKF8439A under Beko and Blomberg brands
According to the Guardian, Mishell Moloney was discovered dead in her bedroom in February last year, with a coroner finding in August that the woman “was found to have died after being overcome by carbon monoxide fumes and smoke caused by a small fire in the tumble dryer in the downstairs kitchen”.
“Moloney’s death was a tragic and isolated incident,” Beko is cited as saying in other reports. “As stated by the coroner at the inquest, the source of the fire within the tumble dryer was most likely the printed control board. The component in this repair programme was excluded by forensics experts as the cause so is therefore unrelated.”
The company added in its notice: “As a responsible manufacturer, we have decided to proactively contact the owners of these condenser tumble dryers to offer a free of charge in-home check and to modify affected products to remove any potential risk. This is completely free of charge and will take no longer than 30 minutes.”
An investigation found the product had been involved in 20 previous blazes, but Beko did not recall the model as none had the defect thought to have caused the fatal fire at the time.
Thisisnt the first time Beko have been in the news over the safety of its products.
In 2013 a safety alert over 138,000 faulty Beko appliances that could pose a risk to thousands of families had been making headlines which were linked to 12 deaths concerning its fridge freezers, tumble dryers and gas cookers.
In 2010 an inquest into the death of 36-year-old father of two, Santosh Benjamin Muthiah, on 13th November 2010 found that the fire that killed him was caused by a Beko fridge-freezer. The fault in the appliance was found to have been caused by an overheating defective defrost timer and it is reported that up to 500,000 Beko fridge-freezers manufactured between 2000 and 2006 could be affected.