Consumer Reports warns of dangerous microwaves
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In Seattle's Queen Anne condominiums, tenant Joe Lyons is afraid for his safety. He's one of 10 residents who, according to the condo board, has had problems with their KitchenAid microwaves. They have started on their own, and in at least one case caused electrical arcing.
At another development, in Florida, a fire started in a microwave that was not in use, according to the official fire report. Both of those incidents, reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, involved the same microwave, the KitchenAid KHMS155LSS.
A Consumer Reports investigation looked at thousands of pages of CPSC documents in its investigation of appliance fires, including many obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.
More than 40 of the CPSC reports involved KitchenAid microwaves that turned on by themselves, some causing fires. Whirlpool, which owns KitchenAid, says it has not been able to verify a single report of a self-starting microwave.
Consumer Reports also examined 82 similar reports involving some GE microwaves, six of which involved serious fires. The reports listed various models, but 30 complaints involved the GE Spacemaker line of over-the-range microwaves. GE told Consumer Reports that it "has investigated unverified reports of 'self-start' and found them to constitute product quality, not product safety, concerns. Many have been determined not to be 'self-starts' at all."
None of those microwaves has been recalled. And the problem is not limited to those two manufacturers. The Consumer Product Safety Commission told Consumer Reports it has "an open investigation into the safety of kitchen appliances, including microwaves."
If you have a problem with your microwave, unplug it and have a technician look at it. And it's a good idea to know which circuit breaker turns off the microwave in case of an emergency. It you're experiencing a problem with a microwave or any appliance, Consumer Reports recommends notifying the manufacturer immediately. And report the problem to www.saferproducts.gov
Full details on Consumer Reports' investigation into appliance fires.
At another development, in Florida, a fire started in a microwave that was not in use, according to the official fire report. Both of those incidents, reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, involved the same microwave, the KitchenAid KHMS155LSS.
A Consumer Reports investigation looked at thousands of pages of CPSC documents in its investigation of appliance fires, including many obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests.
More than 40 of the CPSC reports involved KitchenAid microwaves that turned on by themselves, some causing fires. Whirlpool, which owns KitchenAid, says it has not been able to verify a single report of a self-starting microwave.
Consumer Reports also examined 82 similar reports involving some GE microwaves, six of which involved serious fires. The reports listed various models, but 30 complaints involved the GE Spacemaker line of over-the-range microwaves. GE told Consumer Reports that it "has investigated unverified reports of 'self-start' and found them to constitute product quality, not product safety, concerns. Many have been determined not to be 'self-starts' at all."
None of those microwaves has been recalled. And the problem is not limited to those two manufacturers. The Consumer Product Safety Commission told Consumer Reports it has "an open investigation into the safety of kitchen appliances, including microwaves."
If you have a problem with your microwave, unplug it and have a technician look at it. And it's a good idea to know which circuit breaker turns off the microwave in case of an emergency. It you're experiencing a problem with a microwave or any appliance, Consumer Reports recommends notifying the manufacturer immediately. And report the problem to www.saferproducts.gov
Full details on Consumer Reports' investigation into appliance fires.
And this is why I stick with Samsung...
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Whirlpool may be American-made, but it's American-made crap if you ask me. I used to sell appliances and had nothing but problems with them.
Haunted microwaves start themselves. That would've been a great headline.
We have a whirlpool which own (Kitchenaid)model # GH9176XMT-1 which has not self started, but has  added time or changed the way it was originally sta rted, let say press 2 to heat for 2 minutes, turn to look at it and it's cooking for 10:30 on it own.  Next you start it and it starts sparking flames inside for no reason, and have to cancel the heating time and start over, which makes me nervous.  The last time it sparked flames it showed error code F7 on the control panel and turned itself off.  we unplugged it and restarted it for it to do the same thing.  I won't use it now.  Called Whirlpool and they said they had no reports of this and stated a repair person need to come find out what code F7 is.  Hoping someone can get this recalled.  Don't wanna lose my home in a fire over some default that they don't want to recall.
I wonder what frequency they run on and if there were perhaps someone driving through the area or even a static amateur radio that might have caused this? I know my husband's antenna which is mounted about the bedroom half of the house, fried my logitech wireless mouse and my motherboard (case was not grounded - Corsair's fault). Could be the same thing here and they just don't know to look or what to look for.Â
Wow, so I really am supposed to keep the door closed when I nuke my chicken nuggets? Who'da thunkith...
I noticed that the display screen on the microwave had the characters "INCH" prior to its startup.
Any idea what this stands for?
 @Jim Bowman Possibly a pizza reheat setting when working properly? I found it interesting that fixya has a post from 2011 detailing a similar model doing the same thing.