This is a Sunbeam heating pad that a LiveJournal user bought for his girlfriend. After a little while she said that the heating pad was too hot, even on low, turned it off, let it cool, and set it aside.

“Fast forward about two hours later and she wakes up to a room filled with black, acrid smoke and the heating pad charring the sheets and melting into the bed. She had said before this that even on low it was still way too hot, but somehow last night even after being turned off and cooling down it still managed to do the following damage to her mattress and sheets”

“We’ve informed the Walgreen’s we bought it from and the assistant manager said they would pull the heating pad from their shelves. We’ll be contacting Sunbeam directly about this either tomorrow or Thursday. Has anyone ever dealt with something like this before or have any advice on possibly recouping some damages from a possible defect? It appears as though all operating instructions were followed and the warranty wasn’t violated.”

We’d contact the FDA to report the issue (apparently, heating pads are regulated by the FDA and not the CPSC… ) We’d also contact Sunbeam and request compensation for the damage, though from what we can tell its not likely that you’ll get it. Why do we say that? Two seconds of Googling resulted in a news story about a familiar-looking heating pad behaving in a very similar way.

Keep excellent documentation of this issue. You want want to show it to a lawyer. Maybe even this one:

Product liability attorney George McLaughlin has been involved in close to 100 cases against Sunbeam in 11 years.

“I have with me today four different heating pads, all of which are clearly burned,” he said as he showed us the pads.

McLaughlin said most of the cases have involved electric blankets or electric mattress covers, but recently he has been getting more heating pad claims.

He said he is now planning to file a lawsuit against Sunbeam on behalf of five clients who said they were burned as a result of defective heating pads that malfunctioned.

Heating pads fall under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration because they’re considered medical devices.

The FDA said it has received more than 40 complaints – reports of adverse incidents – about Sunbeam heating pads since 2001.

Any other suggestions?

An Adventure with a Walgreen’s Heating Pad [LiveJournal](Thanks, Jeff!)
Potential Heating Pad Danger [ABC6]

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