Philips recalls faulty hair dryers in India

Dutch technology giant Royal Philips Electronics on Thursday announced the recall of its hair dryers owing to a glitch in the dryer’s electrical circuit, which poses a potential risk to users.

Dutch technology giant Royal Philips Electronics on Thursday announced the recall of its hair dryers owing to a glitch in the dryer’s electrical circuit, which poses a potential risk to users.

HT Image

The move affects millions Philips hair dryers globally and around 95,000 such dryers will be recalled in India alone. The company said though there were no incident yet the glitch posed a potential safety hazard instigating recall and replacement of such dryers.

“As a precautionary measure Philips Electronics India is voluntarily recalling and replacing two foldable hair dryer models sold in India between September 2008 and February 2011,” Philips Electronics said in a statement.

The affected appliances have the product type numbers — HP4931 and HP4940 —that can be found on the underside of the main body of the appliance. All the affected models have a foldable handle.

“The risk for consumers is very low, and no safety incidents have been reported in India. However, it has been found that in very rare cases the hairdryer can overheat when left plugged into the electrical connection. This poses a potential hazard, even when the appliance is switched off and not in use,” said Philips Electronics.

Philips also said that no other makes of hair dryer has been affected.

At present, Philips sells five hair dryer models in India. This is the first ever recall in India for Philips in any of its product categories.