[HN Gopher] 1.56M dehumidifiers recalled due to fire and burn ha...
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1.56M dehumidifiers recalled due to fire and burn hazards
Author : DemiGuru
Score : 255 points
Date : 2023-08-17 16:27 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theverge.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theverge.com)
| xkcd-sucks wrote:
| Dehumidifiers, refrigerators, and less so air conditioners, all
| have the same inherent risk of a big compressor that runs
| unattended for years. (For example, the Ghost Ship warehouse fire
| was attributed to a fridge compressor)
|
| More than a recall of specific faulty models, it would be cool to
| know how to evaluate compressor health so one could periodically
| check whether something is at risk of overheating
| catastrophically
| Ekaros wrote:
| Also some refrigerants like R290 are flammable, so right sized
| leak with right mixing and spark can be cause of fire or small
| explosion.
| benoliver999 wrote:
| Grenfell was a fridge iirc
| Night_Thastus wrote:
| In my experience, catastrophic failure is extremely rare.
|
| An overheating compressor starts burning its oil. That burned
| oil sludge then clogs everything internally, and eventually the
| whole system stops being able to work. It will generally get so
| hot it automatically turns off on overload at that point.
| pvarangot wrote:
| So first context: I'm not OP, and as a matter of record the
| Ghost Ship fire was not caused by a fridge compressor.
| Electrical appliance is the most likely cause but the ATF
| investigators ruled the fridge compressor out. That being
| said, sparking near relay blades is common enough and same
| for sketchy wire bonding. It's not a failure mode of the
| compressor as much as the relay or the wiring is true, but no
| other appliance is wired like that and turning on and off
| autonomously in the average household except maybe AC which
| are usually less modular and wired at the factory to higher
| standards than some old fridge or a repaired unit.
| sidewndr46 wrote:
| every compressor I've looked at was thermally protected. If
| it gets too hot for any reason it just shuts off.
| jandrese wrote:
| Might be a case where many of these fail every year, but
| sometimes they also have faulty thermo probe and catch
| fire. If a failed probe doesn't cause the device to stop
| working then it's entirely possible for both to be bad at
| the same time, especially if there is no indication that
| the probe failed.
| baybal2 wrote:
| And it's a big irony that LG had to cease production of their
| otherwise excellent linear compressors globally because they
| were sued to death by legal trolls in USA.
| rightbyte wrote:
| > it would be cool to know how to evaluate compressor health
|
| The best way is probably to monitor low and high side pressure
| together with motor rpm and power. But I have never seen a
| fridge with manometers so ... I would listen for vibrations.
| Like, you can get to know how your machine should sound when
| happy. If it sounds unhappy, take it to the dump.
| thebruce87m wrote:
| Desiccant dehumidifiers don't use a compressor. The alternative
| may have risks however.
| gry wrote:
| The Verge story dangerously links the "get your refund" call to
| action to the 2013 recall which does *not include* the 2023
| recall models.
|
| 2013: https://greedehumidifierrecall.com/ProductEntry.aspx
|
| 2023: https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2023/Gree-
| Recalls-1-56-Million-...
|
| EDIT: The story does include both links, but "four more people
| have died" doesn't read like a link containing the latest models.
| [deleted]
| criddell wrote:
| One of the commenters on that article says the manufacturer
| offered $37 in compensation for a unit they paid $200 for. That
| doesn't seem reasonable to me.
| dclowd9901 wrote:
| If a product is considered a risk to home and health, it should
| be law that the purchasers of that product receive at least a
| full refund (upon company paid return of the unit).
| housemusicfan wrote:
| For an over ten years old dehumidifier?
| slipheen wrote:
| It's deprecated value isn't the most important part if they
| are no longer safe to use - The replacement value is what
| matters.
| cab404 wrote:
| dehumidifier that caught fire is actually quite an effective way
| to dehumidify, shouldn't even use that much electricity
| dvh wrote:
| CPSC evaluated the recalled dehumidifiers and found that they can
| overheat, smoke, and catch fire
| akeck wrote:
| More info: https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2023/CPSC-
| Warnin...
| emdashcomma wrote:
| I noticed a dehumidifier in the basement of the house I moved
| into. I did a search for the model number - looking for a manual
| - and found out it was recalled. Same thing - fire risk.
|
| It's really unfortunate because I had a home inspection done
| after I moved in and part of that is I get an email every month
| about anything in the home being recalled and that wasn't part of
| it. Good thing I happened to search for that manual that day. I
| was able to get a partial refund on the thing, though, so that's
| good (it was quite old). It seemed to have been in a "fan" mode,
| not running as a dehumidifier (water tank was empty).
| sokoloff wrote:
| "Fan mode" in an old dehumidifier usually means that the
| refrigeration charge has been lost.
|
| They (almost universally) do not have service ports, but you
| can charge them using a bullet piercing valve (search for Supco
| BPV31) and restore functionality.
| jandrese wrote:
| Of course if it is prone to catching fire randomly it would
| make more sense to take the rebate and buy a good one instead
| of trying to recharge the old leaky fire hazard.
| Vvector wrote:
| This is a product recall on one manufacturer, sold under 13
| different brands. Not really HN worthy
| dang wrote:
| The recall alone probably wouldn't be but I don't think HN has
| discussed dehumidifiers much. From that point of view it has
| some curiosity value (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&pag
| e=0&prefix=true&sor...).
| lcfcjs wrote:
| There's at least 5 different products if you press the Right
| Arrow, they look quite different.
| MidKnightNinja wrote:
| [flagged]
| jstarfish wrote:
| PSA: You can make your own dehumidifer using two buckets and some
| rock salt. You'll have to dump the water manually though.
|
| > Because rock salt is hygroscopic it absorbs moisture from the
| air. If your plan is to get rid of the humidity in a damp
| basement, start with a 50-pound bag of sodium chloride to make
| your rock salt dehumidifier. These can be found at most big box
| hardware stores. While you're there, you'll also need two
| 5-gallon buckets. Here's what you'll need to do next:
|
| > In one bucket, drill several small holes into the side and
| bottom of that bucket
|
| > Nest the drilled bucket into the other bucket
|
| > Fill the bucket up with rock salt
|
| > Collected water will drip through the holes in the inner bucket
| into in the outer bucket over time
|
| > Empty the outer bucket as necessary
|
| > Refill the rock salt as needed
|
| (https://www.reddit.com/r/homestead/comments/wziu44/the_basem...)
| crazygringo wrote:
| That's interesting but is sadly unhelpful without knowing how
| many gallons or liters it's able to pull out per day, or how
| far down it gets humidity, or how quickly it goes through salt.
|
| E.g. my $200 dehumidifier pulls around 3 gallons of water out
| of the air per day, on a hot and humid summer day, to keep
| indoor RH around 55%.
|
| It's very hard for me to imagine a bucket of rock salt pulling
| 3 gallons of water from the air, _or_ being able to bring RH
| down to a target ~50% range. And even if it did, it seems like
| you 'd probably spend more on salt over the course of a couple
| of summers than you would on a dehumidifier in the first place.
| icedistilled wrote:
| This sounds wasteful and like it won't work well unless the
| space is air and moisture impervious.
| peatmoss wrote:
| Can't imagine how this would match the capacity of a good sized
| unit. I have been renting a garage that had some leaks, and the
| amount of water my dehumidifier extracted when it was damp was
| enough to have a solid trickle of water out of the attached
| garden hose (into a drain). This salt dehumidifier might be
| good for intermittent light dampness, but I can't see this
| filling a bucket in a day like a condenser based dehumidifier.
| virtuous_sloth wrote:
| We need supply-chain provenance and OEM transparency for
| technical products just like we need them for food production.
| rapht wrote:
| Full transparency is probably impractical as soon as the
| product is complex enough, but whenever inside a product there
| is one "main component" (such as is the case here), that should
| be indeed be properly traced - and it would cut the crap from
| companies who slap their brand on a plastic case hiding mostly
| the same core component - sometimes at laughlingly distant
| pricing points.
| h2odragon wrote:
| https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2023/Gree-Recalls-1-56-Million-...
|
| > Gree has received reports of at least 23 fires, 688 incidents
| of overheating, and $168,000 in property damage with the recalled
| dehumidifiers. Sold At: Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards, Sam's Club,
| Sears, Walmart and other stores nationwide, starting in 2011
| through 2014 for between $110 and $400.
|
| It kinda looks to me like every dehumidifier sold in the USA+ for
| the last decade, then?
| jpm_sd wrote:
| There was a similar recall 2 years ago, for a different list of
| products.
|
| https://www.consumerreports.org/appliance-recalls/dehumidifi...
| AdmiralAsshat wrote:
| That's pretty scary, since the common wisdom these days is that
| appliances bought from brick-and-mortar stores should be
| safer/more reliable than the random thing bought off Amazon.
| TylerE wrote:
| Both can be true, and probably are.
| mook wrote:
| The appliance bought at the brick-and-mortar store could get
| a recall; the random thing bought off Amazon wouldn't have
| one is it's at similar levels of setting things on fire.
| barbariangrunge wrote:
| Yeah... well, I've gotten a lot of dud products from Walmart
| lately. The only reason I go there is I'm in a small town and
| they ran everybody else out of business, so they have a
| monopoly over most goods unless you want to drive 100km to
| get to a competitor
| comboy wrote:
| It's scary the same way planes are scary. Think about number
| of devices sold. One model malfunctions and it's on HN front
| page.
|
| Very unlikely events happen sometimes and its those kind of
| events that you see in the news.
| fullstop wrote:
| Plus people don't clean the filters or give them proper
| clearance.
| jxramos wrote:
| yep, the news pools all the crazy outliers spread across
| big windows in time, geography, demographics, whatever the
| universe is of interest, and reduces them to a concentrated
| dose.
| akira2501 wrote:
| Planes are scary. They weigh an incredible amount and need
| to pick up a dangerous amount of speed while carrying a
| ridiculous amount of fuel before they can become airborne.
|
| What makes them seem safe is the layers of safety systems
| we've built around it.
|
| Likewise, anything that connects to 110V lines in your
| house is equally scary, and news that the safety systems
| might be entirely inadequate for an entire class of
| products rightfully gets attention.
| BaculumMeumEst wrote:
| or using a li-ion battery is scary, driving is scary, going
| outside is scary, eating food is scary, drinking water is
| scary, breathing air is scary.
| asveikau wrote:
| I think of all the things you mentioned, cars are the
| scariest and one where people very much underestimate the
| risk.
|
| Although the "wrong" food is also very deadly and
| underestimated, but that one is tricky because it takes a
| long time to act and the results vary a lot by
| individual.
| toast0 wrote:
| The aggregate safety of appliances bought through brick-and-
| mortar vs random imports is that failures are more readily
| tracked by the CPSC and patterns of failures will result in
| recalls.
|
| If you're one of a small group of people that buys a
| dehumidifier from a brand that's active for 3 months on
| amazon; chances are that brand isn't going to be included in
| the recall notices when the samey design sold with persistent
| brands at major retailers is determined to be unsafe.
|
| On the other hand, who's got a dehumidifier built in
| 2011-2014 that still works? I'm on my second one since 2019,
| and while the dehumidification is still working, the pump
| seems to be on its way out. On the first one, the compressor
| stopped spooling up not long after the warranty period ended.
| whatshisface wrote:
| _Turbine_ compressors spool up, that compressor turns on.
| :-)
| toast0 wrote:
| Well.. in this case, it doesn't really do either; but
| terminology noted. :)
| fullstop wrote:
| The dehumidifiers that I destroyed (cut the power cords and
| mailed them in) a few years ago were replaced with something
| else. I don't recall the name of them, but they were sent to me
| as part of the recall at no cost. It would be kind of amusing
| if the replacements were part of this recall.
| bandyaboot wrote:
| Costco sells DeLonghi dehumidifiers, so not quite all.
| fullstop wrote:
| Guess who actually makes (some, all?) DeLonghi dehumidifiers?
| Gree.
| manicennui wrote:
| The dehumidifier I bought last year is not on either list, but
| it is a bit more expensive than most models.
|
| https://www.midea.com/us/air-conditioners/dehumidifiers/easy...
| ta988 wrote:
| i got one like that, does the job. but they also got a recall
| some time ago https://www.recallrtr.com/dehumidifier
| SV_BubbleTime wrote:
| I don't know anything about midea except their U shaped
| window AC units are genius.
| TheSoftwareGuy wrote:
| They also make the innards for almost all microwave ovens:
| https://youtu.be/YSrVG74Emyk
| ikekkdcjkfke wrote:
| If anyone has one of these it might be smart to set it at a
| humidity percent where it's not running all the time.
| rcarr wrote:
| I recently read that dehumidifiers can essentially serve in place
| of a tumble dryer but with vastly reduced energy costs. You
| simply hang your washed clothes in the same room as the
| dehumidifier and it speeds up the drying process by quite a lot.
| Think I will purchase one eventually.
| skinner927 wrote:
| I put a small one in my laundry room because it was a little
| musty with the front loader having to dry out and the door to
| the room being closed all the time. It drains right into the
| sink and the room. I highly suggest it.
| convolvatron wrote:
| I used to do this. It takes about 2 hrs for linens and nearly a
| full day for terrycloth. if you're not in a hurry its fine.
| thebruce87m wrote:
| We do this. Desiccant based ones are quieter. I can sleep with
| one in the next room, unlike the compressor ones I've had.
| bob1029 wrote:
| If humidity is a serious problem you could consider getting a
| proper central unit installed. A lot of new construction in the
| Gulf Coast region is including these in the HVAC systems. It's
| like a mini 1/4 ton A/C system inside your system. I had one that
| came w/ the house but it didn't last very long (Honeywell).
| Replaced it with an Aprilaire unit.
|
| I can tell when my dehumidifier is off or not working because
| I'll see really bad condensation forming around registers.
| Keeping RH below 55% is an extreme battle this time of year. My
| dehumidifier runs 24/7 for about 9 months of the year and the
| main heat pump runs about 80-85% of the day.
| bluGill wrote:
| These cost $150. A cheap DIY minisplit is over $1000 (double
| that if you get one that doesn't need a vacuum). I'd love to
| have the minisplit HVAC in my shed, but cost drives me away.
| zainhoda wrote:
| In addition to the minisplit cost, there's also the cost of
| the electrical work. Anyone can plug in a dehumidifier into
| an outlet but drilling a hole into the wall, running the
| linesets and communication wires for a minisplit is beyond
| most people's comfort level.
| pxx wrote:
| Uh, they're like $650 minus 30% tax credit.
| https://www.highseer.com/products/9-000-btu-ductless-dc-
| inve...
|
| Sure, yeah, double it if you want the pre-charged lines. But
| I found that installing the lines that required a vacuum to
| be easier than using the precharged lines (as you don't need
| to be as careful with the lines before you release the charge
| into them).
|
| Regardless though the minisplit (or central A/C) isn't a good
| substitute for a dedicated dehumidifier. You're not going to
| get the RH very low.
| bluGill wrote:
| that is cheaper than the last time I priced them by a bit.
| I'll have to save that link, thanks. Though after shipping
| things are a lot closer (I suppose since others have free
| shipping they have to up the price)
| fullstop wrote:
| I imagine that most dehumidifiers are in basements which are
| not typically climate controlled.
| Sunspark wrote:
| You know what sucks about dehumidifiers these days?
|
| In the past, they had a feature where you could cycle them
| 4-hours-on, 4-hours-off.. not anymore, now it's either sensor,
| continuous on, or run for an interval then shut off and stay off.
|
| To answer the question why not use sensor?
|
| They advertise +-5% accuracy on the humidity meter.. except on my
| current model it is WILDLY inaccurate. I calibrated an analog
| dial myself and the sensor shows there's a +30% reading
| difference between the machine and the dial.. no wonder it was
| never running..
| crazygringo wrote:
| They do use a sensor. E.g. the bestselling dehumidifier on
| Amazon (HomeLabs) does exactly that. Same as Frigidaire, etc.
| Mine seems to cycle on/off about 8-10 times per hour -- it
| turns off when humidity reaches 5 percentage points above its
| set point, and turns off once it reaches 5 percentage points
| below.
|
| I've had humidifiers/dehumidifiers in the past that have been
| off by 20 to 30 percentage points of humidity, but honestly
| that was never really a problem, because I just set the target
| off by the same amount. Also it really helps if you have fans
| circulating the air -- especially with ultrasonic humidifiers,
| it can easily humidify the nearby air by 20-30 percentage
| points and turn off, because local humidity really _has_ gone
| up, but it hasn 't spread throughout the room.
| jpm_sd wrote:
| So what do I do, if I have a closely-related product that isn't
| on the list? ADEL20LYQ1
| bluGill wrote:
| For now you can keep using it, but keep watch as who knows if
| that will be recalled later.
|
| Or if you don't want it find someone who has a recalled unit
| and trade.
| jandrese wrote:
| Maybe keep it away from anything flammable if at all
| possible.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| Same model here. Anyone know how to look up the details that
| prompted the recall? Seems like there would be a technical
| filing at CPSC or elsewhere.
| zainhoda wrote:
| I'm in a similar boat. I've got ADEL50LYL1. It would be good to
| know what the risk level is.
| cududa wrote:
| Same one I have
| rsingel wrote:
| Found we have one these. Glad The Verge covered this
| sbjs wrote:
| > Have you seen these dehumidifiers? Stop using them or you might
| die.
|
| I always think this is a funny way to word it. I mean, you're
| going to die either way. At the most, stopping using them might
| push it back further. But a car crash might even the playing
| field too. I think implicitly accepting language like this often
| indicates that a person isn't accepting the fact of the bigger
| picture.
| acumenical wrote:
| I have stopped using my dehumidifier, now I shall live forever.
| cududa wrote:
| Bro, nobody that has ever used the phrase "you might die
| because xyz" has ever been under the assumption that they won't
| die one day.
|
| "Often indicates that a person isn't accepting the fact of the
| bigger picture"
|
| It indicates nothing. Get over yourself
| hotnfresh wrote:
| Did you understand what they meant? Was the _very first_
| thought in your head confusion at the intent, or did that come
| when some other part of your mind analyzed it (perhaps very
| quickly! These parts of one's mind can be trained to be very
| fast and to operate automatically) for "errors" you could post
| about?
| dang wrote:
| It is, of course, pure linkbait, which the HN guidelines ask
| submitters to edit before posting:
|
| " _Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or
| linkbait; don 't editorialize._"
|
| We've done that now...
| jrm4 wrote:
| Keep it real:
|
| This is why we absolutely DO need a reliable "twitter."
|
| Mastodon's the right model for this; companies and governments
| (and safety orgs) need to go ahead and set up their servers and
| run these things.
|
| This is one of these things that's _painfully obvious_ to me and
| I 'm not sure why there's not more of a push for it.
|
| Even the BIG COMPANIES benefit; this model would have prevented
| the "Eli Lilly" thing.
| kelnos wrote:
| How does having a reliable twitter-like service help? I can
| think of a few ways this could work:
|
| 1. Government/regulator-run account that publishes a message
| for every product recall.
|
| 2. Each manufacturer is required to run an account that is only
| for recall announcements.
|
| 3. Each manufacturer is required to run a separate account for
| every product they ship that is only for recall announcements
| for that particular product.
|
| All of these suffer from problems that I think make them
| infeasible.
|
| #1 is probably the easiest to get people to subscribe to (since
| they only have to do it once), but then any announcement for a
| product they own is drowned in all the noise from products they
| don't care about.
|
| #2 is perhaps the worst of both worlds: customers have to
| remember to subscribe when they buy a product from a
| manufacturer they haven't bought from before (though at least
| they don't have to re-subscribe for successive products from
| that manufacturer). But same problem as in #1 where they will
| likely miss announcements related to their product, since there
| will be announcements for a bunch of other products too.
|
| #3 is the best from a signal-to-noise ratio perspective, but I
| don't see a lot of customers remembering to subscribe to a new
| recall feed every time they buy a new product.
|
| The only way to ensure that people get notified when they've
| bought products that are later determined to be dangerous is to
| somehow require that the point-of-sale process includes product
| registration. But that's terrible from a privacy perspective,
| among other things.
| cududa wrote:
| I posted about the recall on Twitter, and a buddy found his
| in the 2013 recall. He registered it with GE and was never
| notified.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| Absolutely. What governments use Twitter for is too important
| to be left up to the erratic people running Twitter.
|
| Especially when anonymous users are prevented from
| participating or even seeing follow-up information, as is the
| case now.
|
| I don't know much about Mastodon or have an opinion regarding
| whether it should be used, but I agree that relying on Twitter
| to disseminate official information is unacceptable. The well
| has been irrevocably poisoned.
| VincentEvans wrote:
| They sold 1,500,000 units and there were 23 fires. I am happy
| they are so on the ball with this - but is this really the kind
| of risk one needs to worry about? 652,173 to 1. I just looked it
| up, and my odds of being in a car accident are 366 to 1 for every
| 1,000 miles driven. So 366,000 to 1 for every mile. Twice as
| dangerous as this dehumidifier.
|
| Edit: off by a zero, so my conclusions are weaker than i
| originally thought.
| cududa wrote:
| Well the rate of them catching fire is increasing, which means
| older ones are failing
| cyberlurker wrote:
| Good point. And all units sold aren't necessarily in active
| use. In some areas they may only be used on occasion.
| kube-system wrote:
| Comparing it to one of the leading causes of accidental death
| is not exactly a testament to their safety.
|
| Consider some other product safety issue -- for example, the GM
| ignition switch recall. 30 million vehicles were affected, and
| there were 124 deaths.
|
| Or the Takata Airbag recalls -- 67 million vehicles were
| affected and there were 27 deaths and 400 injuries.
|
| I think the most important part of a consumer safety issue is
| whether or not the product has a design defect with a known
| engineering solution that causes injury. It's not really fair
| to compare these deaths to chance deaths, like car accidents
| resulting from human err.
| Ekaros wrote:
| I how many failures are left unreported. That is dead units
| with some signs of burning.
| housemusicfan wrote:
| I'd be curious to know how many of the units that caught fire
| never had the filter cleaned, were used in a dusty area, or
| otherwise poorly maintained.
|
| You'd be surprised at how many people never change their
| furnace filter (or even know it exists).
| topspin wrote:
| Great how almost all of them are "UL Listed".
|
| Having looked due to this headline I notice Toshiba is absent
| from this and previous dehumidifier recall episodes.
| miguelazo wrote:
| Also certainly were "Amazon's Choice" products.
| gunapologist99 wrote:
| Use hanging bags like you'd use on a yacht instead; no risk of
| fire at all.
|
| Search for "hanging bag moisture absorber" on your favorite
| shopping site.
| toast0 wrote:
| The problem is you've got to then remove the humidity from the
| absorbers somehow. Whereas my dehumidifier pumps the water it
| collects outside the humid area; mine fills its catch basin in
| under a day when the pump isn't enabled or isn't working (grr).
| I'd wonder about capacity of those moisture absorbers too, but
| I guess you can always put a ton of them.
| fullstop wrote:
| I've had the occasional slime growth which clogs the drip
| line. I connect a shop-vac to the hose connection and schloop
| it out.
|
| It does disturb me that stuff sometimes grows in there,
| though.
| toast0 wrote:
| Well, lots of airflow, lots of water, fairly warm; slime
| growth 101 right there. I did find the line blocked, and
| trimmed it back to a more approriate length that seemed
| unconstricted. Shop-vac is a good idea. I also need to see
| if there's a pre-pump filter or something that needs
| cleaning.
| voytec wrote:
| Reminds me of Dyson-branded crap I've purchased.
|
| I've bough an AM04 heater/cooler device. It was ok. But some 2-3
| weeks after warranty has ended, it stopped turning off when
| achieving configured heat level. It'd turn off the internal fan
| ("fanless" is false advertising as there's a super loud fan
| inside, just not visible from the outside) but would still output
| heat. The effect was the smell of heated/melting plastic and
| dangerous increase of temperature around the device.
|
| I've contacted Dyson despite the device being (barely but) out of
| warranty.
|
| They've graciously offered a replacement - a brand new AM05
| model. The color would be glossy white instead of matte
| gray/blue, but the device was supposedly an upgrade with
| predecessor's problems fixed. I've got no warranty, but I
| wouldn't expect it. It'd by 2 years after I got the device.
|
| Guess what has started happening with the replacement AM05 model
| after (again!) just few weeks since the warranty would have
| ended? It had the exact same defect AM04 had - it wouldn't turn
| heating off after reaching configured setting, but would cut off
| just the fan, resulting in melted plastic smell and air
| temperature exceeding 65+degC close to the seemingly powered down
| device.
|
| A dedicated site[1] now exists for recalling just these two
| models: AM04 and AM05. But fuck Dyson - I'll never purchase any
| of their unsafe devices again and I don't want their free
| replacement crap.
|
| [1] https://www.dysonrecall.com/en-us/info
| jey wrote:
| Anyone know what the persistent design flaw is? (Or are
| dehumidifiers intrinsically a fire risk for some reason?)
| jandrese wrote:
| I think the primary design flaw is that they're built by the
| cheapest race-to-the-bottom manufacturer that cuts corners
| whenever possible. Advice like "make sure to only buy a quality
| one" may be useless if all of the quality manufacturers exited
| the business decades ago, unable to compete with the cheap
| flammable garbage that people were actually buying. Note how
| many formerly reputable brand names are on this list. The
| companies are hollow shells of their former selves, all buying
| the same cut rate hardware from some no-name overseas
| manufacturer and slapping their plastic over it.
| samsolomon wrote:
| There are some reliable manufactures, but the cost is
| significantly different. I had someone come out and give me a
| quote for an AprilAire dehumidifier system. The dehumidifier
| was $2,000, plus $1,000 installation. But they also needed an
| electrician to expand our circuit breaker.
|
| I ended up going to Home Depot and buying a well-reviewed GE
| dehumidifier with a pump. Luckily it's not on this list. I'd
| rather have the AprilAire system, but $5,000 vs $400 was too
| much of a difference. I could replace the cheap one every a
| year for over a decade for the same price.
| smileysteve wrote:
| Likely a lack of thermal shutoff switch; So if it runs too
| long, the compressor fails, or the working fluid loses pressure
| then the compressor doesn't shut off.
| nomel wrote:
| > Or are dehumidifiers intrinsically a fire risk for some
| reason?
|
| A dehumidifier has the same guts as an air conditioner, because
| an air conditioner was an invented by directing air over a
| dehumidifier [1]. So, it's not related to the
| "dehumidifierness" of it.
|
| It's almost certainly the same factory, in China, sourcing the
| same faulty components.
|
| [1] https://www.sunsethc.com/press-releases/the-astonishing-
| hist...
| [deleted]
| greggsy wrote:
| I wonder if there is a static issue if they make the space too
| dry?
| smileysteve wrote:
| unlikely.
| bluGill wrote:
| Maybe, but most have cut offs for when the humidity gets to
| normal levels. Even if they don't have that, they become less
| efficient at removing water when there is less in the air, so
| you would need a tiny space to get that low (the heat they
| produce would start a fire first)
| EricMausler wrote:
| Is there something fundamental about these items that might apply
| to other dehumidifiers?
|
| I bought one recently and do not see it pictured, but would like
| to know if there's any additional due diligence I can do
| brianwawok wrote:
| They have electricity and they have water, so I would guess it
| has a higher risk than someone without water... but I don't
| think there is a global problem from humidifier fires (outside
| here)
| [deleted]
| derbOac wrote:
| I don't know about this recall, but I've learned over the years
| that dehumidifers seem to be a frequent recall risk due to
| fires.
|
| One of my dehumidifers (my penultimate one) was replaced
| because it started giving of a smoking smell, and I learned
| that it was the subject of recalls because they would
| spontaneously and violently start on fire.
|
| I got my money back but reading about the history of fire
| hazards in this product category has made me very nervous about
| owning any dehumidifier.
|
| The problem is they can also prevent a lot of property damage
| due to humidity, so it's a sort of pick-your-poison problem.
| brookst wrote:
| I mean the key risk factors for fires are hot, dry, and
| windy. And many dehumidifiers are all three, by design.
| Abekkus wrote:
| Controlling humidity cant prevent human damage from mold, as
| well.
| tmoertel wrote:
| What is "human damage from mold"?
| asddubs wrote:
| damage to humans from mold
| metalliqaz wrote:
| Some molds release toxins that make people sick.
| sokoloff wrote:
| Many molds are damaging/toxic to humans. GP appears to be
| using "human damage" in addition/contrast to "property
| damage".
|
| For our family, I manage the April-November humidity in
| our home to be in the 40-50% RH range as part of the
| overall indoor air quality efforts to improve comfort and
| health.
| progbits wrote:
| Shit construction?
| seatsniffer wrote:
| I'll preface this saying that I'm not an expert on
| dehumidifiers and don't work one them, but I do have a
| background in hardware electrical design and thermal
| engineering.
|
| There are different types of dehumidifiers, typically you'd use
| a refrigerant based system. Without proper ventilation the
| compressor can overheat, the refrigerant is also typically
| flammable, lubricants also. Design flaws and not maintaining
| the system can cause reliability issues. If a device has been
| designed by a competent team, there should be a thermal cutoff
| ie when the motor gets too hot it will shut down. A badly
| designed system may not have this at all, or the thermal sensor
| might be somewhere stupid meaning the measured temperature
| isn't the one that matters, its also possible the cut off is
| too high. It's also possible a crap compressor/motor is being
| used and driven too hard for the use case.
|
| Bad wiring is also possiblly an issue.
|
| With a peltier system. They use a lot of power. Components can
| get really hot such as the power electronics used to drive the
| peltier cooler.
|
| Another poster mentioned water and electronics together with
| poor design can cause fire risks. This is absolutely true.
|
| Without actually having these failed devices I can't really
| give much more insight than that. But I hope it gave anyone a
| basic idea.
| baybal2 wrote:
| You forgot one massive point
|
| Short circuit due to vibration letting sharp parts cut
| through insulation.
|
| Normally, cabling near vibrating parts must be installed in a
| protective sleeve, but penny pinchers pinch.
| crazygringo wrote:
| > _Design flaws and not maintaining the system can cause
| reliability issues._
|
| What do you mean by not maintaining the system?
|
| I have a dehumidifier but beyond cleaning the filter every
| month or so, there's literally nothing else to do.
| seatsniffer wrote:
| I'm more used to working with larger scale industrial
| equipment where the user/operator can exchange parts and
| actually change lubricants etc.
|
| As far as home/personal devices the best you can really do
| is clean out any filters, get rid of dust etc and listen
| for when the motor inevitably fails or starts to fail at
| some point.
| brewdad wrote:
| You're cleaning the filter. That's more than a lot of
| people do.
| jandrese wrote:
| Not sure why you are being downvoted. Most of those home
| dehumidifiers don't have any user serviceable parts outside
| of a paper filter. Even inspecting the components would
| require a laborious disassembly of the device the
| manufacturer never intended.
| cududa wrote:
| I have a GE one that looks almost exactly like the but wasn't
| in the recall. It seems they overheat. During the summer when
| it's humid, the thing is running pretty much 24/7 and while it
| reduces humidity, it blasts out heat.
|
| But, every 8 hours or so it shuts down for ~20 minutes. Never
| understood why. I now suspect it's because it needs to cool
| down. I'd guess that the component that triggers the cool down
| is faulty in these listed units.
| xkcd-sucks wrote:
| Usually it's because the cooling coils ice over (up to the
| point of completely blocking airflow... which could cause
| overheating) and the downtime is to let this ice melt
| ceejayoz wrote:
| Yup. Your fridge'll do the same thing.
| op00to wrote:
| How hot? A dehumidifier will typically raise the temperature
| of the air flowing through it by 10 degrees F or so.
| MarkusWandel wrote:
| I have one of these, I think (will have to check the nameplate).
| It was given to me. How would a refund work here? Is there some
| standard sum involved, or do I need evidence of what was paid for
| the unit originally? I don't have this.
| emdashcomma wrote:
| In my case, I had to take a picture that showed all of my name
| (on a piece of paper), the model number on the back, and the
| power cord having been cut. I submitted this and maybe a month
| later I got a check in the mail. I didn't buy the unit; it was
| already in my house when I moved in.
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