Dehumidifier Recalls: Stay Alert
Dehumidifiers are an electrical appliance and should be treated with appropriate care. This includes only having the appliance plugged in while it is working, never leave the appliance operating when you are not home, ensuring that the surrounding of the dehumidifier is clear of clothes and other obstructions.
While the dehumidifiers owner can take the greatest care of a dehumidifier a fire risk still exists if a fault occurred during the manufacturing process. Like faulty cars, faulty dehumidifiers are recalled by the manufacturer.
A year ago in the USA and Canada, the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled 2.5 million dehumidifiers made by manufacturer Gree . The faulty dehumidifiers, which overheat very easily, are still the causing house fires today so obviously the faulty dehumidifiers have not been totally recalled.
One of the problems is that the dehumidifiers were sold under a dozen different brand names including Frigidair, Kenmore and Norpole.
In Europe the Gree manufactured dehumidifiers were imported by Italian company Delonghi and Airwell of France.
A complete list of recalled Gree dehumidifiers, with model numbers and dates can be found here.
A dehumidifiers model number can be found on a name plate sticker on the rear, side or front of a dehumidifier. The dehumidifiers serial number is located directly below the model name plate sticker.
Owners of a recalled dehumidifier should place the cut off power cord, the name plate sticker, the plug and the warning sticker from the power cord into a return kit which is available from Gree.
You will be reimbursed once your return kit has been processed. This usually takes 2-6 weeks.
For those that have further questions on this matter there is a list of Gree Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) here.
Take care to dispose of the dehumidifier in the proper way.
In the UK this means taking your dehumidifier to the electrical area of your local refuse facility.
