‘Someone could have been hurt’: Man puts a load of laundry in his GE washing machine. Then it ‘explodes’

A man says he was doing a routine load of laundry on a Saturday morning. Then he says he heard a sound like a bomb going off inside his home.

Bruce Johnson (@bruce.johnson513) reveals the aftermath of what he says was his GE washing machine suddenly exploding. He tells his audience the appliance damaged his laundry room walls. As of this writing, his post has more than 37,000 views.

“Today is [Oct. 17], I get up this morning, want to wash clothes, put a little half a load of clothes in my washer, and this [is] what happened,” he says. “My washer exploded without even [giving] me a sign or noise, anything [at] all … All I heard was a big boom.”

The damage

He pans around the laundry room, showing the extent of the damage.

“This is the lid that goes on top of my washer,” he says, showing the detached piece on the floor. He says it “exploded off the hinges,” hitting the wall and pushing his dryer backward.

The content creator captions his video: “Be aware of GE [washers]. This happened to me today and scared my whole family.”

He then shows a series of large holes in the wall behind the units, as well as multiple knobs and other components that broke off the washing machine.

He pans to the drum's interior, showing a relatively small amount of clothes still sitting inside. The content creator says that it hadn't been making the sorts of sounds one would normally attribute to an overly large load.

“Sometimes you go, and you hear the noise, you come, you lift the lid up, you arrange stuff,” he says. “But this time it didn't do that all. I heard was a big boom. It sounded like a bomb that went off.”

The TikToker says he suspects the machine itself was defective. He points to the number of components that broke loose, adding, “I investigated many car collisions during my career, and this looks like the same thing.”

But mainly, he stresses the damage the explosion might have caused had people been nearby. “Be very careful and don't have your kids around this washer,” he cautions. “This is really dangerous for anybody to have this washer in their house. Maybe they need to do a recall.”

He ends the video by saying he intends to contact GE about the damage to the appliances and his home.

GE washing machines have been recalled before

This isn't the first time GE washing machines have been recalled for potentially dangerous mechanical failures. In 2012, GE recalled approximately 62,000 GE Profile Front Load Washers. The company found that their internal baskets could separate and break through the machine's top panel, “posing an injury hazard to consumers.”

GE also recalled approximately 222,000 top-loading washing machines in 2016 after receiving 71 reports of “internal washer components burning or catching fire, including three reports of fires resulting in about $129,000 in property damage.”

Neither establishes a connection to the newer machine in the content creator's TikTok. However, a Pennsylvania woman named Kathy Stallsmith had a similar experience in May of last year with her GE Profile washing machine.

“The dryer next to the washer was dented, parts of the machine — including the dial — were blown off,” WGAL News 8 reported at the time. “The damage caused by the old one resembled an explosion.”

What did commenters think?

Commenters almost unanimously agreed that they just don't make washing machines like they used to.

“These new washers cannot handle large or heavy loads. Unbalanced happens on the regular,” wrote one viewer.

“I have that exact model, and when it spins it sounds like police banging on my door!” wrote another.

A third added, “I will NEVER buy another one. I bought 1 just 2 yrs ago … Lid cracked … Just to repair the lid will be $600 [to] $800 … They fall apart and are nothing but a waste of money.”

Meanwhile, folks with decades-old washing machines say theirs are still going strong, with one viewer writing, “I have a [40-year-old] Maytag set that came with my house. Only repaired a few times over 31 years!”

Another viewer said, “My grandparents had the same washer and dryer from the 70s when I was growing up in the 90s. They used to make appliances to last…now everything is cheaply done.”

What makes a washing machine explode?

While it's impossible to know what exactly caused Johnson's washer to blow up, it is not unusual for washing machines to become unstable during high-speed spin cycles, particularly with uneven loads.

GE responded to News 8's Pennsylvania explosion story at the time with: “In very rare instances, these incidents can happen when waterproof or water-resistant items — such as mattress pads — are being washed. During the spin cycle, water that has become trapped in the mattress pad can be released suddenly, causing a rapid and dramatic shift in the balance inside of a drum spinning hundreds of times a minute.”

Even though Johnson says more than once that he had placed a smaller load in the machine, this doesn't necessarily prevent it from becoming unbalanced.

GE notes that “A load that consists of only one or two items is likely to get out of balance more easily than a full load,” adding that “it is best to wash full loads with like items, not single items that soak up a lot of water.”

Regardless, the load size doesn't really explain why the man's washing machine suffered damage so severe he uses the words “bomb,” “explosion,” and “car collision” to describe it.

@bruce.johnson513

Subplot News reached out to Johnson via TikTok direct message and GE Appliances via email.

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