GE Monogram fans

The reports, as CPSC published them

1. No incident, no one hurt

   Made Jul 28, 2025 · , sent to the company Aug 7, 2025 · , published by CPSC Aug 21, 2025

   The product, in the report: GE Monogram 48” vent hood

   I own a GE Monogram 48 inch kitchen range vent hood and noticed that the grease baffle filters provided with the hood do not cover the entire air intake opening of the hood. I contacted GE regarding my vent hood, model ZV48SSF1SS, in which is found three 12.75 inch x 15 inch x 1 inch (25mm) [REDACTED] baffle grease filters, rated for fire prevention, and which according to the parts diagram of the hood should have only have three filters. The parts diagram states that the filters are GE part #WB02X10877. GE confirmed that the part number is correct, but upon pressing them for the dimensions they stated 13.5 inch x 16.5 inch x 2.25 inch which is clearly not the size of the filters I have. I then looked up the part number at repairclinic.com where a nice image of the filter laid on a grid confirms that the filter is 12.75 inches x 15 inches. I also confirmed that an internal ledge within the vent hood will not allow a filter greater than 30mm in thickness. So GE does not know what filter fits my vent hood and GE was not aware that three filters with a width of 12.75 inch each can only cover 38.25 inches of the vent hood opening leaving 7 inches of the 45.25 inch wide opening uncovered by a grease filter. This leads me to believe that when GE contracted with [REDACTED] for 48 vent hood filters they either transmitted an erroneous specification or thought they could get away using a filter for a narrower hood in the 48 hood.

   As you know know grease baffle filters must cover the entire opening of a vent hood to keep grease out of the vent exhaust duct that passes through an attic before exiting a roof. When the filters do not cover the entire opening, there are manufacturers who may provide spacers to fill in the gaps. Notably GE does not provide spacers. Because the filters serve to prevent a fire from passing up the duct, a gap may allow fire to travel into a duct and ignite grease in the duct which of course will burn down a home.

   This was a major design error on the part of GE. [REDACTED] provided what GE requested. Had GE provided three 15 inches x 15 inches x 1 inch filters, homes could have been spared from burning down. A GE rep told me that there were no recalls on the vent hood; however, the lack of recalls provides no certainty that fires did not occur and that lives have not been lost because the causes of a major fire are often difficult to determine given the destruction of responsible factors. With respect to fires and there causes, I speak from experience as a former US Navy engineering officer responsible for fire prevention and fire fighting aboard a guided missile destroyer.

   Of course having uncovered these facts, I will have to take 3 measures. Firstly, I will be engaging a consumer products tort lawyer for his opinion on the viability of a civil lawsuit. Secondly, I will be engaging the US Consumer Products Safety Commission (you guys whom I hope will take my concerns seriously) which has regulatory tools to uncover what injuries may have occurred and force GE to provide remediation. Thirdly, I will be engaging my own insurance company, [REDACTED], which is very interested in mitigating fire risks.

   UPDATE 7/29/2025: Dear CPSC Clearing House,

   I have communicated with the maker of the baffle grease filters intended to keep fires from entering vent hood ductwork and they have informed me that the orientation of the filters in the image I provided you was incorrect. Both the prior owner and myself who followed his practice had the baffles incorrectly horizontally oriented. When I rotated the filters 90 degrees such that the baffles were vertically oriented the gaps disappeared.

   I now see that on p 15 of the hood installation manual, which I recently downloaded only because I was searching for an electrical parts diagram, the orientation of correctly installed filters is depicted. As noted above, I also realize that they were installed incorrectly by the former owner of my home. I simply followed his practice and never thought about the gap until I began to wonder why there was a gap. Because it is obvious that filters can be installed incorrectly and not fall onto the range, perhaps GE could have provided a warning in the manual stating that filters must be installed as seen in the picture and that no gap should be present between filters when they are installed correctly. I installed them incorrectly just as the former owner did and I would never have noticed my mistake but for my conversations with the maker of the filters [REDACTED]. It is a wonder that the prior owner of my home didn’t burn the house down because he grilled meat on a gas range under the hood. Because purchasers of homes are also unlikely to be provided installation manuals on preexisting appliances, a permanent warning label on the hood and the filters would be a nice safety feature.

   I have looked at manuals of current versions of the same GE hood and although they contain a diagram showing the vertical orientation of the baffles they do not contain warnings regarding incorrect filter baffle orientation and the necessity of not having gaps between filters caused by incorrect orientation of rectangular filters because the gaps create a risk of fires entering the vent ductwork. I am also concerned that the GE parts folks gave me the wrong dimensions of the filter after they confirmed that the filter part number was correct, and I am concerned that none of them could inform me that incorrect filter orientation was the cause of the gaps. It is only because I communicated with the USA rep of the Italian company which made the fire rated filters that I understood that the gap was due to an error by the prior owner and myself to properly install the filters. How not to do something is an important instruction that should accompany any instruction on how to do something. Unfortunately that type of instruction - which is necessary whenever it is physically possible to do something incorrectly - is rarely provided. Image 2417 is an incorrect but physically possible installation with gaps between filters apparent, and image 2422 is correct installation with no gaps.

   Thus, my only recommendation is that whenever fire is a risk, clearly worded warning labels with diagrams of correct and incorrect part orientations to advise users on proper installation be provided on or next to parts that can be improperly installed.

   Model

   ZV48SSF1SS

   UPC

   UNKNOWN

   Serial number

   SERSH8 06734 Z 509

   Where

   EDINBURG, Texas: Home/Apartment/Condominium

   Who was involved

   Unspecified

   The reporter’s relation to them

   Self

   As this report names them

   Brand GE Monogram, made or sold by GE Appliances, a Haier company

   How badly, in CPSC’s words

   No Incident, No Injury

CPSC’s disclaimer

Sources