The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a warning that several of Samsung’s top-loading washing machines have been exploding. Although the incidents seem to have taken place throughout the year, for hardware created over the past half decade, this comes at a terrible time for Samsung which has recently had to recall so many Galaxy Note 7s over explosion fears.
Affected washing machines are said to be of the top-loading variety and were manufactured between March 2011 and April 2016. Although there does not appear to be much of a consensus on which models and age does not appear to be a factor.
ABC is reporting two incidents of different models exploding, sending nuts, bolts, plastic ,and water everywhere. In total, 21 incidents have been reported since early 2015 and two of those people are suing Samsung. Their lawyer claims a support rod within the top-loading mechanism can come loose during the spin cycle, causing the machine to tear itself apart in dramatic fashion.
Related: Everything you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall
For now, Samsung is not taking responsibility for anything, claiming there can be “abnormal vibrations,” when owners load the machines with bedding, bulky items or items that are water resistant. It urges anyone who uses its washing machines to use a delicate spin cycle in those cases.
It also said that it was “in active discussions with the CPSC to address potential safety issues related to certain top-load washing machines,” and pointed out that consumers had completed millions of washes safely over the past five years without incident.
To find out if your washing machine is potentially dangerous, head to this Samsung support page and input your unit’s serial code.
While we will need to wait for the CPSC’s investigation to discover what is causing these washing machines to explode, this could hardly come at a worse time for Samsung. Recent weeks have seen it recalling as many as a million Galaxy Note 7s for explosion fears in the U.S. alone. However, it may not even have helped, as there is a report of ‘safe’ Note 7 smartphones having similar exploding issues.