A woman from Teddington whose utility room was destroyed from a fire caused by a faulty dishwasher is warning others of the dangers.

To date, there are still almost half a million faulty dishwashers that have not been accounted for despite recall notices.

Agnieszka Jablonska, of Princes Road, returned to her home after a weekend away to find her Bosch dishwasher had set alight and the fire had damaged the room.

The 39-year-old said: “There is a faulty electrical part in the dishwasher.

“Over the years it dries out and instead of stopping working it dries out and catches fire.

“It has damaged the whole utility room and the house smells of burnt plastic. I’m so fed up.”

The fire brigade were not called as Mrs Jablonska believes the fire burnt through a water pipe, which extinguished the fire.

The dishwasher is one of about 632,000 Bosch, Neff and Siemens faulty models.

A limited number of the dishwashers, made by BSH Home Appliances between 1999 and 2005, were affected.

The company identified the problem in late 2010, issued a voluntary repair action in 2011 and appeared on the BBC’s Watchdog programme.

A spokesman from BSH Home Appliances said: “To date 443,000 of these appliances remain unaccounted for.

“These may have been scrapped, sold, left in situ by customers who have moved house or may still be in use.

“BSH are making every effort to trace and repair them. However, as these machines are now between 8 - 14 years old the traceability of these appliances is difficult.”

Mrs Jablonska said: “I really want to warn people that these machines are dangerous and if we can save just one person by showing them this then that is a good thing.”

For a list of the affected models, visit: repairaction.co.uk/models.

 

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