Hotpoint Safety noticea plain-English guide
Over five million vented and condenser dryers built between 2004 and 2015, across six badges. The stop-use notice was recorded as ongoing by the regulator in 2019 and is still on the manufacturer’s site.
Stop — this needs an engineer
Get a qualified appliance engineer to look at your Hotpoint tumble dryer
We do not pass enquiries to a repair firm, so there is no form here. When you book a qualified appliance engineer, tell them the make, the model and the exact code or message on the display, and ask whether they carry parts for this make — that is what turns one visit into a repair rather than a quote.
Which kind of dryer do you have?
The right answer depends on what you can see. Pick the one that matches.
Choose the option on the left that matches what your appliance is doing, and the answer for that case appears here.
Which kind of dryer do you have?
You are in the population the campaign covers if it was made between April 2004 and September 2015. The badge alone does not settle it — the age does, and only the checker confirms it.
Check your model and serial number at safety.hotpoint.eu. If it is affected, the published instruction is to unplug and not use the dryer until it has been replaced or modified.
Which kind of dryer do you have?
These are the orphaned owners. Five Creda models and eighteen Swan models are on the affected list, but neither brand’s current website mentions the campaign or links anywhere useful.
The Creda models are TCR2, TCS3, TVR2R, TVS3R and TVU1R. The Swan models are the STC407, STCL407, STCL408, STV407, STV408 and STVL407 families, eighteen in total. Go to safety.hotpoint.eu — a Hotpoint domain, despite your badge — and enter model and serial number.
Which kind of dryer do you have?
The manufacturer’s position is that no further action is required. The regulator’s assessment was more qualified: the modification reduced the risk of lint fires rather than eliminating it, and the risk for modified appliances was judged low rather than absent.
No action is required of you. Keep the filter and the machine itself scrupulously clean, and do not run it overnight or while out — advice that applies to any dryer but with more force to this one.
Which kind of dryer do you have?
Whirlpool-badged dryers are explicitly excluded by name. Heat pump machines fall outside a scope that both the manufacturer and the regulator define as vented and condensing only.
Nothing on this page applies. Note that a separate national programme covers built-in heat pump dryers under other badges entirely.
What this means
The regulator puts this campaign at over five million machines, and parts of it are still running. The manufacturer describe the hazard as "excess fluff can come into contact with the heating element and present a risk of fire"; the regulator put it more precisely as "a risk that clumps of lint (from drying materials) could form within the machine, fall onto the heater, ignite and cause a fire", with a later review identifying the lint accumulating around the rear drum seal.
The scope is machines made between April 2004 and September 2015, defined by both the manufacturer and the regulator as vented and condensing dryers — heat pump machines are a separate category and fall outside that definition, though note that no official source says so in those words. Whirlpool-badged dryers are explicitly excluded: "Whirlpool branded tumble dryers are not affected by this safety notice." Six badges are affected, and the manufacturer’s own affected-models list contains Hotpoint, Indesit, Ariston, Swan, Creda and Proline.
Two things make this still worth acting on. The statutory Notice to Warn served in January 2017, which legally compelled the manufacturer to publish the words "unplug and do not use the tumble dryer before modification or replacement has taken place", was recorded by the regulator as ongoing in its review of 4 April 2019, and the campaign site still carries the stop-use wording today. And the modification was assessed as reducing the risk rather than eliminating it.
What causes it
| Cause | What is actually happening | How likely |
|---|---|---|
| Lint accumulating around the rear drum seal | The regulator’s technical description. Fluff builds up in excessive quantities at the back of the machine, falls onto the heater, ignites and causes a fire. | Common |
| A machine that was never modified | The whole point of the campaign, and the population the legal Notice to Warn covers. Millions of machines were resolved, but the arithmetic between the manufacturer’s own published figures leaves a substantial gap unaccounted for. | Common |
| A machine whose owner never knew | Particularly likely on a Creda or Swan machine. Neither brand’s current website mentions the campaign or links to the checker, and the checker lives on a Hotpoint domain bearing no relation to the badge on the appliance. | Common |
Can you fix it yourself?
Stop — this needs an engineer
What it costs to fix
Typical repair cost
£0
Nothing for the modification or the free replacement option. The upgrade route starts at £99 and is a choice rather than a requirement, and any refund is age-dependent. You should never be charged for the remedy itself.
Typical UK prices including parts and labour, updated September 2026. Your quote may differ.
Own this appliance and had this code? . Nothing is published until a person has read it.
Related Hotpoint fault codes
- F15Get it checkedA real dryer fault you can usually clear yourself in ten minutes. Hotpoint’s own website will tell you it is a washing machine heating fault and offer you a paid engineer.Related: same brand
- F10Get it checkedThe other code with a free fix. Hotpoint’s own light decoder responds to it by saying no errors were found, so owners are told their fault does not exist.Related: same brand
- F1 E1Get it checkedOne of fourteen two-part codes that all share a single remedy. The remedy opens with a safety instruction Hotpoint never explain, and it is the most important part of it.Related: same brand
Own a Hotpoint tumble dryer? Save it and its codes come first next time.
Related guides
Common questions
Is this still live? It sounds like an old story.
The campaign began in 2015 and the full recall in 2019, so most of it is history. Two things are not. The statutory Notice to Warn served in January 2017 was recorded by the regulator as ongoing in April 2019 — the last time the regulator addressed the point in writing — and the manufacturer’s campaign site, with a 2026 copyright line, still carries the stop-use wording it compelled and still runs the model checker. And an unmodified machine from that era is still an unmodified machine.
I have a Creda dryer. Nothing on their website mentions this.
That is correct and it is the worst part of this. Five Creda models are on the affected list — TCR2, TCS3, TVR2R, TVS3R and TVU1R — and neither Creda’s nor Swan’s current website mentions the campaign or links to the checker. You have to go to a Hotpoint-branded domain to check a Creda appliance.
What will they offer me?
The published options are a free replacement, an upgrade from £99 to a higher specification model, a free in-home modification, or a refund dependent on the age of the dryer. Be aware that the manufacturer runs two versions of the same page simultaneously and one of them offers only the modification, so if you are told that is the sole option, the other page says otherwise.
Does the modification actually fix it?
The regulator’s finding was that the modification "reduced risk associated with lint fires" and that the level of risk for modified appliances is low. Reduced and low are not the same as eliminated and none, and the same document notes that each fire breaching an appliance has the potential to cause serious injury or a fatality.
Can I just check the model list rather than using the checker?
The manufacturer say not, and unusually firmly: their own affected-models document states the interactive checker "is the only way to determine if your dryer is affected and needs resolving", because it needs the serial number as well as the model. Use the list to see whether it is worth checking, then check.
Technical review
Not reviewed by an engineer
No engineer has read this page. Severity follows what the manufacturer publishes, and we would rather tell you that than let a byline imply a sign-off.
Sources and how we verified this
We establish the facts from the sources below and then write the explanation ourselves. We do not copy manufacturer wording and we do not host their manuals.
- Trade body guidance
- Manufacturer support portal
This page has not been reviewed by an engineer, and we would rather tell you that than imply otherwise. The severity rating follows what the manufacturer publishes: where they say isolate the appliance and call someone, so do we.