Friday, December 3, 2010

My Letter to Electrolux

About 18 months ago I posted about how excited I was to be getting an Electrolux washer and dryer.  I am now sharing my letter to Electrolux customer service so you can read  about what a nightmare their dryer has been for me over the past 15 months.  I liked this dryer a lot, with a few exceptions up until last Fall.  Once Fall hit, I quickly came to hate my washer, for which we sacrificed a trip to Disney World.  I can tell you now, the washer and dryer are not worth the $3,400 dollars that we spent on them.  Please, save yourself the aggravation and skip the Electrolux machines if/when you are in the market for a new washer and dryer. I will upload pictures of the machine and the damage it caused sometime soon.

Here is the letter to Electrolux:
I am writing to you today to tell you about my experience with my gas Electrolux Dryer (Model EIGD55HIW0 Serial ************).  I have owned this dryer for slightly over eighteen months and very fortunately my husband and I had the foresight to purchase an extended warranty for the machine.  Sadly, this dryer is a laundry nightmare.  When we purchased it, I was hopeful that it would live up to all the advertising hype which undoubtably has cost your company quite a lot of money to generate.

Let me tell you why I despise my Electrolux dryer.  Approximately four days after my dryer was installed I noticed the honeycomb grate in the back of the dryer becoming discolored.  It started out as a golden rust color.  At first I thought perhaps the copper color from the buttons on denim pants was somehow rubbing off on the grate.  Then as the weeks progressed I began to wonder if the grate was simply cheap metal and was actually rusting.  It didn't make any sense that a new machine that never had wet clothing left on it for more than a couple of minutes before the dryer was started would be rusting.  My husband suggested that maybe the heat of the dryer was simply discoloring  the metal grate.  On any account, I didn't think it warranted a call to customer service.  At the time, it simply appeared to be a cosmetic issue, and not something the required repair or replacement.

Time progressed and the discoloration on the honeycomb grate grew larger and darker.  I began to notice odd black marks on our clothing when I folded the laundry.  I interrogated my young children and asked if any had placed black crayons in their pockets and subsequently into the laundry.  They hadn't.  To be sure, I banned the use of all crayons in our house for a short period of time and hid them.  The black marks continued to show up on our clothes.  Some of the marks could be picked off and others had penetrated the fabric rendering them destroyed and not suitable to wear out of the house.

Then as the colder months came upon us and fleece sweatshirts and other polyester clothing became more prevalent in the laundry, I noticed that the black residue on the honeycomb grate had grown thicker and was covering most of the holes on the lower right hand side of the honeycomb grate.  It was at that point that I began to notice honeycomb grate marks on polyester sweatshirts, pajamas and blankets.  I had one load of laundry where over $100 worth of new clothing articles (2 GAP fleece hooded sweatshirts, and 2 sets of Carter's fleece pajamas) had been melted in at least one area, all of them conspicuous.  Some items were rendered totally unwearable before they had even been worn once.  In the coming months, I came to see every set of my childrens' fleece pajamas melted, branded with the dryer's honeycomb calling card, or singed.  That's approximately 30 sets of pajamas ruined over the course of a single winter.

This past Spring my younger daughter's blanket (her lovey which she has had since she was a new born) was melted in several areas by the abomination your company sells as a clothes dryer.  My child was devastated that her blanket was now hard and crusty in many places where it used to be soft and fluffy.

When washing my king sized comforter a couple months ago, the dryer burned a large brown spot onto the white cotton fabric and left black streaks of melted polyester from the honeycomb grate all over.  The comforter was dried using your "bulky bedding" setting and I had been pulling the comforter our and repositioning it every 15 minutes to avoid it becoming damaged.  I was stunned at how much damage this dryer could do in a single 15 minute interval.

The final straw with this dryer came on Monday of this week when I pulled my daughter's brand new pink velour dress out of the laundry and discovered that her pretty dress was melted and branded with honeycomb imprints in over ten places.  The dress had been worn for Thanksgiving day and was going to be worn to church on Christmas Eve.  Now the dress is ruined and she will not get to wear the once very pretty dress ever again.  She was incredibly upset when she learned that the dress is no longer able to be worn.

In case you haven't guessed by now, I am totally incensed and enraged about this sorry excuse for a dryer.  I did not purchase an Electrolux washer and dryer and sacrifice a family vacation to buy these machines to make doing laundry a never ending nightmare of clothing destruction.  I purchased your product because I believed it was a machine that would perform better than the Kenmore washer and dryers I have owned in the past.  I realize now that buying an Electrolux set was a grave mistake.  The dryer alone has destroyed enough clothing and bedding to have purchased another dryer from another manufacturer.

The repair man from Lowes (where we purchased the machine and the extended warrant plan) came out today and told us this melting of polyester clothing is a very common problem with the Electrolux dyers.  I wasn't amused to find out that we're not alone in this misery.  Next friday the repair man will be out again to replace the honeycomb grate.  He tells us that the melting problem will continue (even after the repair), unless of course, I don't put any polyester articles in the dryer.  I purchased this dryer to dry our clothes, not to sit in my laundry room and look pretty while the clothes air dry on a line.

I only use this dryer on the low setting, so I'm rather bewildered as to how my clothes are melting. I could maybe understand the melting clothes if I were drying the clothes on a setting that wasn't recommended on the care labels, but, I dry everything on low which more often than not is a cooler setting than what is suggested.  The dryer is typically run for 45 minutes, and clothes such as denim pants which take a bit longer to dry are then put back in the machine for an additional 15.

This machine alarms me because I fear that it is potentially a fire hazard.  When clothes melt to the back grate are they not creating a situation where a fire could result?  I would hate to lose my home or my children because of a machine that seems like it should be recalled.

And finally, I'd like to know what Electrolux is going to do to make me happy.  I have lost hundreds of dollars in clothing and bedding because of this faulty dryer, and based on what my repair man tells me, I'm going to continue to see our clothing be destroyed.  To date, this machine has damaged or destroyed at least $900 worth of clothes.  Many items destroyed, such as my daughter's blanket, have sentimental value attached to them as well.  This dryer has caused me more aggravation and grief than I can fully express in this letter.

I thank you for taking the time to read my concerns and complaints about this dryer, and I anxiously await your reply of how Electrolux is going to rectify my problems and losses.

Warmest Regards,
Karen G****

16 comments:

  1. How terrible! I was looking at their stove and such and was told by the person at Lowe's to avoid them at all costs because so many people have complained about practically every product they have on the market. I am curious about how all of this ends up. I hope you post an update once you've heard back from them.

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  2. Cass-I will certainly update with the result of their response. I would avoid Electrolux like the plague. We had a Whirlpool stove and it was terrible. We did a lot of research and purchased a Kenmore when we moved to this house three years ago. I have been incredibly happy with it and would recommend it to others looking for a stove. Our stove is gas, as is our dryer. I know my parents have a GE smooth surface cooktop and they are happy with it but have had some issues with the oven portion not having the thermostat adjusted properly. Good luck in your stove search and please google any appliance you want and the word problems or what ever issue you might imagine could happen and see what comes up. I for one, would never have thought to google Electrolux dryer melting/burning clothes.

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  3. What a nightmare! We bought an ancient washer and dryer of craig's list for $100 (combined) and it sounds like it works better than this and that is just wrong (with ours I really did expect something to be wrong with it at first)! But when you buy something high quality like that it should definitely work. I hope electrolux makes this right.

    I posted about your post because I definitely think people who are thinking of buying one of these should read this. I'm sorry you went through this. Especially the lovey part. That's so upsetting!

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  4. Oh, My! I read Cam's post and came over to read the whole article. I am totally stunned. My mom has used electrolux vacuums for years and never had any trouble with them. I am so surprised that their dryer would be that awful. (((hugs))) You're right if this is a common problem they should recall their product and have their engineers figure out what's going on. It's definitely a fire hazard. The whole ordeal sounds so frustrating. Makes me glad that we don't own a washer and dryer.

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  5. Wow, I thought our problems with the Bosch dishwasher were bad. It has wrecked a bunch of glasses because of etching, but nothing like the damage you're experiencing here. Our Electrolux vacuum works wonderfully, but it's also over 30 years old. What we're beginning to realize is that even formerly reliable companies aren't so reliable since they've started shipping the work off to Mexico, China, etc.

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  6. My Kenmore Electrolux dryer caused a house fire for us on Dec. 22nd. We will be out of our home for 3 months. What kills me is that the insurance investigator said that Electrolux consistently manufacturers faulty dryers! I shutter to think how angry I would be if one of my children were hurt in the fire...or worse...I'm truly so angry. But, oddly, I can find little about this on the internet (?) Where is corporate responsibility these days?

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  7. Lisa, I'm so sorry your dryer caused a fire in your home. It's really something I worry about with this dryer. Interestingly enough, I sent the letter you see here to Electrolux 32 days ago and I have yet to get a response from them. The vent was replaced by Lowes and already it is melting clothes and the grate is turning black. I had kept all polyester out of the dryer for several weeks, but a pair of sweatpants managed to get into the dryer and the grate is once again black. It's just very frustrating, and incredibly annoying that the company doesn't seem to care one bit. Ignoring a problem won't make it go away.

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  8. Karen, Please post if and when you receive a response from Electrolux. We are currently having the same issue with our 6 month old Electrolux dryer. It's leaving those nasty honeycomb shaped burn marks on everthing with polyester and black goo on all else! I am afraid to use it now. Electrolux needs to recall this safety hazard!

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  9. Beth, I have yet to receive a response from Electrolux and it has been two months since I contacted them. I think I will have to send a letter to them registered mail and also post this letter up on Planet Feedback. The grate on the back of our dryer has been replaced since mid-December and already the dryer is melting things. I now hang all polyester on a drying rack (major annoyance) instead of using the dryer. We've had a few instances where a polyester article has slipped into the dryer by accident and right away our new grate developed new melted residue. After Lisa commented on this post I have since made it a point to not run our dryer when we will not be home or will be sleeping. I don't trust the dryer at all.

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  10. Reading your letter made me feel like you were writing about my situation. I too spent a small fortune on this dryer & washing machine (don't get me started on that)
    I've had clothes, favorite blankets, king size comforter etc... ruined!
    There is a class action suit filed against Electrolux for these same problems.

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  11. Wow wow!!!I had my $300 linen set ruined which was actually my baby present from my husband,and also a brand new stuning holiday dress and a few more clothes which were ruined...

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  12. DID YOU EVER GET A RESOLUTION TO THIS LETTER? I AM HAVING ISSUES WITH AN ELECTROLUX DRYER TWISTING AND TEARING MY CLOTHES BY PINCHING THEM BETWEEN THE SPINNING DRUM AND THE NON-MOVING WALLS. I HAVE SENT THEM TO EMAILS, AND HAVE YET TO GET A RESPONSE OF ANY KIND.

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    1. I didn't get a favorable resolution. It took me posting a comment on their Facebook page to get any kind of a response from them. Chris Polk at Electrolux is who handled my complaints. They were willing to replace the back grate until I told them I had an extended warranty. They did send me a check to cover a small percentage (less than 10% of the total losses) of the clothing that was damaged. They have dismal customer service and I tell everyone to steer clear of them.

      For now, I babysit the dryer (only run it when I'm home) and I don't put anything polyester in it. I've had the back grate replaced four times and had the thermostat adjusted a couple of times, too. Nothing seems to make it better. It's just a bad design. I've had many people contact me and tell me about how this dryer has caused a fire in their house.

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    2. We are having the exact same problem. Finally got the part replaced at our cost and its happening again.

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    3. I'm having the same problem with it ripping and burning my clothes. Called Electrolux today and spoke to two people who told me that since it's no longer under warranty and that they don't have documentation that this is a known problem with manufacturing that I can pay for service and parts. Woopee! Because I haven't already spent enough on the machine or replacing ruined items.....

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  13. I have the same problem and after it has ruined all our clothing it is making a very loud noise and has not heat. This is crazy! I am surprised so many others are having the same issue! I have not heard about a class action suit I just thought I would replace the vent. I assumed the guys that installed didn't remove the plastic and it got burnt into the metal causing all the problems. Now, i'm not sure what I should do. I don't think it is worth the repairs?!

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