Come home to a real fire.

[Burnerman]

Just following up from the breakfast news this morning concerning spontaneous combustion of your friendly tumble dryer......
I found out that my own machine is one of the faulty ones - but I had to check that for myself by entering the model and serial numbers on the Hotpoint website.
Basically fluff bypasses the filter and lodges on the heating element.
Maybe you should check yours?
John

 

[Aquaheat]

Good luck with that John! @Burnerman

Ours was on the list so registered it in November 2015. (as was the washing machine! Both hotpoint. Worth checking all appliances for recalls) The occasional email is received but still no engineer visit!

Repair was meant to be April and has been left and ignored.

Beware! I have tried to call them to resolve and didn't raise at the time but the number is a chargeable one and only found this out after I had been on hold for £57 worth of my time!

No responses from emails at all and they seem to brush it all under the carpet.

Might be better off taking their replacement option that they offer. My phone calls would have bought us a new one!

Best of luck

Jon

 

[Burnerman]

Hells bells that's ridiculous!
I'll pull the thing out and check for the fluff content within.
Cheers for the nod on that one!
John

 

[Aquaheat]

Tell me about it! I got to one point and asked them to send me the stuff and I'll do the modifications myself but that was a none starter!

I appreciate there are thousands but nearly a year is ridiculous.

As I mentioned before it may be worth looking at the replacement option depending on what you want/need. There was a condensing one in white, 8kg IIRC for £59 if you take the old one to curry's and take the new one back. A small charge if you want delivery and collection. Think it was a fiver.

Weve been waiting that long now and have since bought a new washing machine I think we will be doing that now. It's annoying me that we now have a white WM and a silver dryer!

If you need any info or help though just ask John. I'll help if I can.

Jon

 

[Burnerman]

Cheers for that Jon - I'll see what transpires but I wasn't aware that a replacement option could be on the cards.
John

 

[Aquaheat]

Just to let you know John I finally got an appointment for the repair! Friday this week so only took them 11 months!

I'll dig out some of the emails about the replacements so you should be able to see them then.

I'll let you know what the repair entails as I think it's only something stupid. Hopefully I get a friendly tech.

Jon

 

[Aquaheat]

@Burnerman I forgot, I have an 0800 number they called me off to to arrange the repair.

Now I'm not saying that you should call that and then ask to be put through to the other departments but that's up to you

PM it to you later on.

Jon

 

[jj4091]

You should publish that number as a matter of principal, so that others aren't ripped off. Premium rate numbers are not supposed to be used for service lines any more & in a case like this (products going on fire ) it is despicable.

 

[bernardgreen]

Tumble dryer modification programme
Call 0800 151 0905

is already in the public domain

 

[Burnerman]

Thanks for the interest and support regarding this one......I've been offered a repair or replacement (very cheaply, as it happens) so I'll go for that.
Here's hoping the exhaust is in the same position as this one, of course!
John

 

[Aquaheat]

@Burnerman had the repair carried out today. I see you're thinking of the replacement option but thought I'd give you the details so you can see what you want to do.

It involves replacing the rear heat housing with a deeper internal unit that keeps lint away from it. It also incorporates a modification to the rear of the drum that in essence has a sweeper on it that cleans it as it goes.

There is also a modification on the front lint filter but that is model specific so I'm told.


It also comes with a full strip down service and replacement belts and any defective parts. They replaced the rear drum bearings on ours too.

Earth loop impedance test on the sockets and insulation tests on the appliance too. If it fails the insulation test he said they would replace the elements also.

Basically a brand new machine now.

You should publish that number as a matter of principal, so that others aren't ripped off. Premium rate numbers are not supposed to be used for service lines any more & in a case like this (products going on fire ) it is despicable.

You are right. The number that I have for their customer team is 0800 015 9010.

Jon

 

[Burnerman]

Cheers for that Jon - with that sort of attention I think I'll go for the repair too.
John

 

[bernardgreen]

Personally I would not buy a dryer that has heating elements that will glow red hot if the air flow over them stops.

If the element can become hotter than the ignition point of material which might come in contact with the element then it is a fire risk.

It would be possible to have designed in a heating element that ran at 150°C in still air ( below ignition point ) and still be able to transfer enough heat energy into flowing air to dry clothes.

That safe element design would be larger and far more expensive than the simple ( almost crude ) hot wire element that I saw in a dryer being scrapped.

 

[Aquaheat]

Cheers for that Jon - with that sort of attention I think I'll go for the repair too.
John

Just be prepared for the wait! Ours was 10 months in all but to be honest we look after it and it's always cleaned so we had no issues and it's been a bloody good economical (oxymoron for a dryer) machine so would've been loathed to get rid of it for an unknown quantity. Basically we have a new dryer now and a years warranty again too!

Jon

 

[Burnerman]

March 2017 is blast off month!
I must say the filter is cleaned every time and I don't leave the thing running when I'm not in. It'll be interesting to see how much fluff has bypassed the filter when its stripped down.
John