Lucky escape for Peterborough family after Hotpoint oven door explodes in self-cleaning mode

Elizabeth Wright was at home with her two young sons when she heard a “boom,” but fortunately nobody was in the kitchen at the time.

Elizabeth said pieces of glass at a temperature of 500 Celsius shattered everywhere and could easily have started a fire.

But relief at emerging unscathed has turned to anger after she claimed Hotpoint “didn’t want to know” because she had an expired warranty.

An engineer is now set to come this week free of charge, she added, after the Peterborough-based company was contacted by the Peterborough Telegraph.

Elizabeth had set the oven she has owned for less than three years to do a pyrolytic clean which locks the door and heats the inside up to 500 Celsius.

She recalled: “It’s meant to take two hours, but after 40 minutes or so there was a boom and little cubes of glass were all over the floor.

“The inner glass door had shot out all over the hallway. There were pieces seven feet from the oven. Luckily, we were not in the kitchen. The boys were in the lounge and I was upstairs.

“The glass could have caused a fire because it was at 500 degrees. It was unbelievable, but more unbelievable was Hotpoint. They were so unresponsive. I went through private messaging first, but as soon as they realised there was an expired warranty they didn’t want to know. Warranty or no warranty it’s a serious fault.”

Elizabeth said she had Googled the problem and found other similar incidents among Hotpoint ovens in pyrolytic cleaning mode.

She added: “I don’t think that’s a warranty issue. I wouldn’t recommend anyone using it. It almost set fire to my kitchen cupboard. I had really hot glass everywhere.

“I thought as it was not a lone case Hotpoint would be more responsive. I don’t think it’s repairable. I’m struggling at the moment with a microwave.

“Everyone else I tell is like ‘oh my God’. I just dread to think what could have happened if anyone was in that kitchen.”

Hotpoint is owned by Whirlpool, based in Woodston, which has previously recalled thousands of washing machines due to a fire risk.

A Whirlpool spokesperson said: “We are sorry to hear of this customer’s experience and have been in touch to investigate the issue. One of our senior engineers is visiting the customer this week (04/09) to help us understand what has happened as a matter of urgency.”