PARSIPPANY — On a chilly Sunday morning, March 5, at approximately 10:15 a.m. Parsippany-Troy Hills Volunteer Fire Department 6 and Lake Parsippany Fire District 3 were called to Carlstadt Road in Lake Parsippany.
Parsippany-Troy Hills Police were first at the scene and reported there was no fire at the time of arrival.
Microwave ovens are in just about every home now, and in a lot of offices and other workplaces as well. They can make food preparation a lot easier but they can also be a fire hazard.
If you experience any abnormal activity with your microwave oven, you should unplug it and not use it until a repair person inspects it. Also, tell someone about your problem. Specifically, report it to the CPSC.
Consumers often wonder why a product has not been recalled. One reason is that the CPSC has to get a certain number of reports of a problem before it will take any action. There are other factors as well. CPSC works partly off of hospital records; unless a product defect has caused injuries, it may not be eligible for recall.
ConsumerAffairs warns consumers regarding microwave use and cleaning.
Recently Consumer Affairs received this alarming email from a reader named Anne.
“Our microwave, we believe it was a Samsung, started a fire in the middle of the night. Our house is totaled. No loss of life except our two cats. Can we do anything?”
A request to Anne for a follow-up interview about the accident went unanswered, so we decided to look into our database of consumer reviews to see if anyone else has had similar problems. They have.
“I bought this microwave and it starts sending out sparks and is an extreme fire hazard,” Emily, of Manteca, Calif., wrote about her Emerson microwave.
Needs cleaning?
Emily said she called the company and was told the fire was probably because the inside of the unit needed cleaning. Emily isn’t buying it, especially after finding other consumers who have reported similar experiences.
“I and most of the reviewers on this site have had experience with many microwaves over the course of our lives and have not had sparks flying out of our microwave,” she wrote.
“Saturday the KitchenAid over the stove microwave/convection caught FIRE before my eyes,” Stephen, of Leawood, Kan., told us. “Serviceman yesterday said the magnatron had burned holes within the machine and was not replaceable.”Earlier this year ConsumerReports published an in-depth study of reported problems with KitchenAid microwaves. Some of those problems have also been reported to ConsumerAffairs.
There have also been a few reports of similar problems with GE microwaves.
“I purchased the model (PEM31SM1SS) GE Profile in November of 2008,” writes Pamela, of Duxbury, Mass. “Less than a year later it overheated and failed; since it was still under warranty, the repair was managed by the appliance vendor. The scorch mark on the rear wall of the oven was and is still there. During the past year, the paint on the interior roof began to bubble and peel. There is now a broad area of exposed metal and the paint around the interior door frame is also peeling.”
Consumers should report safety problems to the manufacturer. Use a civil, businesslike tone. The company needs to know the scope of the problem it has on its hands.
Finally, don’t forget to post a report on ConsumerAffairs. Other consumers can learn and benefit from your experience.
