Over 2 million home dehumidifiers recalled as unsafe
If you have a dehumidifier in your house or apartment, check to see if it is safe. Do not drink the water.
Q. I recently heard a short radio segment reporting that millions of in-home dehumidifiers are being recalled because they can catch fire. Do you have any details? How can I find out if the two that my family has in our house are affected?
A. The 2 million dehumidifiers that were sold in the U.S., plus another 380,000 that were purchased in Canada, were manufactured by a Taiwan-based company named New Widetech (www.newwidetech.com). They were sold under 20 different brand names — including Amana, Honeywell and Whirlpool — by retailers that included Walmart, Costco and Lowe’s.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (cpsc.gov) announced the recall, one of the largest involving a home-related product in history, on Aug. 4. It said the appliances could overheat and catch fire, posing burn hazards to people and also serious damage to their homes.
Units involved in the recall were sold between February 2009 and August 2017, the agency said. Costs ranged from $120 to $430.
New Widetech said it is aware of 107 incidents of the recalled dehumidifiers overheating or catching fire, resulting in about $17 million in property damage. Thankfully, no injuries have been reported.
You can find out if you have one of the potentially dangerous appliances by visiting cpsc.gov/recalls or newtech.com, or by calling New Widetech at 877-251-1512.
Should you have a model that is included in the recall, you can apply for a pro-rated refund that is based on the dehumidifier’s age.
In the meantime, CPSC warns that you should not use the appliance and perhaps should even disconnect it from its power source.
REAL ESTATE TRIVIA
Experts say that countless Americans get sick each year after drinking the water produced by their dehumidifiers, thinking that it has been properly distilled. Instead, it is loaded with dangerous biological contaminants and metallic residues.
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Q. I am applying for a mortgage, and the bank’s loan officer wants to see a copy of my divorce papers that I received several years ago. I lost them when I moved in 2018, my ex-wife won’t give me the documents because she hates me, and I can’t get a copy from my previous attorney’s office because he died and his office permanently closed last year. What can I do?
A. Do not panic. All divorce papers must be approved by a judge or other representative of the court, so start the hunt for the missing papers you need by calling the county clerk in the area where the divorce was granted and recorded.
The state’s department of records may also have a copy of the divorce decree on file, but it is usually faster to get results by working through the county rather than dealing with the state’s larger bureaucracy.
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Q. We are buying our first home. You recently wrote that all buyers should make their purchase offer contingent on getting a satisfactory report from a professional home inspector, but how can we be sure that we hire a good one? We have both heard “horror stories” about buyers who wound up with lots of problems after they moved in because their inspector overlooked serious defects.
A. There is no way to guarantee that you will be happy with your inspector’s performance, but there are plenty of steps that you can take to find a good one.
Perhaps the best way to start the quest is to ask your sales agent for a referral. If you are not working with an agent, relatives and friends who have recently hired an inspector and were happy with the service they received can provide some names.
Be prepared to ask the inspectors you contact lots of questions concerning their education, years of experience, training and insurance coverage. Also ask how much they would charge for an inspection and which components of the house it would include.
It is usually best to hire an inspector who works full time because some part-timers are not able to stay abreast of changes in local building codes or take professional courses to help them perform their job better.
Make sure the inspector will allow you to be present when the inspection is conducted. Some inspectors and realty agents do not like buyers to tag along when the house is examined, but it is an important opportunity for you to learn about the home’s regular maintenance requirements, as well as its current or potential problems.
Finally, you should never hire an inspector who will not agree to put his or her report in writing: If you simply accept the inspector’s word that the home is in good physical condition, you will have little legal recourse if problems are discovered after you buy the home and move in.