Black+Decker's steamer recall used a repair — then kept burning people

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.