Family fight Samsung over fridge odour they say caused dizziness and memory loss

This sounds pretty concerning: "Samsung's own compliance tool, used by retailers to check that stock complies with Australian standards, lists the model as being one that should be prioritised for sale because it could be non-compliant."

I think Australia has somewhat working consumer protection agencies, and if this is true (Samsung knowingly selling non-compliant products, and trying to sell them faster to make sure they're all sold before the non-compliance is discovered), I hope the sanctions are something truly discouraging (e.g. a fine corresponding to all revenue from sales of that model).

Some context.

Refrigerator was 4 years old and out of stated warranty period

Refrigerator not sold to them by samsung or installed by samsung but by another party ("JB Hi-Fi").

Despite being out of warranty, family offered a refund - they declined it. An expert has called Samsungs behavior "concerning and unfair".

Notes:

Plenty of folks ignore almost all maintenance steps (cleaning coils, filter changes etc). Pulling the covers and looking around and cleaning even 1x per year would help longevity and catch problems earlier in many cases.

Having purchased appliances both personally and for a business - first call is usually to the store that sold us the item. These things are the one thing we get an extended warranty on.

The installers are absolutely not licensed plumbers or electricians! I wouldn't be surprised if a fair bit of damage is caused just in getting these items to their locations and installed. They are heavy and awkward.

Ask the repair tech who comes for first repair what most common issue is they are repairing - they often know right away (because they stock the parts etc etc). Some are avoidable / manageable.

> "As a consumer advocate, it's rare to see deeds of release with gag clauses — which is what this is."

I guess that offer is no longer valid since the fight hit the news. I wonder if we'll see more and more of these attempts to silence customers, as 1. companies get bigger and more powerful, and 2. regular people's ability to broadcast company wrongdoing over social media grows.

Speaking of refrigerators, are there any consumer level brands now that don't completely suck? It seems like longevity and reliability of refrigerators has fallen off a cliff lately. Major mfgs like Samsung and LG have serious issues with compressors dying early and it seems every fridge is loaded with features that mostly just shorten their lifetime.

Any bets that is a blown start capacitor, and the brown stuff is the electrolyte fluid? The smell is pretty bad.

Another news organisation notes the model is SR520BLSTC.[1] The SR520BLSTC user manual states R600a (isobutane) is used as the refrigerant.[1] Isobutane has a boiling point of -12oC.

There are numerous case studies of people dieing from isobutane inhalation, but generally the exposure is deliberate such as sniffing isobutane from a camping stove canister, or spraying air freshener directly into the nose.[3] Cause of death appears to generally be due to hypoxia as isobutane is an asphyxiant, or ventricular fibrillation caused due to exertion in breathing.[3]

The impacted person stated "I started to have rapid breathing and my muscles went completely weak".[1] These reported symptoms appear to align with symptoms referred to in case studies of isobutane inhalation exposure where rapid breathing occurs, and the strain from this rapid breathing is thought to in some cases be the cause for ventricular fibrillation.[3]

[1] https://www.9news.com.au/national/victorian-family-say-samsu...

[2] https://downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/UM/202109/2021091...

[3] https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/source/hsdb/608#section=Hum...

Hmm...

    "I explained to the poisons hotline it wasn't just refrigerant, it was something more sinister," she said.

How would she know? Probably something electronic burnt out. Then the wife had a panic attack from over worry.

Article is interesting because of the non-disclosure clause stuff. Which, while not totally surprising I guess, is pretty scummy.