Consumer Alert: Self-Cleaning Oven Lawsuit Filed Against Whirlpool

Consumer Alert: Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against Whirlpool

Still dealing with a recent recall of microwaves that could potentially catch fire, Whirlpool is back in court defending their KitchenAid self-cleaning wall ovens. On September 13^th a Californian couple filed the latest class-action lawsuit against them over a line of ovens claimed to be defective. The suit was filed by Reginald and Joann Whitley on behalf of all those “who purchased any Whirlpool or KitchenAid Built-in Single, Double, or Combo wall oven equipped with a High Temp Self-Cleaning Cycle.”

The filing alleges that Whirlpool has known about design flaws since at least 2011, yet continues to sell and market the faulty line of ovens today. Initially, Joann Whitley thought that she might have done something wrong, but after searching the Internet, she found countless complaints describing the same problems that she had experienced.

The first class-action lawsuit against Whirlpool over these self-cleaning ovens was filed in June 2011 by Richard Wolfson in New York. His suit was over the same issues; the self-cleaning cycle overheated the machine, caused the glass door to break, and ultimately corrupted the entire system. His filing claimed that Whirlpool knew about the issues, did nothing to repair them, and continued to sell the ovens without modification. In 2012, however, Judge Brodie dismissed the case with prejudice.

A year later in September 2013, never hearing about Wolfson’s class-action suit, the Whitley’s bought their own KitchenAid wall oven. Joann Whitley first used the self-cleaning feature in January 2015, which she claims broke the glass door.

In July 2016, she tried the self-cleaning function for a second time.

“It became incredibly hot,” Joann Whitley told ConsumerWatch.com, “and it smelled like burning wood. I tried to stop it, but I couldn’t find any way to turn it off.”

Once the cycle finished, Whitley let the oven cool. When she tried the door it wouldn’t budge and the control panel was unresponsive. The computer was fried. The Whitley’s lawsuit alleges that Whirlpool and KitchenAid’s self-cleaning wall ovens contain “inadequate heat-resistant and heat regulating internal components” that cause the machine to “remain locked and completely non-functional.”

For now, the Whitley’s still have the dormant KitchenAid oven in their wall that cannot be opened or turned on as a reminder of what happened, while they save for a new oven and grow tired of eating takeout.