If the “worn out dehumidifier” was a fire risk the whole time, the manufacturer should consider themselves lucky if they get away with just providing the cost of a replacement now.

Consumers should have an option. Accept the replacement value or the manufacturer has to repair or replace the unit at their cost. If manufacturers want to try to source a million used dehumidifiers that don’t have this problem, they should go for it. Don’t dump that responsibility on consumers though.

I suspect though that a unit that retails for $100 costs them $25-$35. It would be cheaper to just replace all of them with new ones.