IKEA stoves and ovens

The reports, as CPSC published them

1. Seen by a doctor or nurse

   Made Feb 4, 2022 · , sent to the company Jun 9, 2022 · , published by CPSC Jun 27, 2022

   The product, in the report: IKEA Motsvarig Range 204.620.52

   [REDACTED]

   December 9, 2021 [REDACTED] IKEA USA [REDACTED] [REDACTED] I am writing with my wife to you to report serious concerns regarding one of your products. Product: Motsvarig Range 204.620.52 Two problems noticed:

   Problem 1: Significant and heavy smoke emitted from the oven upon first use, at temperatures between 375°F and 450°F. Very heavy smoke. Smoke caused impacts to my home and to my family’s health. See further down for more details.

   Problem 2: The lower drawer for the unit does not properly fit, and is also dented in one section. Came this way out of the box. The fit problem involves the right-side of the drawer refusing to stay “all the way in” such that when the drawer is pushed in, the right side of the drawer then comes back out a noticeable amount. Also as noted a lower section of the drawer has a small dent. All “out of the box” status issues.

   Back to Problem 1, additional details: I am mainly concerned about problem 1 of course.

   On December 7?? I attempted to use the oven to cook some rolls at a temperature of 375°F. This is when I first noticed significant smoke. Upon first seeing the smoke I removed the food, but the smoke continued - thus the smoke was not from the food but from the oven itself.

   I turned the unit off (food already removed), and consulted the product manual. There was no mention I or my wife could see for this type of occurrence, or needing to “cure” or “prime” or “specially clean” the oven before first usage. We did remove all plastic and all carboard from inside the oven before first use, thus plastic and/or cardboard was not a source for any smoke. My wife & I both carefully checked for any to this type of material which needed to be removed before oven usage.

   Next, I tried phoning my local IKEA store. No one answered in the appliance section. I left a voicemail on 12-7, but never received a callback as still no callback as of today.

   I next thought that heating the oven to about 400°F would be of value, under the assumption that the smoke would subside after a quick heating cycle. When I looked inside the oven and felt with my fingers there was not an obvious substance I could feel which would bum, but still when heated the oven would emit smoke.

   After the oven heated up to about 400°F, a hugely-great amount of smoke came out of the oven upon opening the door, and the smoke entered my kitchen and living room and basement. Hugely, great. I closed the door, but the smoke continued for several minutes. I opened all the windows of my house and doors. I brought in two fans to blow are out of my kitchen. I did all I could to get the smoke out of my house. And of course during all this time I was being exposed to the smoke while trying to get the smoke out of my house. After the very heavy smoke, and after receiving no instruction from IKEA staff on this issue ( after seeking via phone help as noted, and looking in the product manual), I performed an online search about new ovens on [REDACTED]. I found that reportedly ovens have oil applied inside the oven compartment to them in factory, and that sometimes factory staff do not remove enough of said oil upon unit dispersal from oven factories, resulting in smoke upon first use in customer homes.

   Again your manual made no mention I or my wife could find, which referenced preparatory steps before oven use, related to the removal of some oil or flammable-burnable substance in the oven-inside. Using soap? Cleaning the oven inside first? Oil removal from the inside of the oven? I and my wife saw no mention of this in your manual or with the material that came with the oven.

   After about 40 minutes of heating at 400°F, finally the smoke finally subsided from the oven, thus revealing that the online videos I found about the situation was correct. Some ovens, not all, have this problem. And the problem happens when factory staff don’t sufficiently clean off some sort of oil or related material, to the inside of oven compartments - as per the videos and my own experience of a 40 minute heating cycle “burning off’ whatever the factory staff didn’t sufficiently clean off. After the incident, I used baking soda to try & deodorize my kitchen and living room. Some help but issue not fully resolved. The results, as of 12-9-2021:

   Health Impacts: I experienced throat, eye, and especially lung pain upon exposure to all the smoke that came out of the noted unit. Coughing. Lung congestion. Lung irritation. During the evening and night of 12-7 I bad lung pain and increased lung congestion. On 12-8 I still have some lung pain. On 12-8 I visited an urgent care clinic [REDACTED], and complained to the staff about the 12-7 experience and my 12-7 and 12-8 lung and throat pain. They documented my complaints. Environmental impacts: Lingering 12-7 related oven-incident related noticeable smokey smells in my kitchen, living room, basement stairs, and basement rooms.

   In my family are myself, my wife [REDACTED] , and my c4hildren (ages 3-9). All of my family was exposed to the smoke. I had all my kids & wife exist as quickly as we could, but they were still exposed.

   Nothing we saw in the product manual, and no words from staff at your store, prepared us for this highly unpleasant and highly negatively impactful experience. A bottom line is that the factory where my oven was made, some sort of “finishing oil” or oil of some sort, was placed upon the internal surfaces of the oven, particularly toward the top of the oven. The huge amount of smoke which came out of this unit upon first usages, is proof of improper factory preparation and cleaning for the unit. They, should have turned the oven on to say 400°F in-factory, and noted if smoke would come out of the oven or not. They clearly did not do this. And thus safety, health, and environmental impacts to one of your customers. My wife [REDACTED] shall be signing below to show her witnessing of what occurred also. It is to be determined when the negative impacts to my home ( environmental), myself (health), and my family (health), shall subside regarding this incident. When will my lungs stop hurting? When will they recover from the incident? Hopefully soon. When will my home smell like smoke, less? Hopefully soon, but not resolved as of today. If you saw the huge amount of smoke that came out of the unit into my kitchen and home, you’d probably reasonably ask yourself: “How is it that IKEA would allow such a risk-causing product to be sold?” My wife [REDACTED] can also attest to the severity of the incident. Preliminarily we would like to request from IKEA, the following: Request 1: A full refund for the unit. The unit is usable now that the oil or whatever flammable substance applied by factory staff to the inside of the oven has been sufficiently burned-off. We much to our huge inconvenience and impact have apparently “burned off’’ the clearly-factory-applied preparatory oil ( or preparatory finishing flammable substance). Thus we’d like to “keep” the unit as a courtesy, but the impact was still so severe health and environment wise, the least you could do would be to issue a refund while not requiring return of the unit. We should have been given warning about this potential occurrence in “some” ovens by your instore staff, ovens not properly cleaned before factory-exit. We received no warning by the sales staff at IKEA Draper. Also importantly we saw no warning in the manual about having to clean the oil out of the oven before first use. Also no separate big-letter warning label about needing to specially clean out, or burn-off the oil or other flammable substance applied by factory staff to the inside of the oven. “Steps to perform before turning on the oven so as to deal with finishing oil or finishing-substance-X, can be burnt off without substantial impact to your home or kitchen.” Just assuming that customers will burn off whatever it is this oil or substance is applied in-factory, is frankly not good enough though. The unit should be “good to go” without emitting absolutely substantial & harmful smoke into a customer’s home upon first usages, for any reason. Request 2: IKEA agreeing to engage a hazard cleaning company to visit my home, so they can presumably use one of their ozone generators to get rid of the new smokey smell in various sections of my home from the incident. Witnesses to the incident: Myself. My wife [REDACTED]. My four children.

   Persons exposed to the smoke: Primarily myself. My wife & kids were told to leave the house, but they did have some exposure. Reported incident to healthcare group: [REDACTED}

   Your factory staff should be more careful. Properly cleaning units before factory-exit. Removing flammable oil from the parts of the oven which heat up and can smoke if flammable chemicals or oils are present. And if a “fix” for this is for customers to manually clean such oil off of new ovens, mention this potential in your product manual(s) and via a large warning label. And if dealing with smoke of this nature from new ovens from IKEA is a “normal” and “regular” experience, or even an “occasional” one, you should have large warning label instructions on what to do to fix the noted problems. In the voicemail system for the appliance section of your Draper, Utah store, is a voicemail I left on 12-7. No one called me back to tell me what to do or how to fix the problem. In any case if you saw what we saw and experienced what we experienced, we believe you’d view our present preliminary requests as reasonable.

   Sincerely, Witnessed by and agreed to by: [REDACTED] [REDACTED]

   Bought from

   IKEA, Utah

   Where

   Cottonwood Heights, Utah: Home/Apartment/Condominium

   Who was involved

   Unknown

   The reporter’s relation to them

   Self

   As this report names them

   Brand IKEA, made or sold by IKEA North America Services, LLC

   How badly, in CPSC’s words

   Injury, Seen by Medical Professional

2. No one hurt

   Made Oct 26, 2019 · , sent to the company Nov 18, 2019 · , published by CPSC Dec 3, 2019

   The product, in the report: Glass cooktop with touch controls

   I have had 2 fire incidents related to items left on the glass cooktop and the cooktop turning on by itself. I thought it was likely human error, but after reading obout the whirlpool recall for a similar problem, I suspect my cooktop is turning on by itself. This item was purchased from Ikea in early 2015 and was manufactured by whirlpool. Model ICR500XB00, serial D43307859. I would like to report this product as likely having a similar defect as the current whirlpool recall.

   Model

   ICR500XB00

   Serial number

   D43307859

   Bought from

   Ikea, Colorado

   Bought

   Jan 2, 2015, about then

   Where

   Golden, Colorado: Home/Apartment/Condominium

   Who was involved

   Unknown

   The reporter’s relation to them

   Unspecified

   As this report names them

   Brand Ikea, made or sold by WHIRLPOOL CORPORATION

   How badly, in CPSC’s words

   Incident, No Injury

CPSC’s disclaimer

Sources