Oreck "Air Cleaner"

[michaelman2]

Hi all..this may have been a fluke, but I had one of the air cleaners that ol Dave is always talking about on TV. I changed the filter and went to the grocery. I came back to a house full of black sooty smoke and that unit was ablaze! I finally got it outside and turned a garden hose on it. Turns out the charcoal filters I used were recalled and I did not know it. This literally was a grill sitting on my kitchen counter. Thank G-d the counter was stainless and not flamable. The company was very cagey about the situation, but did repair my counter. Took me several days to get the soot and smoke out of the house.

 

[maytagbear]

I am grateful

that it wasn't worse.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[petek]

You didn't have to tell me that.. geeze, I've got numerous electronic air cleaners going in the house. I don't use the charcoal filter parts because they don't really do anything I've found, just an added expense.

 

[michaelman2]

Hey thanks Maytag! Believe me I agree, you should have seen that house..the smoke with pitch black. Took me forever to get that cleaned up. Pete...this only was the Oreck and from what I now understand, there was a recall for the filters that I had. Somehow they would get hot enough to light the charcoal in the filter. I have had other filters and none have done anything like this....hummm,,,, clean air or house burned to the ground..let me decide...lol...hhaha

 

[sudsmaster]

Yikes!

When I saw the subject heading, my initial reaction was, "anything from Oreck is bound to be overpriced and under designed". But I'm surprised that they actually made and distributed these time bombs. Glad your home escaped total destruction at the hands of Mr. Oreck.

 

[whirlcool]

Wow!

We have two Oreck Air Cleaners, an Air-7 and a 4000 unit. I imagine yours was either the Air-9 table model that burned up?
Ours have worked without any difficulty. I can't imagine how those filters got hot. I just stopped ours and felt the filter and it was cool. Was there any arcing in the unit before the fire?
BTW, these are great for removing dog dander from the air.

 

[michaelman2]

Hey Suds and Whirlcool..no arcing, I had just changed the filter and the filter that I inserted was one that had been purchased at the time I purchased the unit. Apparently there was a recall that I had not been notified of. I had two of these as well...For obvious reasons I no longer use the other one.