Family fight Samsung over fridge odour they say caused dizziness and memory loss
abc.net.au
abc.net.au
I think Australia has somewhat working consumer protection agencies, and if this is true (Samsung knowingly selling non-compliant products, and trying to sell them faster to make sure they're all sold before the non-compliance is discovered), I hope the sanctions are something truly discouraging (e.g. a fine corresponding to all revenue from sales of that model).
For example cars need to switch from r134A as of 2022, but before that it's fine, and home A/C's need to switch from R410a as of the end of this year, but they can sell existing stock for another year.
So prioritizing for sale makes perfect sense, and doesn't indicate anything nefarious, just selling out of old stock, exactly as the law is suggesting.
Edit: I'm virtually certain this is R-134a being phased out in Australia in June of 2020. And I figured out A1 and A2 which are flammability ratings of refrigerants. With R-134a being A1, and the new ones being slightly more flammable and are rated as A2.
Refrigerator was 4 years old and out of stated warranty period
Refrigerator not sold to them by samsung or installed by samsung but by another party ("JB Hi-Fi").
Despite being out of warranty, family offered a refund - they declined it. An expert has called Samsungs behavior "concerning and unfair".
Notes:
Plenty of folks ignore almost all maintenance steps (cleaning coils, filter changes etc). Pulling the covers and looking around and cleaning even 1x per year would help longevity and catch problems earlier in many cases.
Having purchased appliances both personally and for a business - first call is usually to the store that sold us the item. These things are the one thing we get an extended warranty on.
The installers are absolutely not licensed plumbers or electricians! I wouldn't be surprised if a fair bit of damage is caused just in getting these items to their locations and installed. They are heavy and awkward.
Ask the repair tech who comes for first repair what most common issue is they are repairing - they often know right away (because they stock the parts etc etc). Some are avoidable / manageable.
The article has nothing supporting either of those claims in it.
The oil they use in refrigerators stinks to high heaven, and that's about it. "POE that has been exposed to moisture can emit a strong odor which I would say is closer to dirty socks".
It means nothing in the context of this article. The refrigerant at hand here is R-134a and has zero health risks, in fact it's used in inhalers.
Odd how you are confident that you know what the chemical is when the company that manufactured the product doesn't.
And you don't need to know that there's a health impact to decline this settlement, you need to not know that there isn't. If there's even a small risk it's an extremely lowball offer. Especially given that according to another commenter here Australian law likely entitles them to that much without the NDA and release of liability.
Sounds scary, but is there any reason to believe this actually would occur?
For instance, wikipedia lists "a propellant for the delivery of pharmaceuticals (e.g. bronchodilators), wine cork removers, gas dusters ("canned air")" as other uses for it. If it's really as dangerous at it's made out to be, shouldn't we be hearing more about this causing issues from other uses?
A shitty Samsung fridge with a stalling compressor causing heat to build up? Frayed wires? Lots of possibilities.
I researched this for the first time after I had a compressed air get ignited by a spark while I was cleaning an appliance. It is absolutely a noxious smell and I had to evacuate the room.
The health effects aren't fully understood, with claims ranging from them being harmless to causing severe neurological defects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fume_event
If there is a chemical smell - open all windows, ventilate the room and STAY AWAY. That's a very basic and simple rule.
A fridge has to be of acceptable quality, safe, and one of the tests applied is durability - how long would an average consumer expect the product to last?
Fridges are commonly expected to last 6-12 years (ATO, consumer group advice)
Is there a table of warranty lengths by product published by the ACCC? If not it seems like a regulatory nightmare because neither consumers nor manufacturer knows what their rights/obligations are. At least with standard warranties you know what you're getting into.
The price you paid relative to comparable products factors into it - more expensive goods are expected to last longer.
If you and the manufacturer disagree, you can always take it to tribunal to get a decision (and manufacturers never want it to get there so are motivated to resolve your concern before it comes to that).
Samsung also recalled a huge number of out of warranty phones due to significant safety risk of bad batteries. This should be investigated as a safety issue.
And to wit, every single refrigerator I've used has recommended maintenance that nobody ever does, and they have still lasted multiple decades. You don't even actually have to change the compressor oil like they tell you you should.
You mention maintenance items… There’s no reason a fridge sold in 2019 couldn’t include maintenance monitoring and a 7-segment error display. The filter needs a change? The coil is hot? Ok tell the human. My Miele washer and dryer do it.
Samsung appliances are garbage, I would never buy another one.
I bought a $3000 fridge from them and I can only assume the ice maker was, at best, designed by someone with an MBA. Instead of having a cavity that is part of the mold (like a previous model), they just bolted it in to the fridge side. Obviously humid air leaks in and ices it over every week.
Very relevant in many cases. Maybe you have experts installing things who read the instructions, but I'd say more installs then not have some kind of install error.
Super common but maybe not so serious including leveling issues, then clearance issues for all sorts of items but particularly affecting items that need heat exchange or ventilation. Then onto electrical / wiring screw ups, then install damage of various sorts.
People are buying very complex devices now, coupled with cost savings efforts by MFGs (everything built to basically minimal tolerance) and these are not you grandparents refrigerator anymore. By the time the items gets to your house it may have been VERY roughly treated - on and off a truck to the store, around the store, on and off a truck to your house, into your house etc etc. In many cases the installers are paid dirt money basically and these are big awkward heavy items.
I guess that offer is no longer valid since the fight hit the news. I wonder if we'll see more and more of these attempts to silence customers, as 1. companies get bigger and more powerful, and 2. regular people's ability to broadcast company wrongdoing over social media grows.
I'm probably trading my piece of crap KitchenAid (Whirlpool) for a Bosch 800 pretty soon. Never get a french door fridge from Whirlpool.
edit: you can see this in action right now. There's one glowing review of whirlpool and one scathing review. I'm sure they're both honest, but what conclusion are you going to draw from that?
On the other I don't know of a better one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
n=80,300, but paywalled. However, one interesting tidbit that isn't paywalled is how bad fridge reliability is
>Our results reveal that about a third of all refrigerators require repairs by the end of their fifth year of ownership, making them one of the least reliable appliances we analyze in our member surveys.
A basic fridge like this will last you a long time: https://www.costco.com/whirlpool-20-cu.-ft.-top-freezer-refr...
If you really want all the reliability money can buy, buy a subzero fridge. But you're paying 10x for the same functionality (unless you really need extremely stable temperatures).
Reliable after 40+ years of refinement and dead easy to troubleshiot.
There are numerous case studies of people dieing from isobutane inhalation, but generally the exposure is deliberate such as sniffing isobutane from a camping stove canister, or spraying air freshener directly into the nose.[3] Cause of death appears to generally be due to hypoxia as isobutane is an asphyxiant, or ventricular fibrillation caused due to exertion in breathing.[3]
The impacted person stated "I started to have rapid breathing and my muscles went completely weak".[1] These reported symptoms appear to align with symptoms referred to in case studies of isobutane inhalation exposure where rapid breathing occurs, and the strain from this rapid breathing is thought to in some cases be the cause for ventricular fibrillation.[3]
[1] https://www.9news.com.au/national/victorian-family-say-samsu...
[2] https://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/202109/2021091...
[3] https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/source/hsdb/608#section=Hum...
"I explained to the poisons hotline it wasn't just refrigerant, it was something more sinister," she said.
Article is interesting because of the non-disclosure clause stuff. Which, while not totally surprising I guess, is pretty scummy.
> "The [refrigerant] doesn't have a strong odour or flavour so the fact they could smell it, taste it, suggests there's something else that's been released," Professor Anderson said.
Burning electronics does have a strong, distinct odor. If they are unfamiliar with that, its totally plausible that's all that they smelled.
Refrigerators are a few PCBs, a heat pump, a closed loop refrigerant, and a cooler. There really isn't anything especially exotic there.