There are serious questions to answer regarding why the recall of potentially dangerous faulty washing machines was delayed to this week.

Last month the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced that they had informed Whirlpool of their intention to serve a recall notice on all of their unmodified faulty tumble dryers. At a recent BEIS Select Committee hearing it was estimated that between 200,000 and 800,000 faulty tumble dryers from the Whirlpool brand could still be in people’s homes. 

Following pressure from MPs and consumer groups, Whirlpool finally published a full list of affected machines on their website earlier this week.  The list runs to twenty-pages and includes over 600 different models. However, a number of the machines listed for recall were still available to buy via online retailers this week.

This decision to undertake a recall a welcome development following the long-running controversy involving the company and their products. However, many will question why this did not happen sooner, and why Whirlpool had not taken the action to do this independently, leaving consumers with potential fire-risks in their homes. Ministers also have to address the reasons why potentially dangerous items listed for recall are still available to buy online.

Anyone concerned about a product in their home can check their model number here https://safety.hotpoint.eu/img/affected-dryers.pdf.