Tumble dryer recalls and safety notices: check yours

Why this page exists

Three fire safety campaigns are running on tumble dryers in the UK at the time of writing, and between them they cover machines under a dozen badges built across two decades. Each has its own page on this site under the brand's "Safety notice" code, because the details differ. This guide puts the three side by side so that an owner who does not know which applies — or whose badge, like Creda or Swan, has no working website of its own any more — can find out in a few minutes.

The order below is by how many machines are involved. Check all three if you are unsure; the checks take longer to read than to do.

1. Whirlpool group: vented and condenser dryers, 2004 to 2015

The largest appliance safety campaign in British history, and parts of it are still running. In the manufacturer's account, fluff can in rare cases reach the heating element and start a fire; the regulator, the Office for Product Safety and Standards, described lint clumping inside the machine and dropping onto the heater, and a later review placed the accumulation around the rear drum seal.

Which machines. Vented and condenser dryers made between April 2004 and September 2015 under the Hotpoint, Indesit, Creda, Swan and Proline names, with Ariston also appearing on the manufacturer's affected-models list. Heat pump dryers fall outside a scope that both the manufacturer and the regulator define as vented and condensing machines, although no official document says so in as many words. Whirlpool-badged dryers are named as unaffected. More than five million machines were in scope, and the campaign page's own figures are 1.7 million resolved and up to half a million unmodified machines still in homes.

How to check. The model checker is at safety.hotpoint.eu, and it is a Hotpoint domain whatever your badge — a Creda or Swan owner goes there too. It wants both numbers, model and serial, and tells you where they are: on the tag on the back of the dryer door, or in the door recess. Type the model number without spaces. First, though, look for a green dot sticker in the door area or on the back plate; the checker page says a machine carrying one needs nothing done. There is a published list of affected models as well, but the manufacturer says not to rely on it alone for a machine's status, so use the checker.

The instruction if affected. Unplug it and do not use it until it has been modified or replaced. That wording was compelled by a statutory Notice to Warn served in January 2017, which the regulator records as still in force, and Hotpoint's own safety page carries it.

The remedy. Four choices on the campaign page: a replacement at no charge; an upgrade to a higher-specification machine from £99; a modification in your home at no charge; or, if none of those suit, a refund scaled to the age of the dryer. The modification and the replacement cost nothing.

If yours was modified. The manufacturer's position is that nothing further is needed. The regulator's review of April 2019 was more guarded: the modification reduced the chance of a lint fire without removing it, and the residual risk on a modified machine was judged low rather than nil. Keep the filter and the machine itself scrupulously clean, and do not run it overnight or while out. The Hotpoint safety notice page names the Creda and Swan model families for the owners those brands' websites have abandoned.

2. Haier-built heat pump dryers: eight badges, built-in machines

The most recent campaign, and the one with a detail that neither manufacturer's own safety page carries. The regulator's finding is an internal short circuit that can occur in normal use and set the dryer alight; the machines fail the Electrical Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016, and the risk level is Serious.

Which machines. Built-in heat pump dryers sold as Candy, Hoover, Baumatic, Caple, Haier, Iberna, Lamona and Montpellier. When the regulator issued its urgent check, some 85,000 machines still needed the updated repair. Freestanding Candy and Hoover dryers are not in scope; every model in the programme is integrated.

How to check, without phoning anyone. Look at the rating plate. The regulator's product safety reports say: appliances which have received the current modification have a "J7" marking on the rating plate, and no further action is required; affected appliances which have not are marked "HM1" or have no marking, and "are still affected by the safety risk and should not be used until a modification has been completed". Neither Candy nor Hoover publish that on their own pages.

The part the manufacturers' pages do not cover. The regulator stopped the first repair programme over concerns that the original modification was itself unsafe, and from 1 August 2025 its notices carry a warning that machines modified before that date still present a fire risk and should be taken out of use. A visit from an engineer in the first half of 2025 is therefore not the reassurance it looks like. The plate marking is the test: J7, or nothing.

The instruction and the remedy. Stop using the machine now, and unplug it if the plug can be reached. The programme line is 0808 178 0516; the regulator's position is that the companies will visit every home with an affected dryer and make it safe, at no cost. The Candy safety notice page carries the regulator's wording in full; the OPSS collation page is on gov.uk.

3. Beko and Blomberg condenser dryers built in 2012

Beko have two notices live on their own site. Both concern condenser dryers from a window of a few months in 2012, and both say to stop using the machine. The larger-capacity notice, for 8 kg and 9 kg machines built between May and November that year, attributes the problem to a component from a third-party supplier that can fail and overheat, with a fire risk in rare cases. The 6 kg and 7 kg notice, for machines built May to October 2012, is blunter: Beko say they know of incidents in which the component failed and overheated, and they ask owners to stop using the dryer at once and disconnect it at the socket. The Blomberg-badged version of the larger notice names one Blomberg model.

How to check. What makes this campaign easy to check is that Beko tell you how to read the build date off the machine, which no other manufacturer here does. The plate is a sticker at the bottom of the inner rim of the door opening, and the serial on it has ten digits: the first two are the year of manufacture and the last two the month. So a serial that begins 12 and ends anywhere from 05 to 11 belongs to a machine built between May and November 2012, and that is the machine Beko want to hear about. A serial that does not begin 12 is outside both notices whatever the model. Heat pump machines are not covered by either notice, and Beko are not part of the heat pump programme above. The pages are beko.co.uk/dryerrepair and beko.co.uk/safety/6kg-7kg-condenser-tumble-dryers; the Beko safety notice page here works through the model and serial branches.

Finding the numbers

On every brand in this category the plate is in or around the door: the Whirlpool checker says the back of the door or the door recess, Beko say the bottom of the inner rim of the door opening, and Bosch publish the same position — the inner rim of the door, visible when open, sometimes behind the filter door or on the back — for their washing machines and dryers alike. AEG add that the number to use for identifying their machines is the nine-digit PNC on the plate, such as 916 098 961, rather than the name on the front, because model names repeat across years. Photograph the whole plate rather than copying one line: the Whirlpool checker needs the model and the serial, the Beko check needs the serial, and the Haier check needs the marking.

Checking anything else

Two places cover every appliance, not only dryers. The Office for Product Safety and Standards publish product safety alerts, reports and recalls at gov.uk/product-safety-alerts-reports-recalls, searchable by brand and product type. And Register My Appliance, run by the trade body AMDEA, lets you register older appliances as well as new ones so the manufacturer can reach you if a notice is issued later — which is the mechanism that would have reached far more of the owners in the first campaign above than the manufacturer managed to.

What to do while you wait for the visit

Do not use the machine. If the plug is accessible, unplug it; if the dryer is built in and the socket is behind a cupboard, switch it off at the wall and leave it off. If you have a load in it, take it out and spread it — the general dryer warning about heat building in a stopped load applies here as everywhere. And do not accept a charge: every remedy in all three programmes is free, and anyone asking for payment for work under a safety notice is not the programme.

Sources

Whirlpool group: safety.hotpoint.eu and its product recall and model checker pages (scope, dates, hazard wording, green dot sticker, plate location, remedies); the Office for Product Safety and Standards' Whirlpool tumble dryer review and risk statement of April 2019 (Notice to Warn, the modification's effect, the numbers); Hotpoint's safety notice page. Haier programme: the Office for Product Safety and Standards' corrective action programme page and the Candy and Hoover product safety reports on gov.uk (hazard, J7 and HM1 markings, the 1 August 2025 update, the programme line), and their news release on the 85,000 machines. Beko: the two Beko UK notice pages linked above. All were live on 3 September 2026. The three "Safety notice" code pages on this site record the same sources verbatim.