The purpose behind kitchen appliances such as dishwashers is to make the lives of those who have them, easier. Pennsylvania and Ohio owners of certain dishwashers produced by GE should be aware that their ease of washing dishes could be complicated by fires occurring in the appliances. As a result of the appliance fires a recall as been issued for approximately 1.3 million GE dishwashers.

The recalled dishwashers came in a variety of finishes and colors and were available for purchase over more than a three year period between March 2006 and August 2009. They were sold under the names GE, GE Eterna, GE Profile, GE Adora and Hotpoint dishwashers, apparently throughout the nation.

So far, there have been seven reports of dishwashers starting on fire. The cause of the fires is apparently problems with heating elements. Though thankfully, as of yet, no one has been injured as a result of the fires, three of the fires reportedly led to a lot of property damage.

As a part of the recall GE is either taking care of repairing the defective appliance or will provide rebates that can be used for new dishwashers. In the meantime, anyone who has one of the dishwashers listed above is being instructed to unplug and no longer use it.

Dealing with a product recall can be frustrating. Most would agree however that suffering a personal injury as a result of an unreasonably dangerous product is much less desirable. For those who have been hurt while using a defective product, it may be possible to file a products liability lawsuit against those responsible for the problematic item.

Source: KARE11, "GE recalls 1 million dishwashers due to fire danger," The Associated Press, Aug. 9, 2012