Boiling water for a cup of tea shouldn’t be a hazard to your health — which is why Whirlpool has decided to recall over 40,000 KitchenAid electric kettles. The handle on the recalled models can reportedly loosen and separate from the rest of the kettle, which results in hot water spilling out, potentially causing burns and other injuries.
As per a recall notice, Whirlpool is encouraging customers to “immediately stop using the recalled kettles and contact Whirlpool for a free replacement.” In total, the Consumer Product Safety Commission received 79 reports across the United States of handles coming away, resulting in three reports of minor burn injuries.
The problematic models were sold between September 2013 and February of this year at various home improvement retailers throughout the U.S. If you visited a Bed, Bath, & Beyond or a Target, or even shopped on Amazon, you likely saw one of these KitchenAid electric kettles. Price tags stood somewhere between $100 and $120, and folks could choose among stainless steel, red, black, white, liquid graphite, and cocoa silver color variants.
As Good Housekeeping reported, while the recall was only issued late last month, it would appear that folks on Amazon have been warning others about the dangers associated with the product for quite a few years. In 2014, for example, one customer noted, “The handle was slightly loose at the bottom, right out of the box. As I used it, the bottom part of the handle was clearly starting to detach from the body. Very disappointing. It would seem that Kitchen aide is cutting corners.” More recently, another wrote in 2017, “After 6 months of use, the handle broke off after I boiled a full pot of water. I could have been badly hurt. The handle just detached off the body without prior indication it was starting to break. I could have been burned so badly. It literally just happened. The lid detached too.”
In order to determine whether or not your KitchenAid kettle is one that may pose a risk, check to see if your model and serial number is on the list posted on Whirlpool’s website. You can find these numbers on the bottom of your kettle. If you discover that your unit is indeed dangerous, contact Whirlpool for a free replacement either by calling 800-874-0608 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or by visiting repair.whirlpool.com.
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