Samsung says in talks with U.S. watchdog on washing machine safety issues

SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics, which is already reeling from a global recall of its Note 7 smartphones, said on Thursday it is in talks with a U.S. watchdog to address potential safety problems related to some of its washing machines.

The South Korean tech company’s comments came as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warned of problems with some of Samsung’s top-load washing machines, following media reports that they had exploded.

Certain top-load washing machines made between March 2011 and April 2016 were affected, both the company and the CPSC said.

“In rare cases, affected units may experience abnormal vibrations that could pose a risk of personal injury or property damage when washing bedding, bulky or water-resistant items,” Samsung said on its website.

The company said consumers with affected models should use the lower speed delicate cycle when washing those materials.

Samsung did not mention the models impacted but asked customers to enter their washing machine’s serial number to determine if their machine is affected.

It was not immediately known how many units were involved, but a Samsung spokesperson said models sold outside North America are not affected by the issue.

Samsung is also facing a lawsuit from U.S. customers who, according to a filing in a New Jersey court on Aug. 12., said their machines “explode during normal use”.

Samsung, the world’s top smartphone maker, announced on Sept. 2 a global recall of at least 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in 10 markets due to faulty batteries causing some phones to catch fire.

Its shares seemed to have shrugged off the latest setback for the company, rising 3.2 percent as of 0327 GMT on Thursday, versus the wider market’s 0.9 percent gain.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in SEOUL and Subrat Patnaik in BENGALURU,; Additional reporting by Yun Hwan Chae and Se Young Lee in SEOUL; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)