The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2021-2024
Black+Decker's steamer recall used a repair — then kept burning people
Black+Decker's 2022 steamer recall offered a repair; repaired units kept burning people, so 2024's expansion switched to refunds for all 2 million units.
Empower Brands · 2024-02-08
What happened
Empower Brands' Black+Decker HGS011 Easy Garment Steamers, sold from June 2021, could expel, spray or leak hot water during normal use, burning whoever was holding them. The first recall, announced November 3, 2022, covered about 518,500 units and offered a repair as the remedy.
The repair didn't fix the underlying problem. After the November 2022 recall, Empower Brands kept receiving reports of hot water expelling from the steamers — including from units that had already gone through the repair program. By 2024, the company had logged 317 total reports of hot water expulsion and 82 burn injuries, seven of them second-degree.
On February 8, 2024, Empower Brands expanded the recall to about 2 million units total and changed the remedy from repair to a full refund — an admission that the fix offered in 2022 hadn't solved the hazard it was meant to solve.
Why it happened
- The 2022 remedy was a repair rather than a refund or redesign, and reports of the same hot-water-expulsion hazard continued afterward, including from repaired units.
- It took roughly 15 months and dozens more burn reports after the first recall before Empower Brands accepted that repair wasn't the right remedy and switched to refunds.
The lesson
A repair that keeps burning people after the fix is not a fix — Empower Brands needed 82 burn reports and a second recall to learn that the 2022 repair program hadn't solved anything.
Aftermath
The February 2024 expansion moved to a full refund for all 2 million units, both the original 518,500 and the additional steamers covered by the wider recall, ending the repair-based remedy entirely.
Sources
- CPSC — Two Million Black+Decker Garment Steamers Recalled by Empower Brands in Major Recall Expansion Due to Burn Hazard
- ABC News — Black+Decker garment steamers recalled due to potential burn hazard
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