I got an email this afternoon from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, letting me know that the citizen report I filed on my Bosch dishwasher has now been publicly posted.
Unlike some reports I’ve seen on the site, my report does not include any comments from Bosch. At this point, anyway. I am under the impression the company had a chance to see my report before it was posted, but that’s just a guess.
On a related note, two weeks ago Bosch dispatched a local appliance technician to my home to check out the dishwasher. He scratched his head when he saw a working dishwasher and wondered aloud why he was there. He just shook his head when I held up the melted relay, saying he didn’t even need to see it because he’s seen many of these cases. I wasn’t sure if he meant Bosch issues or issues with other dishwashers.
His visit wasn’t a total waste of time, however. He did make a few adjustments to the dishwasher to improve its performance. He also suggested I replace the control board, in spite of my neighbor’s expert repair. He never got a look at the board, though, so I’m not sure what he was basing that on.
The dishwasher has been humming along nicely since it was fixed, though. While eventually we may get a new board, we’re comfortable with holding off on that. We just won’t be using it unattended until then (any maybe not then, either).
Oh, and someone from Bosch left a pleasant voicemail after the technician’s visit, asking if everything was satisfactory. I found the idea of being satisfied with a do-nothing visit from a technician so ludicrous that I haven’t bothered to return the call. Bosch’s concern is just not convincing.
Update 3 April: I got another email from CPSC this morning, telling me Bosch weighed in on my report. They responded only 13 hours after the report was posted:
Comment from BSH HOME APPLIANCES CORPORATION 4/3/2013
The dishwasher in this report was manufactured after the period when the recalled controls were used. The subject dishwasher has a different control. The component failure reported appears similar to a failure associated with the recall, but the conditions that cause the recall are not present in the subject control.
So, let me parse this for you: The same part that caused fires in our other dishwashers also almost caught fire here. But because it didn’t actually catch fire this time we’re not going to recall it.
Well played, Bosch. Well played.