How old is the cooktop?

Also you let them off too lightly!

Anything that causes electrical smoke should be reported to the proper safety authorities, and I would have told Whirlpool that, along with pushing for a repair under warranty.

The thing should be fused such that if a part such as a filters shorts out, the fuse will blow. One can bet there will be more of these fail in the same manner, if not already.

Personally, that thing would be gone from my house until a redesigned safety factor was implemented for it.

Gary

I would never trust the appliance again. Yes, you should report it and no, I don't think KA did the right thing.

Scary. Mine is KA too. Thanks for the heads up. Mine is 2 years old. So far, so good.

Did you tell them about the smoke?

It happened to us today...lucky my daughter was home and called 911 and they unplugged and taken the fuse out before i come home. But my daughter got so scared and the house smell like electric fire.

What does the warranty actually say about its own scope? Is this filter device inside the cooktop chassis?

Mine caught fire three weeks ago. They don't have the parts and are not going to replace. Is there a number to call as the escalation team says they have no manager to resolve this other than me purchasing a new one with 25% off. Seems ridiculous

Our KA went up in smoke tonight. Called 911 and turned off breaker. Horrible chemical smell is still lingering throughout house. KA is about 7 years old. Will report tomorrow. Thanks for updating this post!

Has anyone made any headway with these defective units/fire hazards? Our 3 yr old KA Induction Range (KSIB900ESS) just spontaneously combusted just like cdmidwest had happen to them. Unit not in use--had been off for a few hours--& as we were about to leave our house, my daughter said she heard a few loud popping noises & then a chemical burning smell filled the house & smoke was billowing out of the back vents of the cooktop part. The front by the control panel was so hot to touch when my husband was frantically trying to remove it from the wall to unplug it that he had to use silicone oven mitts just to touch anywhere on the entire outside of the unit. Once unplugged, it stopped. But I am never having that thing in my house again. What is our recourse? These aren't like toasters where you can just unplug when not in use. We are beyond the 1yr warranty, but this thing could've caused serious harm to my family & should be recalled. We had bought the matching suite of KA appliances & it's my biggest regret now. All have been problematic but to have an expensive range just go up in smoke like that is unacceptable. Service tech from the local appliance company we purchased though came out and assessed it & literally said to put it out by the road, not repairable & it was the worst burn damage he'd ever seen. The back metal cover had black scorch marks & wires all in the top back completely charred & melted. I want KA to take some responsibility here as we are not isolated incidents & someone is going to get harmed. Plus I think we're entitled to a refund. This wasn't an old model or anything--they're still being sold--& at $3K a pop-- & ours like i mentioned is just 3yrs old. HELP! Has anyone have any luck pursuing this??

We have had this cooktop for a few years now. We had the 30" model prior and it worked great so when we remodeled we replaced it with the 36" version.

From day 1 the large center element has not heated up properly. With a large pan of food the heat is too low all the way up to the "7" setting. At "8" it burns. I have ruined countless meals because of this problem.

Now that I read these comments about it catching on fire I am afraid to have it in the house! It sounds like they are defective.

Has anyone had similar issues?

Anyone gotten any resolution on these issues with kitchenaid?

KitchenAid model KAIB900ESS1 our oven had lots of smoke come from the back of the oven and it smelled like an electric fire. I heard the electric buzz and knew to run and turn the circuit breaker for the range.

We had a tech come out for repair. no corrosion on the plug & the outlet tested fine.

As soon as he plugged the oven in electric smelling smoke started and electric buzzing followed. The tech quickly told me to turn it off. Not that he had to because I already knew that much. However my wife and daughters don’t. That could have started a fire in my home very quickly. KitchenKitchenaid safety department offered to buy it back at a reduced rate. i asked if this has happ to others. she answered ”no recalls are assign“. notice she dod not answer my question. i would never suggest buying from them but i dont know what company to buy from either

I have the KFID500ESS double oven free standing induction range. Ever since I saw this thread two weeks ago, I"ve kept the power to the range turned off at the circuit breaker and only have it powered up when I need to cook something, which isn't every day. This free standing induction version was the last of the KA induction products brought to market in 2017.

So KitchenAid/Whirlpool is still not admitting that there’s a significant problem with this particular range. i have the kitchen suite of their products, & now i wont get another Whirlpool-made product in my home. I have had people private messaging me on social media with the exact same dangerous events happening in their kitchens with this same model. What a shame that they dont back the integrity of their products & it seems like if they continue to deny the hazard, they think itll just magically disappear. Whirlpool Customer Safety Department is incredibly sorry that this happened to us, however it is ”isolated” & they will not budge from their depreciated (60% of purchase price) buyback offer, & i am trying to make my peace with this. ***PLEASE heed our warnings & do not keep this appliace in your homes.

My 2 year old FGIF3036TF (Frigidaire Gallery 30 in. 5.4 cu. ft. Induction Range with Self-Cleaning Oven in Smudge-Proof Stainless Steel) turned itself on while I was out for a walk. It turned on all burners. I was gone 20 minutes and when I got back the house was full of smoke. It took several pushes om the power off button to get them to power down. There wasn't anything on 3 of the burners and the stove isn't supposed to activate them unless they have a pot on them. the one burner had my tea kettle on it. It had boiled dry and was smoking like crazy. Again, the burner is supposed to turn off if too hot. Called KA, paid $120 for diagnostic test, and then found out that the repair would cost $650. No guarantee that it wouldn't happen again. I paid $1000 for the stove. I reported the incident to https://www.saferproducts.gov/ and I hope you will submit yours too so that maybe a recall will start. These stoves are dangerous. No more KA for me.

"My 2 year old FGIF3036TF (Frigidaire Gallery 30 in. 5.4 cu. ft. Induction Range with Self-Cleaning Oven in Smudge-Proof Stainless Steel) turned itself on while I was out for a walk.

...

Called KA, paid $120 for diagnostic test, and then found out that the repair would cost $650.

...

No more KA for me."

Burt Culver, why did you contact KA (KitchenAid) for a problem with a Frigidaire range model FGIF3036TF? Frigidaire (of which Electrolux is the parent company) has no relation to KitchenAid (of which Whirlpool is the parent company).

Hi @Dana Ramcourt @faloon316 - any updates on your KitchenAid fire?

Whirlpool Corp would not admit any issues with this model, even after i let them know that at least half a dozen other KA indictuon range owners had reached out for me with the same issue. After several months of going back & forth with them, they stood firm with tbeir buyback offer of 60% of the sale price & they came & fook away the unit. And my particular model is still on the market. Lesson learned, I’m disgusted with how they handle this clear safety issue & I'm steering clear of any & all Whirlpool brand appliances.

Oh my GOODNESS. I have the same kitchen aid model as this thread and I just woke up at MIDNIGHT to loud popping noises and a mildly burnt wall! luckily I heard it and my dad unplugged it but this is a HAZARD

Assuming that a properly working unit could be fed by a ground-fault/arc-fault breaker (GFCI/AFCI) without it actuating from noise on the lines, such a breaker might be used to protect against home and wall damage from this flaw. It isn't clear from the photo above what part is failing, but unless it is a short between power leads before the ON-OFF circuit, it is hard to guess what happens to cause this when the unit is OFF. Owners willing to risk keeping their KA may want to consult with an electrician.

(Most electronics these days is never really off unless unplugged. And such circuits may have filtering between hot leads and/or neutral or ground. A failure there might lead to an arc that effectively shorts a power lead to something it shouldn't. Evidently, in these cases there isn't enough current draw to actuate whatever breaker is providing circuit protection.)

I suspect KitchenAid's problem is that recalling and repairing each of the units sold would cost more than the cost of manufacturing new ones for everyone, and their cost/risk analysis says eat the lawsuits if damage or harm occurs --- perhaps the Ford Pinto comes to mind. A new breaker will cost less than funding a lawsuit, and likely less than one's homeowner's insurance deductible.

Same thing! 11 p.m., the oven start crackling and smoke pours out (it was off). Fire dept arrives, pulls it out and the wiring was smoking. Thank God we were home. KA sending a safety engineer out today to assess. I don't think I will ever trust it if they fix it. And definitely won't replace it with the same model. Hope they do the right thing🤞

Mike, was this the slide in range or the free standing double oven range?

I live in a newer neighborhood where this exact issue has happened to 3 of my neighbors in the last 6 months - electrical fire with popping and smoke coming out of the rear vent. Our homes were all completed within 6-8 months of each other. 2 of them have the KAIB900ESS1 induction range (which I also have) and one has a JennAir (also Whirlpool made). It was the same component in each that caught on fire while the unit was not in use. I have talked to 3 different reps and one person in an elevated department, maybe the Customer Safety Department. That person basically told me the same BS about these being isolated events and made me feel stupid for worrying that my house could burn down. "These products are mass produced and this has only happened to 2 of your neighbors". Um, yeah... and that is a HUGE coincidence, in my opinion. And actually it's happened to 3, but the JennAir didn't count to him, somehow.

I was willing to pay for the $800 replacement part (the relay capacitor for the induction cooktop, I believe) so long as that part was manufactured differently than what was initially put in the range to begin with.

The worst of this whole situation is how the Customer Safety Department talked down to me, which made me angry and therefore I became short with him.

I guess I am just going to have to continue traipsing down to the basement and switch the breaker on and off each time I want to cook...until I decide to shell out another 3500 for a new range.

Do we know that these failures were due to a defective part, and not due to electrical transients caused by local storms? I recently had to replace some furnace parts due to failure of relay damping capacitors, and the connection to storm damage was clear because the furnace breaker had tripped from a nearby strike last summer even though my breaker boxes include Intermatic [brand] transient suppression. The capacitor failure caused printed circuit board damage, but the external tell-tale (delayed) effect was progressively more dirty relay contacts causing intermittent hot water tank circulation pump non-operation. I have since doubled down on primary transient suppression, plus adding one at the furnace.

Check out Total Protection Solutions, LLC for industrial grade transient suppression devices.

https://www.cooktopplatformen.expertinquiry.com CHECK OUT THESE RECALLS

I recently had a similar thing happen on my 10-month old Kitchenaid induction cooktop. Model

KICU569XSS. It started burning and smoke poured out of the unit. I had to kill the breaker to stop it. Still under warranty but Whirpool wants to replace all the boards in it even though they don't seem to know what happened. I'm not going to put one back in my new house!!! I'll fight to get it replaced but so far their care and safety departments are fighting it.

We have a Kitchenaid 30" Induction Range model # KSIB900ESS1 purchased from Lowes around 6 years ago. We were home from vacation for one day and used the oven that evening. Between and hour to two hours after we finished cooking, while the stove was not in use, we were in the kitchen and heard an electrical pop. We started looking at our GFIs, but we agreed it did not match the specific sound. Then we saw the smoke coming out of the back vents of the range followed by an electrical burning smell. We flipped the breaker and unplugged it. I called KitchenAid that Monday. The safety team sent out a tech today (the following Monday) and he could not find anything wrong with the unit. He said all he can do is document his findings and my comments. We do not feel safe and are so thankful we were home from vacation to witness the event-we have two cats that would have perished. We had to buy a little induction plate in the interim. In limbo.

UPDATE (same day after Whirlpool received notes from Diamond) I just got off the phone with Whirlpool/KitchenAid. I was told that I should not use the unit anymore and was offered 35% off of their website for replacement. I asked if the repair tech had seen damage would this offer be different, she said the offer would be the same 35% off "replacement". My husband and I are just sort of stunned with this process. They do not offer any induction range on their website for replacement, only the cooktops (not that I would want this product again, but that tells you something). It's funny, I cannot find this same type of thread anywhere online concerning this product, just on Houzz. I am still ultimately thankful that we are all safe, this has been a very disturbing event. Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences.

sadly, this exact same experience keeps happening to owners of this model. (& last i checked, they were actually still selling it!) the service tech who came out to inspect ours said our unit was toast & to just stick it by the curb. when i phoned & spoke with the company's consumer safety division, they bordeline aggressively told me that alrhough they sympatized with my situation, this was isolated & theyre not in the business of buying back appliances. "you run this risk any time you plug in an electrical appliance" is what the supervisor had the gall to argue when i escalated our case & they wouldnt budge when i asked for a full refund of our purchase price & they wound up only "buying back" our unit for $1700 (a prorated "depreciation" amount for our range we purchased in late 2017) to compensate for their hazardous & faulty equipment malfunction. they did however offer to give me a sweetheart deal if i wanted to have it replaced with the same model though, & that option wouldve only cost us about $900 out of pocket for their replacement unit. unreal! i suggest you keep that fire hazard out of your house. because of how they handled our situation, i wont buy another whirlpool appliance again. as they clearly don't stand behind the safety & integrity of their appliances. isolated incident?? yeah...wonder how long they'll run with that?

Same thing happened to us two nights ago (08/14/2023). Luckily, we were home. It is really scary to think that our house could have burned down. The range was not being used. We were in the living room and heard a popping sound (sort of like old fashioned flash bulbs)...then lots of white smoke. We immediately turned off the breaker and unplugged the range. I called KitchenAid and told them of my safety concerns (our extended warranty ended 6 months ago). They are sending a repair tech on 8/18/2023 at no charge. It will be interesting to see how KitchenAid responds to this very alarming issue.

Model: KSIB900ESS convection top range

I'll update after the tech finishes their work.

Hi there, we just had the same issue with our induction range on Oct 02, 2023. Finished cooking dinner for guests about an hour prior to seeing smoke and smelling electrical smoke, then seeing smoke billowing out of the rear vents, followed by popping sounds. Opened the breaker immediately. The back of the stove is still too hot touch after at least two hours. Will contact Whirlpool in the morning and try and get a service tech to look at it. Interestingly close friends of ours, and neighbours had exactly the same stove and it self destructed about two years ago. This is definitely not a rare situation. Model: KSIB900ESS1 convection self cleaning oven / induction stove top range

Not to pile on but we just had the same issue with our KSIB900ESS range for the second time. About 6 months ago we heard a giant explosion and flash through the rear vents while using the main oven. Upon inspection, the lower baking element had blown apart and the capacitor on the left side of the noise filter board had exploded. i replaced both with genuine Whirlpool parts assuming the baking element has caused the capacitor failure

After months of no incident, while our Thankgiving turkey was in the main oven we tried to turn on the lower oven/drawer when Boom and a flash of light and some smoke, but not as big as the first incident. This time, the capacitor on the right side of the same board exploded. i also check the connections at the power block and they were all secure

I’m calling Kitchen Aid tomorrow after reading this!! i have included pictures of the part in issue.

I have a 30” KA induction, that is constantly turning off, so we are using the breaker to cook. No smoke or fire, and the comments here are quite scary. I am in the US. Has anyone contacted the consumer protection agency and lodged a complaint?

I just found this at cpsp.gov, Frigidaire and Kenmore Smoothtop Electric Ranges Recalled Due to Fire Hazard. This is from 2009, so pretty old. I wonder if all inductions for residetnial use are unsafe?

Induction cooktops have metal surrounds under the counter that would (should) completely contain any burning or exploding parts. Power connections are made internally. I don't recall any mention here of failed induction cooktops that caused external damage or fire hazard.

When married to an oven, and given an exposed power connection with electrical parts showing tying the cooktop and oven power feeds together, as in the images above, it would seem that the risk level is raised. It may be that the capacitors that are provided for filtering don't have an adequate safety margin, or they fail from line transient spikes that can come from inside or outside the dwelling.

I recommend that voltage transient protection be used at breaker boxes and where feasible at the service entry. Even with transient protection ceramic disk capacitors of this type can fail from a nearby lightening strike, as I discovered with my furnace controller. It now has transient protection of its own. The appliance manufacturer should use higher margin (and maybe quality) capacitors when this issue repeats itself over the years.

Thanks. My KA 30” just stopped working last Friday. No fire or smoke, thankfully. BestBuy called it a lemon,and I’m looking for a new 30” induction range. Seems like Bosch may have removed the bridge option from ranges. Their cooktop still has the all cooking service option. It seems your analysis may have pinned it down. I have wondered if there is a lack of sheilding betwwn the oven heat and the cooktop that kept causing my KA to turn off….then ultimately just STOP WORKING.

Well…Happy New Year to us! We are thankful we were home and in the kitchen when our oven all of a sudden started smoking from the top back vent a few hours after cooking. We were shocked and heard a popping noise when we opened the oven. We turned the circuit breaker off immediately. The kitchen was filled with electrical smoke. Oven model number is KSIB900ESS1. Guess the start of our 2024 will be chasing down KitchenAid.

On January 14, 2023, our 36-inch Kitchenaid induction cooktop, Model KICU569XBL (manufactured on June 2016) spontaneously began smoking from the front right corner. The cooktop was OFF at that time! The smoke intensified as the seconds went by until we unplugged the unit. A chemical/plastic smell was very strong, and lingered for the next 5 days.

Luckily we were present when this happened. We called Whirlpool/Kitchenaid a couple of days later and we were immediately transferred to their safety department. We were told that they would send a local diagnostic appliance visit at no charge. The diagnositic appliance person told us that we would have to pay for a $450 repair, which they were NOT EVEN SURE was the problem. It was a complete guess!

We called the department back and were only offered 35% off MSRP price of any Whirlpool family cooktop that they had available on the Whirlpool family website.

We are weighing that option against just changing everything to gas, which is what we would prefer anyway.

Seems like a lawsuit is what will soon happen, since Whirlpool refuses to really deal with this HUGE safety issue.

FYI: Michael Szilagyi(on this thread) is showing the exact part in a photo that we seem to have burnt up, too, on our cooktop. But the part can't be found, it seems. Even if we had a repair, I be very SCARED to still continue to have this cooktop in my home.

Very disappointed with this whole issue...

Severe Smoking Kitchenaid Model KICU569XBL (WHILE OFF!)

On January 14, 2023, our 36” Kitchenaid induction cooktop (Model KICU569XBL, manufactured on June 2016) was turned off, and we were nearby. The cooktop started smoking spontaneously and emitting a pungent chemical and burnt wire smell from the front right corner area. The smoke intensified and we were afraid it was going to burst into flames! We then unplugged the device which made the smoke gradually decreased until it stopped.

We searched online about this specific issue for this specific cooktop model and we found that this occurs quite often! We were appalled that no recall has ever been made for this model!

A couple of days later, we called the Whirlpool Family company and they transferred us to their own Safety Department. All they offered was a free diagnostic visit from a local appliance repair center. When we arranged things with the local center, they immediately said they knew what part it needed…which made us wonder if they already knew about this problem.

The part was ordered and after two weeks, we were told the part arrived and the appliance repairman was scheduled. When they came over to make the diagnosis, they could only guess at what the problem was, and the part that they supposedly ordered earlier was never brought in.

We were told we needed the entire power cable harness (?) replaced (we think - it was never made quite clear to us) for a fee of $450. They also told us that they were not sure if this was even the problem.

During the breakdown of the cooktop, we saw a part that was burnt up that looks exactly like the part that Michael Szilagyi has in an earlier post . Thank you, Michael Szilagyi, especially for the photos.

But even if we pay for the cooktop to be repaired, we would not trust this cooktop anymore! And why on earth should we even pay for repairs when it is a SAFETY ISSUE???!!! What if we had not been home? Then what?

We called Whirlpool again and were told that we are basically out of luck if we do not pay for repairs. We (nicely) complained and they only offered 35% off MSRP for another Kitchenaid, Whirlpool, Amana, or Maytag cooktop.

To say that we are utterly disappointed is an understatement.

This is the back of our ksib900ess. My husband went into the kitchen and discovered smoke coming from the back of it.

Happy I found this thread. My KSIB900ESS also had a catastrophic failure. Louding buzzing noise, blinking controls, and then smoke coming from under the cooktop. It is 3 years and 4 months old, used almost everyday. Its out of warranty. I called Whirlpool, and calmly described the buzzing, the smoke, and the fact that I shut off the breaker. I stated that the range was a safety hazard, and they transfered me to the safety team. The safety team (866-550-5136) sent a technician at no charge. Tech found that transformer was fried, and the chain reaction was burned wiring, burned wire harness, and a burned control panel. Parts and labor came to almost $1400. I called back Whirlpool, and they are covering the parts. I have to pay for an hour of labor to install the new parts. Hope this helps some others who may face this issue, it seems Whirlpool didn't really push back on fixing this failure.