Dishwasher safety issue?

[cgallery]

I was getting ready to retire for the night when I went into the kitchen to drop off a dirty glass. When I approached the sink I felt quite a bit of heat coming from the dishwasher.

I looked down and realized that it was still on the drying cycle. The unit should have finished and turned off about two point five hours previous to this.

So I opened the unit and got quite a blast of heat. I went underneath the sink and unplugged the power, and let the unit sit until I was sure that it was cooling off and not getting hotter.

Today I started the search for a new dishwasher, and in looking at reviews on Sears.com, I noted that someone mentioned that the unit they were reviewing was a replacement for a recalled model that had a defective timer that caused fires.

So I find the recall site and put in the model/serial number of my unit, and it isn't on the recalled list.

I don't mind buying a new dishwasher, I have already picked one out. But should I be alerting someone at some consumer safety dept. that my dishwasher may exhibit a problem that causes the unit to go super-nova?

Or is having it get stuck on the warming cycle okay? Perhaps there is some other feature that will kill it if it gets to a certain, combustible temperature?

If there is an online form where the government tracks appliances and safety issues, I haven't been able to find it.

[LCHIEN]

you can go to www.CPSC.gov, the consumer products safety commission, and look up recalls and report unsafe products.

Usually items with heaters have overtemperature cutouts to prevent ocurrence of fire in case of thermostat failure. I would think this would be covered under UL approval of the design.

besides, if a heater is on for 5 minutes and reaches equilibrium or some temperature setpoint that is safe, then being on for a couple of hours should not exceeed that temperature and still be safe.

It appears that no damage ocurred despite the failure of the timer so it may still be safe.

[tfischer]

It's possible that it was very hot, but not dangerously hot. Dishwashers (even old ones) are supposed to have a limit cutoff of some sort in addition to the normal thermostat. This is is usually a thermal fuse of some sort which, if it goes, needs to be manually replaced (along with the defective components which caused the unsafe condition). Coffee pots, wall warts, etc. all have these built in...

That said, it never hurts to report it to the CPSC. If it's a trend, they'll do a recall. If it's an isolated incident, they won't...

-Tim