Keurig is undoubtedly one of the most popular coffee machines to have in your home and office. But, one consumer is warning others of its danger, no matter how convenient the product is.
Most home products are given the benefit of the doubt that they are safe to have in the home and use. And just recently, KVUE Defenders uncovered a loophole that allows potentially dangerous products to remain in the house, even when manufacturers are said to be aware of the dangers they pose.
A Round Rock mother recently spoke of the danger and let down of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) when it comes to protecting people from potentially dangerous products.
“I guess with the new machines, we all just kind of assume they’re safer,” said Rachel Stigler. “We’ve never had any issues.”
Stigler said she had the Keurig Mini coffee maker for five years, but in November of 2019, her 3-year old toddler Cadence got burnt by steam and hot water spouting from the machine.
“I turned my back to grab something off the counter. The next thing I hear is her screaming and the coffee machine was dispersing hot water and hot coffee, almost like it exploded,” she said. “It had covered her from her face down.”
Cadence suffered first and second-degree burns to her face and neck.
Upon researching what happened, Stigler said she was surprised to have seen so many that had suffered a similar fate — adding that she was unaware of a 2014 recall on the product.
“The recall system needs to be far better than it is today. Right now, it leaves people at risk of getting hurt or killed,” said William Wallace, the home and safety policy manager for Consumer Reports who spoke with KVUE.
According to the CPSC, this kind of malfunction has happened nearly 200 times, injuring at least 100 people.
“I didn’t know about any recall,” said Stigler.
Approximately 6.6 million potentially defective machines were recalled in 2014, four years after the company started receiving complaints about the Keurig MINI Plus Brewing Systems, which sprayed hot water and coffee onto people, causing second and third-degree burns.
Since then, the company agreed to pay $5.8 million to settle federal charges to which the company failed to correctly report the defective product that seriously injured dozens of customers.
In addition to the fine, the Vermont-based Keurig Green Mountain had to develop new policies to ensure compliance with the Consumer Product Safety Act, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Tuesday.
But after this latest accident with the machine, it seems that the issue and recall seemingly went unnoticed.
“I guess I thought if ever my daughter was burned by something, it was because she pulled something on top of her, not because it expelled or exploded fluid onto her. I never imagined this would happen,” Stigler said.
Stigler did reach out to the company. They also returned an email with the following statement to KVUE;
Kate Gilroy, the director for corporate communications
“Thanks for reaching out and giving us the opportunity to respond. The safety and satisfaction of Keurig Dr Pepper consumers is our top priority. We are in communication with Ms. Stigler, and we’re taking this issue very seriously. I can confirm that the K10 MINI Plus Brewer in Ms. Stigler’s home was part of a voluntary recall announced in 2014. At that time, we reported that hot liquid could escape from certain MINI Plus Brewing System units during use. We notified the Consumer Product Safety Commission and took action to inform consumers, providing free repair kits to resolve the potential issue. To date, we’ve received a small number of incident reports related to our older K10 MINI Plus model relative to the more than 7 million number of units previously sold in the U.S. and Canada. We continually work to improve the performance of our products, and all of our brewers manufactured after July 2014 are not affected by this issue. For any consumers who are concerned that their brewer is among those units potentially affected, please call Keurig Consumer Care at (866) 901-2739.”
Although most home products are relatively safe, Stigler urged people to be cautious and not take for granted that a product is 100 percent safe all of the time.
Photo: KVUE
