GE dishwashers: what CPSC incident reports show

What this page is counting#

Every number on this page is a share of CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for GE dishwashers, 2011-2026, n=433.

The CPSC SaferProducts database records reports of harm, not a census of units in service. It is a safety reporting channel: people report what is dangerous, so fire, smoke and burn hazards dominate it. Nothing here is a failure rate, and nothing here says how often GE dishwashers break — only what was reported, and in what proportion of those reports each part is named. A narrative mention of a part is not that part failing. Method: /methodology.

What CPSC reports say about GE dishwashers#

Four hundred and thirty-three CPSC SaferProducts incident reports name a GE [dishwasher](/blog/repair-or-replace-dishwasher) between 2011 and 2026. Within those narratives the heating element is named most often, in 33% of reports, or 141 of them, with the control board second at 17%, which is 74. Wiring or the power cord follows in 5% and the motor in 2%, twenty-three and seven reports. The two leaders are the heat-producing and the power-switching parts of the machine, which is what you would expect a channel built to collect fire and smoke accounts to surface — the shape of the list tells you as much about the database as about the appliance. Six recall notices sit on this record, published between 1999 and 2012 and reproduced below as issued. Nothing here is a failure rate, and nothing here counts the machines that ran without incident.

Which parts the reports name#

Share of CPSC SaferProducts incident reports for GE dishwashers, 2011-2026, n=433 whose narrative mentions each part. A report naming a part several times counts once.

Method: /methodology.

Recalls on record#

Recall notices CPSC has issued for this brand and appliance, listed as published. This is a list of documents, not a rate: it says nothing about how many units were affected as a share of any population.

• GE Dishwashers: CPSC recall 12244 (2012-08-09) — GE Recalls Dishwashers Due to Fire Hazard; source: https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2012/GE-Recalls-Dishwashers-Due-to-Fire-Hazard
• GE Dishwashers: CPSC recall 05116 (2005-02-18) — CPSC, GE Announce Recall of Built-In Dishwashers; source: https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2005/CPSC-GE-Announce-Recall-of-Built-In-Dishwashers-
• GE Dishwashers: CPSC recall 00006 (1999-10-18) — CPSC, GE Announce Recall of Dishwashers; source: https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2000/CPSC-GE-Announce-Recall-of-Dishwashers
• GE Dishwashers: CPSC recall 07190 (2007-05-16) — General Electric Recalls Dishwashers Due to Fire Hazard; source: https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2007/General-Electric-Recalls-Dishwashers-Due-to-Fire-Hazard
• GE Dishwashers: CPSC recall 01054 (2000-12-14) — CPSC and GE Announce Free Repair Supplement of Rebate Program for Recalled Dishwashers: Recalled Units Still Being Used, Creating Risk of Fire; source: https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2001/CPSC-and-GE-Announce-Free-Repair-Supplement-of-Rebate-Program-for-Recalled-Dishwashers-Recalled-Units-Still-Being-Used-Creating-Risk-of-Fire
• GE Dishwashers: CPSC recall 11022 (2010-10-26) — GE Recalls Dishwashers Due to Fire Hazard; source: https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2010/GE-Recalls-Dishwashers-Due-to-Fire-Hazard

What the certified listings say#

80 GE dishwashers are catalogued in the certified-product listings. A certified-product census is not a census of units in service, and these specs are unrelated to the incident reports above.

Method: /methodology.

What an owner can act on#

The heating element is the single most-named part and the easiest to inspect. Open the door, pull the lower rack out and look along the element on the tub floor: it should be one even dark tone end to end. A bright scorched band, a blistered or deformed section, or melted plastic welded to the metal all mean stop rather than scrub. The usual source of that plastic is a lightweight item dropping through the lower basket during a cycle, so check the basket underside and the tub floor around the element at the same time.

The control board speaks through behaviour, not appearance. Take a console lighting patterns nobody selected, a cycle restarting itself, a keypad answering some presses and ignoring others, or a hot-plastic smell hanging around the door after a run as one signal rather than four quirks. Cut power at the breaker before investigating, because a board doing unpredictable things is not one to leave energised.

Wiring is named in twenty-three of these reports, and the check is quick. Where the supply enters the machine — the terminal block behind the toe-kick on a hard-wired install, the cord and plug on a corded one — look for discoloured or brittle insulation and brown heat marks around the screws. A breaker that trips partway through a heated-dry cycle is describing a real condition and not a nuisance to be reset repeatedly.

Six recall notices are listed above, spanning 1999 to 2012, and several are fire-hazard notices for built-in models. A recall list is a set of documents, not a rate, and it says nothing about the share of any population affected. Age is no reason to skip the check: one of those notices exists specifically because recalled units were still in service years later. Coverage is set by production ranges, so only the model number answers it, and the rating plate is on the inner edge of the door.