‘It sounded like a bomb,’ says family on exploding Samsung washer
AUSTIN (KXAN) – An Austin family says what happened to their washer is a sound they’ll never forget.
“It sounded like a bomb went off and was very scary,” Kevin Suchyta said. “We didn’t know this was affecting other Samsung washers. Glad to know it wasn’t just ours.”
The family sent WISH-TV’s sister station KXAN a picture of their damaged washing machine, which shows the whole top section forced aside. When the repair crew came out to fix the machine, even they were surprised at what they saw. Suchyta says they said they hadn’t seen anything like it.
Complaints about Samsung washing machines “exploding” have been surfacing around the country. There’s now a safety warning from the Consumer Product Safety Commission which covers Samsung machines made between March 2011 and April 2016. The complaints say the problem seems to occur during the spin cycle when the machines can suddenly break apart. Samsung says it’s talking to the CPSC about the problem.
In a statement on Samsung’s website, the company says “In rare cases, affected units may experience abnormal vibrations that could pose a risk of personal injury or property damage when washing bedding, bulky or water-resistant items.”
Samsung recommends people use the lower speed (delicate cycle) since there have been no reported incidents on that setting. The company says it’s also important to understand that customers have completed hundreds of millions of loads without incident since 2011.
KXAN checked with a number of Austin repair shops which work on Samsung products to see if they’ve been repairing a lot of these washers, a few say they’ve gotten calls about it, but hadn’t fixed any yet.
The Better Business Bureau also has not received any complaints, but a spokesperson says people should always keep their receipts and owner’s manual in case something like this happens.
To see if you have an affected washing machine visithttp://www.samsung.com/us/support/tlw. Consumers can also report incidents to Consumer Product Safety Commission at http://www.saferproducts.gov.
This latest concern comes on the heels of concerns surrounding the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones. Last week, the company announced more than 500,000 replacement smartphones have arrived after a recall dealing with battery fires.