Samsung TV fire

[Claymore]

Hi,
Had a shock today while working in my office printing stuff I decided to switch my Samsung TV on to watch the news and 10 minutes later it was on fire! :shock: the house was full of thick white smoke (now stinks bad) and there was flames coming out of the back, I immediately put my puppy outside and went back to rip all the wires out...not easy when there's dvds etc plugged in but finally got to throw it out of the office window which was very lucky as the office is the ONLY room in the house with a large opening window. It gave me a bit of a shock as what if it had happened at night or while I'm out? I know one thing for sure I will be unplugging the lot now at night. I did a quick search and found plenty of other Samsung TV owners and phones/tablets that have set on fire......I won't be buying any of their crap again. The TV was 3 years old and in perfect condition....wheni think of the years I had big old TV's that went on and on with no problems and if they did you could give them a thump on the top and the picture would settle.......remember horizontal hold? or tuning the station buttons with little screw drivers? lol those were the days........they even had fuses unlike the Samsung which had no fused plug and also it was plugged into a surge protection socket which didn't work! is there any decent stuff out there that's not cheap Chinese or Jap crap? I don't mind paying more if its good quality and more important safe. I phoned a help number for Samsung and they basically said that TV isn't one of our current range so couldn't help me #-o wasn't interested in compo just to warn others which I will do on every internet site possible now so others don't have fires.
Anyone want to buy a Samsung Indoor barbecue?
Brian

 

[Racers]

We have 4 Samsung tv/monitors all have worked faultlessly and I wouldn't think twice about buying another one.

I can't believe the plug on the Samsung has no fuse, your surge protection didn't work as it wasn't a surge.

Modern TV's consume a lot less power and should be a lot safer, look at it a one off its something that probably won't happen to you again.


I guess if you google any brand you will find some that will have problems, just look at the recent problems with tumble driers/BMWs catching fire.

Pete

 

[flh801978]

What sort of plug did the tv have then? to plug into a uk socket?

 

[Claymore]

The plug was a moulded black rubber one with no screws etc it just said 10amp on the plug no way to remove it . Anyway I have more stuff to worry about than a sodding TV nowadays.
Cheers

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Off the top of my head (no real experience of larger TVs) I'd have thought 10amps extremely high.

 

[Racers]

If it’s the one in the back of the tv then it’s an IEC line socket an the cable is protected by the fuse in the 13A plug 3-5A usually.

Pete

 

[Claymore]

Right i have managed to dig the fuse out of the plug (couldn't see the joint before as its melted) and inside is a 10 amp fuse

 

[Racers]

10A x 240V = 2400 Watts a kettle would have a 10A fuse not a tv.

Pete

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My kettle is 2500w - my kiln runs off a 13a plug.

 

[Claymore]

Its definitely a 10a fuse so is that good or bad? I know sod all about electric stuff as you might guess

 

[Eric The Viking]

Glad you are safe Brian!

Forget the fuse for a moment: what caused the fire? Was it a component fault, or a lightning storm passing overhead? TVs have aerials on the roof usually. It's not uncommon for TVs struck by lightning to burst into flames. If it happens it is most likely to start in the middle of the thing, where the tuner is situated, somewhere [edit]close to the aerial input socket, or in the power supply[/edit].

Officially, the fuse in the plug is only there to protect the household wiring and the cable to the appliance. It has no protective role for the device itself. I have never seen a fuse in the plug going into the appliance, but always one on the plug to the wall socket. It's slightly different in other countries, and under our old round-pin plug rules, as where those are used the house wiring arrangements are different.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

One day earlier in the week we had over 90,000 lightning strikes, apparently.

 

[sawdust1]

Good job you still don't have one of them "big old TV's", you would not of chucked one of those out
the window in a hurry on your own !

 

[stuartpaul]

Glad you're OK.

Can I suggest you report full details to your local trading standards? They may be able to determine if this is a larger issue with other known incidents.

It's only by this type of reporting a fuller picture of such issues can be built up.

 

[MARK.B.]

Have had numerous Samsung products over the years and never had a problem with them.

 

[Brandlin]

Glad you are OK.

Hi,
I won't be buying any of their rubbish again.

Samsung have one of the best reputations in that market place.

The TV was 3 years old and in perfect condition....

Well, unless there was something happened outside the TV to cause this (like lightening) then it wan't in perfect condition was it?

when i think of the years I had big old TV's that went on and on with no problems and if they did you could give them a thump on the top and the picture would settle

So you think a product you have to occasionally hit to make function correctly is right?

the Samsung which had no fused plug and also it was plugged into a surge protection socket which didn't work!

Well clearly the samsung had a fused plug. So thats not true.

I have two samsung TV's both came with 3amp fuses. The manuals state 3 amps only. I've just looked at 4 other samsung TV online manuals and they all say 3 amps only too. I cannot believe that 10amps is the rating shipped by the manufacturer. It's massive compared to the need and would perform no protective function. Who installed that fuse? a dealer? You? Someone who owned it before you? I VERY strongly doubt it was samsung.

However until you know the cause of the fire its a moot point as to whether there was or would have been an electrical short causing sufficient current to flow to blow a 3 amp fuse.

Also Surge protection as has been stated elsewhere in this thread is not there to perform the function you think it does.

is there any decent stuff out there that's not cheap Chinese or Jap rubbish?

The fact that you think chinese or jap stuff is rubbish simply because of where it is made is pretty bigotted. Almost any nation can make a good product or a bad one! Its the quality of the engineering and design that matters, not the race of the people doing it!

wasn't interested in compo just to warn others which I will do on every internet site possible now so others don't have fires.

I suggest you correct some of the facts in your earlier outburst before you go rubbishing a product on line. I accept entirely that it is NOT right that you had this issue, and I understand it must be scary, and that, YES, it might be worth warning others, but scaremongering with incorrect information doesn't help anyone - Like you say you found "several" examples of people with samsung issues. I am sure you will find that for EVERY manufacturer. But if that's several issues across many tens of millions of units sold then its misleading to brand an entire company as foreign rubbish!

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Straight to the point eh Brandlin! :wink:

I’m glad the op is ok and no serious damage done, but I agree with you entirely. (Saved me a lot of typing too :wink: )

OWK ccasion5:

 

[Brandlin]

Dear Daily Mail.... :roll:

 

[AES]

Glad you weren't hurt at all Brian, and hope you've suitably recovered your equilibrium by now.

@Brandlin, while I DO agree with the main thrust of your arguments, I also think you're being a bit harsh on Claymore (Brian) this time. Why?

First off, none of us know how soon after the event he was posting this. If it had happened to me (or you?) I certainly would have been "trembling" for quite some time afterwards, Yes?

Second, you may or may not know, but the OP now lives alone in a remote area (with just a small dog) after his wife suddenly died quite recently. As I say, you may not know all that, but he did post the brief facts here (Scroll Saw section) earlier this year.

3rd, again you may or may not know (though again he's posted the bare facts here before), the OP has severe, I think basically incurable medical problems. That's enough to make anyone feel (in the nicest possible way) a bit "unstable" at times, let alone if his telly's just burst into flames!

To give an example of what I mean, on another thread I recently posted an answer to someone on another thread about 3 phase electrics. My answer was complete and utter CARP and in fact, at the back of my mind I thought I was maybe completely wrong with my answer when posting. Yet I did still post. Why on earth should I do that? NOT an excuse, but at the time my wife was in hospital for sudden heart problems and that was of course much on my mind - much more so than 3 phase electrics (about which I know little anyway)!

In reality I should NOT even have been reading this Forum at the time, let alone trying to answer questions, but I did. Dumb? Yeah, absolutely. But also, I think maybe understandable under the circumstances.

So I repeat, IMO basically you're right in your stance, the tone of the OP's post is certainly "misguided", at best. But in this particular case, knowing a little of the background (only because it's been posted here, I don't know the OP personally), I think you should be cutting the OP a bit more slack than you have thus far.

With respect.

 

[Lons]

I'm with AES. Doesn't make you wrong Brandlin but maybe a bit harsh.

It's all too easy to respond to a stranger, which most of us are on here, without knowing the full facts.
I've regretted many an impulsive post.

With 5 year warranties on TVs now almost the norm as they are so reliable I'd be following that up with trading standards even if out of warranty, it just shouldn't happen and manufacturers can take years to accept responsibility. BMW have been mentioned, Mercedes and VW are others and the issue with tumble dryers took a very long time to be resolved, if indeed they are!

We also have several Samsung products without issues - touch wood.

Bob