Hotpoint Tumble dryer recall

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I have owened a hotpoint dryer (TVM570P) for 8 years without any problems which i use occassionally. I have moved house a few times so did not get the news about it being a potential fire hazzard untill recently when a friend came to visit and said it looks like the same dryer they had and needed the modification. I rang Hotpoint and they said that yes it is the dryer thats a fire risk and they have booked me in for a repair. As I have an 8 year old machine I would obviously not expect a free replacment, but I did enquire to see if they would offer my a new machine at a discount price like others have said but they told me they no longer do these anymore just repairs. I just want to know, what exactly do the engineers do to make it safe. Do they change the heater or put some special guard on the chmaber to stop fluff building up on the element? I am a bit worried as some newspaper articals claim that despiute the modification, they still have burtst into flames.
 
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I'm not familiar with the mods they do but I can tell you that the sensing condenser dryers that they were offering are pretty poor quality so I would definitely stick with your old one as long as possible. Used properly, which after 8 years of use I would suggest you are doing, I think the risks of fire are pretty small.
 
We had this mod done on ours. When I asked the technician what it consisted of he said the back panel was replaced with a new design incorporating a diverter bar/plate which kept the fluff off the element. If Hotpoint will do it for you f.o.c. it makes sense to get it done even on an 8 yr old dryer as you can expect another 10 yrs service out of it.

Separately I have read that provided you clean the filter religiously after every cycle there is minimal risk. We have always done this but in addition I clean the filter housing out with a vacuum cleaner every few months because some fluff always seems to get past the filter. As jj4091 says, if you haven't had a fry-up by now the chances of it ever happening to you are probably very slight.

HTH, Chris
 
Adhere to the advice of don’t leave tumble drier running while not at home or why you are sleeping and the risk is minimal. I also had the mod done took 30 mins or so.
 
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Thanks to everyone thst replied. I never use the dryer unattended and always clean the filter after every load so looks like to dryer is staying put.
 
When we moved into our house the previous owners left a hotpoint tumble drier. It worked fine for a couple of years before making bad noises so decided to get a new one. Being curious I thought I'd take apart the old one to see what was wrong with it and I was astounded at the amount of fluff inside the casing, there was a really thick carpet / coating everywhere and plenty packed around the element which was clearly charred. How it didn't burst into flames I don't know. Fluff is highly flammable as it turns out (I tested that too).

Anyway, nice new indesit machine arrived in its place and only a few months later the recall notice came out, got that done pretty quick. I know for a fact with this machine we cleaned out the filter after every use and occasionally stuck the vacuum tube down the housing to clear things out. Fast forward a couple of years and this one started making silly noises as well. So I took it apart to see what was what and again, full of fluff, including some around the heating element though not nearly as much as the previous machine. (The fault was the rear bearing - nothing to do with the fluff).

At that point I concluded that these are horrible cheap and nasty machines with a deeply flawed design. When you look at the way bosch and others arrange the heating elements and the construction of them you can see the difference. I took it to a skip and bought a samsung heat pump model - more robust construction using a less risky way to heat the air up. Oh and a sh*t load cheaper to run (though v expensive to buy).

I don't trust this brand any longer and would not have another of their appliances in my house.
 
It's a fundamentally flawed design and my personal belief is that they should be serviced every year.

Here's a genuine puzzle ...the ones that are condenser versions don't lint up but the ones that are vented to outside lint up badly ....you would expect it to be the other way round ...but it isn't ....took me a while go work out why !
 

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