Galanz Americas is recalling about 121,680 retro-style refrigerators sold at Home Depot and Amazon after the company confirmed 34 fire incidents and one death tied to a wiring defect that can cause the units to short-circuit and ignite, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recall notice. The popular vintage-look fridges were sold nationwide between January 2019 and September 2022, meaning a unit could still be running in a kitchen or garage right now without its owner knowing it’s part of a federal recall.
Key Points
- Roughly 121,680 units are affected, sold under model numbers BCD-215V-62H, GLR76TRDER, GLR76TBKER, GLR76TBEER, and GLR76TWEER, with date codes from December 2018 through December 2020.
- CPSC’s notice states the refrigerators’ internal electrical components can short circuit and ignite, posing a risk of serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards.
- The 7.6-cubic-foot, retro-look units were sold in black, blue, red, and white, with a top freezer compartment and left- or right-hand opening doors, for between $330 and $520.
- They were sold at Home Depot stores nationwide and on Amazon.com from January 2019 through September 2022.
What Consumers Should Do
- Unplug the refrigerator immediately and stop using it, even if it appears to be working normally — CPSC’s notice specifically instructs consumers to do this until the unit has been repaired.
- Check the model number and date code, typically found on a label inside the unit or on the back panel, against the five models listed above.
- Contact Galanz at 888-462-0579, by email at customerservice@galanzamericas.com, or through www.galanz.com/us/ to schedule a free in-home repair.
- Do not keep using the fridge for food storage while waiting on a repair appointment, given the fire risk described in the recall.
Retro-style appliances have become a fixture of vintage-kitchen design trends over the past several years, prized for their colorful finishes and nostalgic look more than pure function — which is part of why so many ended up in homes as secondary fridges for garages, basements, or drink storage rather than primary kitchen appliances, according to Fox Business’s coverage of the recall. That secondary placement, often unwatched for hours at a time, may be part of why a fire risk in an appliance most people don’t think of as dangerous is drawing particular concern from safety officials.
CPSC recalls involving electrical short circuits in kitchen appliances typically stem from a specific manufacturing or component defect rather than misuse by the owner, which is part of why the agency’s remedy here is a free repair rather than a simple refund or replacement — the underlying appliance is considered salvageable once the faulty wiring is addressed. Until that repair happens, though, the recall notice is unambiguous that the unit should not be left plugged in, regardless of how long it has run without an incident.