A safety alert over 138,000 faulty Beko home appliances that may pose a risk to thousands of families has been making headlines this week.
Beko already accused of making death trap machines linked to 12 deaths and the alert, concerning its fridge freezers, tumble dryers and gas cookers are set to damage the firm’s reputation.
The home and kitchens appliances manufacturer Beko admitted last week that nearly 138,000 of its fridge-freezers, cookers and tumble-dryers may pose a safety risk, as it was forced to concede it was aware of several incidents in which an electrical component in their appliances had failed, causing a fire hazard.
The three products affected are 6kg and 7kg tumble-dryers manufactured between May and October 2012, fridge-freezers manufactured from 2000 to 2006 and gas cookers produced before 2009, which has caused great concern amongst the UK consumers whom have purchased the budget brand.
In some cases, the defrost timer on the Beko frost-free fridge freezers failed and overheated, causing a fire risk and in others there appears to be link to customers using their cookers to heat rooms rather than cook food, which is a worrying practice in itself but still a PR disaster for Beko.
As a result, the firm has warned customers to take care using the cookers, adding: ‘These appliances are designed for cooking purposes only and must NOT be used as a space heater, or for any other purpose.’
Beko, which makes a fifth of all white goods sold in the UK, said it believed the risk of failure was low and offered a free at-home modification to remove the faulty part/s.
In a statement on its website, Beko said: ‘We take safety very seriously, and when we need to perform a corrective action, we try to inform all customers as quickly and efficiently as possible. If you are concerned about your Beko product because of recent publicity, we would like to re-assure you that the products mentioned are part of existing product modification programs.’
This is not the first time the Turkish-owned company has made headlines for causing fires as a Beko fridge-freezer was found to be at the centre of a fire in a tower block in Bermondsey which forced 40 people out of their homes, and Beko is the subject of a £1.5million legal action by Jennifer Benjamin, a paediatrician, who lost her husband in a fire at their home in Wealdstone, North London. The firm was also warned by London Fire Brigade in a letter in June 2010 that its fridge-freezers were a ‘potential threat to life’ after a series of fires.
Consumer Watchdog Which, has the following help on hand for worried consumers. click here
