Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: walmart, dvd, player, fire, recall | Themes: Home Theater, Audio/Video Players
Even the pink and purple ones are dangerous.
Last month we learned that Wal-Mart issued a recall of 1.5 million the Durabrand DVD player due to the product posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers.
Originally, the recall only covered the silver-colored model, but now it's been expanded to the pink and purple-colored versions of the same DVD player, inflating the recall figure to 4.2 million. Why these weren't included in the first place is beyond us, as the internals are the same regardless of the color of the casing.
So far Wal-Mart has received 14 reports of the DVD players overheating, seven of which have resulted in fires that caused property damage. Thankfully, none of the fires resulted in any injury.
The player was sold for around $29 nationwide from January 2006 through July 2009.
If you have one of these players, take it back to Wal-Mart for a full refund.
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Walmart + $29
You get what you pay for.
It is beyond me, as well.
Same internals, different color. Should also be recalled.
Carelessness.
...so we have a 0.000003% chance of the machine overheating and a 0.00000016% chance of the machine overheating and causing a fire? Panic! One in 600,000 might catch fire!!!
If people are returning these does Walmart mind if I snag a couple? I could use a small spare DVD player.
Way to go putting out the flames Walmart! Maybe the lesson here is that you get what you pay for.
Honestly, I'd encourage a class action suit against the manufacturer. Regardless of the pricing scheme, manufacturers have no rights to put users in potentially harmful ways. Sure "you get what you pay for" sounds just right but one would only expect it to break down, not meltdown.
...so we have a 0.000003% chance of the machine overheating and a 0.00000016% chance of the machine overheating and causing a fire? Panic! One in 600,000 might catch fire!!! If people are returning these does Walmart mind if I snag a couple? I could use a small spare DVD player.
"So far Wal-Mart has received 14 reports of the DVD players overheating"
A. Those are the ones that were reported TO walmart.
B. The players are all built with the same components- the manufacturers didn't just randomly decide to screw over 14 people (reportedly) by removing the heatsink or something. Most likely, a lot of those devices are potentially hazardous.
And, your numbers are wrong. If you're going to include all those zeros to try and prove you're smart, at least put a couple extra 3's afterwards to show that it's repeating.
Still, the odds are pretty slim. All devices are "potentially hazardous"
hmm... now we have apple's iGrenade, waltmart's DVD stove, Sony's TNT grade battery, Wii's flying wiimote dart, MS's red-eye 360....
hmm..... what's next?
I would imagine that it was only the silver ones that initially caught fire, so they where the ones recalled... I would imagine that further testing has shown the same fault in other models so they have since been recalled.
As for 'you get what you pay for' what snobby gibberish, its not like expensive things don't have faults now is it?
Wait.... what would happen if they just denied this (read: 3GS exploding).... Walmart should have taken a page out of Apple
Wait.... what would happen if they just denied this (read: 3GS exploding).... Walmart should have taken a page out of Apple
haha... yea.... I belive Walmart already tried... but...
appearently there is a hug difference between burning somebody's hand/leg, then setting a house on fire (w/ all police officers and firemen involved).
Walmart + $29You get what you pay for.
"You get what you pay for" should only reference certain things such as functionality, durability, ability to resell, and so forth. Implying that a consumer deserves to have their safety compromised because they did not pay "enough" for a product is appalling.
I would think any electronic device that sold 1 million copies would have a few duds that might randomly overheat or catch fire under normal operating conditions. The last I checked most QA is done by humans which arent always 100% all the time.
Thing is... Toshiba, Panasonic and SONY sell DVD players for $40~60 nowadays. Maganovox/Philips for $33~35 is easily better quality... come on, its $5bucks!
Woodmaster Outdoor Furnace Recalled for Fire Hazard: http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/12354#more-12354