DV90T8240SH/S2 Heat pump dryer melting

[Robks]

Hello everyone, does anyone know if there is some division I can contact at Samsung to look into a safety issue with their DV90T8240SH/S2 (not sure if every related model DV90T8240xx/xx is impacted)? If not, let this at least be a PSA.

Yesterday I tried the use the dryer and immediately it started to make a rattling noise. I stopped the machine, removed the laundry and restarted it to check if it was caused by the laundry. The machine restarted and spun in the other direction, causing the rattling noise to become worse and also caused an additional "scraping" noise. I immediately turned it off and unplugged it. I decided not to mess with it and create a repair request, only to figure out the 2-year warranty had just expired so I figured I'd inspect the machine myself. I pulled it away from the wall and found a thick heap of black goo which melted off the back. After googling this, I found others with the same issue:
https://www.reddit.com/r/appliancerepair/comments/1c69048/samsung_dryer_back_cover_melted/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/110936289745387/posts/1713073269531673/

I then opened up the device and immediately found the cause of the rattling and scraping noise. The drum is also wrapped in two rows of rubber material which started to melt and create a bump which was hitting the water disposal drawer each rotation and sticking to the drawer creating the scraping noise.

Linked below are two of my pictures showing the heap of goo melted from the back and the bump of goo melted inside the machine as well as a picture taken from the facebook post showing a clear view of the melted back, exactly like my machine.

The machine was installed at similar distance from the wall as the washing machine as you can see in the photo and is not installed in an alcove or closet, for which the manual includes additional clearances. The room is never hotter than 25 degrees (usually below 21), the machine had not run for days and was shut off within a minute of starting so this melting must have happened while it was idle for days or happened long before (but the last load ran fine without any noises). Finally, the machine never displayed any error code and no failsafe stopped the machine so it was happily spinning while bumping into the water disposal drawer each rotation.

I hope Samsung takes this seriously and recall these impacted devices before something break down and investigates if this might produce any toxic/chemical gasses by melting this foam/rubber. But if they don't, please everyone with such a dryer, check the rear of your appliance to make sure nothing is melting and catches fire the next time it runs while you're not nearby.

[rileylovetech]

Mate have you got warranty

[ChrisP88]

@Robks 

If you are based in the UK or Ireland then please send a private message to Sam_UK by following the steps in the link below, and myself or one of the other mods will be able to get this escalated for you.  

https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/samsung-lounge/how-to-send-a-private-message-on-the-samsung-comm...  

[Robks]

Thanks for replying Chris, unfortunately I'm based in Belgium

[KholaI]

In that case, we would advise reaching out to Samsung Support in your region as soon as possible, so that they can look into this further for you:

https://www.samsung.com/be/support/

[EricParker]

Any update?

[Robks]

I have two updates:
1. I reached out to Samsung support (even before posting here) and they treat it as a normal "defect". The support agents keep insisting that I should make a repair/service request and that they will determine once the service partner shows up whether or not it is covered under warranty, when I know that the warranty have expired since January and the service call will cost me at least €112 just to drive out here and probably over €200 once the repair turns out to be complex, it's in the terms you have to agree to before you can even get in touch with the service partner to discuss the issue. This all sound fair to me if something actually broke or wore down due to intensive use. They completely ignore my complaint that the material they chose to use in their product is melting by itself and any concerns that might raise for our health.

2. We've been away from home for 5 days and the machine has been unplugged for over a week now. The material keeps melting further and dripping from the machine. I suspect that the issue might not actually be related to heat but the material they used is melting/breaking down by itself. That would also explain why the machine did not go into safety or produce any kind of error (again, it was running just fine apart from the bump of molten goo hitting the water disposal drawer). I'm actually quite confident that by removing all of the sticky stuff, the machine will run fine again but I don't want to mess with it before Samsung can have a look at it.

So, it appears that the material used was either poorly chosen by Samsung and will impact many people  (or deliberately chosen to break down after a few years but let's not assume the worst here) or their supplier delivered a bad batch of it affecting only a certain number of machines. In any case, I would urge Samsung to look into this, inform their users whether or not this material is toxic and recall/replace/fix their impacted devices.

As regular support is not being helpful and ignoring these concerns, as well as telling me there's no way to escalate this or make a complaint through their support channels, what can I do to file a complaint to Samsung? They do not want to tell me this. I'll try to figure out if I can report this through Belgium's consumer protection services.

[njelson86]

Just having the EXACT same issue this evening. In the midst of a kitchen refurb and went to use it only to hear a weird noise as if it was struggling. The back bit is still intact but after opening the cover top the drum is covered in a melted goo. I’ve requested an engineer through Samsung but not hopeful. Purchased 2021