Showmate 2 Video Presentation System Recalled By Bell & Howell
Home product recall 88-069. Announced by CPSC on Aug 17, 1988.
Watch and the shortlist are kept with a free account, on every device. Your watch list. CPSC’s own notice is on cpsc.gov.
The short answer
Announced by CPSC on Aug 17, 1988. Copied from CPSC on Oct 19, 2026.
Every line below is in CPSC’s own words, with its source beside it.
What’s wrong with it?
Electrocution/Electric Shock
CPSC, Recalls API. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
What should you do?
The notice gives no remedy in a field of its own.
CPSC, Recalls API. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
Which ones are recalled?
Showmate 2 Video Presentation System Recalled By Bell & Howell NEWS from CPSC U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Office of Information and Public Affairs Washington, DC 20207 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 17, 1988 Release # 88-69 Bell & Howell Recalls Showmate 2 Video Presentation System WASHINGTON, DC - In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Bell & Howell Company, Skokie, Illinois, today announced that it is seeking to contact remaining owners of the company’s Showmate 2 Video Presentation System, model No. 6427, as part of a voluntary recall of the product. To date, the company has contacted 4,400 owners and has replaced switches on 3,000 returned units. Bell & Howell previously attempted to contact all owners to alert them that the product may present an electric shock hazard if the main power switch became defective. There have been not reports of any customers experiencing a shock. However, if a switch fails during use and short circuits to the metal chassis, the potential for electric shock and bodily injury exists. More than 200 Showmate 2 units were returned to Bell & Howell due to switch failure. For those 400 customers who have not yet responded to the recall, Bell & Howell is offering to replace the defective switch with a new switch. Bell & Howell advises those owners to discontinue use of their machine until the switch is replaced. These owners are requested to call Bell & Howell toll-free at 800-522-8969 to make arrangements for free shipment of their unit back to the company, replacement of the switch, and return of their unit. (Within Illinois, owners may call 312-470-7656 collect.) The Showmate 2 is a combination seven-inch screen color video monitor/receiver and VHS format video tape recorder. The product weighs about thirty pounds, has a carrying handle and an eight and one-half foot long three-wire power cord. It was sold nationwide from April 1985 to December 1986, for about $500 per unit. Approximately 3,000 units were sold by one cable television shopping service. Audiovisual dealers sold most of the other 1,800 units.
Bell & Howell Showmate 2 Video Presentation Systems.
CPSC, Recalls API. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
Who made and sold it?
- Made by Bell & Howell.
CPSC, Recalls API. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
Was anyone hurt?
The notice doesn’t say whether anyone was hurt.
CPSC, Recalls API. Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily.
What the record doesn’t say
- The notice lists no UPCs, so check the model, the description and the photos.
- The notice lists no model numbers in a field of their own; its description may give them.
- How many have been returned or fixed isn’t in the notice.
Hearth Record wrote these lines.
Sources
-
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Recalls API.
Checked Oct 19, 2026. Updated daily. Public domain (U.S. Government work). CPSC asks to be credited, and that no endorsement be implied.
Recalls of kids’ and home products are from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). CPSC does not endorse Hearth Record. Copied on Oct 19, 2026.