HOUSTON, Texas – A washing machine exploded in a Houston home causing a loud noise that could be heard outside of the house. The woman who had been working on her housecleaning, said she heard a sound like a gun shot, a huge “BOOM.”
Becky Edwards was outside with her children when they were playing when she heard something that “sounded like a cannon went off, louder than a gun shot,” Becky Edwards told Click2 Houston.
The mother of five said, “I would never in my life expected a washing machine to explode.” She added, “I have the child safety locks on all of my doors, and I’m diligent about checking car seats, kids’ toys, everything. This is not something I would have thought about looking into.”
When she went to look at the source of the noise, she saw that the top of the washing machine had blown off. She took photographs and share them with the media outlet. Edwards had been washing sheets at the time.
She said, “The hoses were the only thing holding it together and the water hoses were spraying everywhere. It was totally sideways in the washing room.”
The mother said the force of the explosion was so strong that it knocked photos off the wall.
She explained, “We have floating shelves in the bathroom with a conch shell on it and it knocked that off of the shelf and landed in the tub and put a chip in it the size of a silver dollar.”
Edwards said that when she got her bearings after being shocked, she made calls to the manufacturer. She also started doing Google searches to see if this had happened before.
“I finally got a hold of Samsung at 10 o’clock the night it happened and I told them I saw that this has happened before and they didn’t argue with me about that,” Edward told Click2 in Houston.
A Google search revealed that Micah Martin had the same experience. Martin made a YouTube video of his Samsung loading washer. Martin had also been washing sheets and pillow cases.
Martin said, “We heard something that sounded like the roof was caving in and came up to find the top part completely blown off.”
Edward’s model number is WA48H7400AW and was bought about the same time, April 2015, as Edward’s model.
Australia recently re-issued a recall for six different top loading Samsung models after the same type of exploding incidents occurred. Thirty of these incidents led to fires that caused severe damage.
“They offered to refund the washer and dryer and they said they would fix the repairs. We just had to let them know how much,” Edwards said. The mother of five said a refund is not enough. She wants to make sure that this does not happen to someone else.
Edwards said one of the things she asked a Samsung executive was what were their plans to take care of the problem. She was reported to have said, “You obviously know this is a problem but you choose to have these out there. What is it going to take to get these off of the market someone could get seriously hurt because so far sounds like they’ve been lucky.”
A vice president of the company, Andrew Bowins, provided the following statement to the media outlet:
“The reported incidents are extremely rare. That said, Samsung takes any instance seriously and works very closely with affected customers to investigate the unique circumstances that may have led to the exceptionally rare occurrence. In each unique case, we provide our customers with a new washer or refund and cover any expenses related to the incident. It is important to note that Samsung customers have completed hundreds of millions of loads without incident since we entered the category in 2011.”
I’m sure that made her feel better.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission will take reports on any problems with a washer or dryer or other appliance. You can reach them at this link.
Lana Shadwick is a writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2
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