GE Appliances is recalling about 155,000 refrigerators due to freezer door handles that may detach and lead to injuries, according to an announcement from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The company has received 71 reports of the handle detaching, which has caused 37 injuries, including three “serious” falls.
“The freezer handle can detach when a consumer tries to open the freezer drawer, posing a fall hazard to the consumer,” the recall notice says.
The recall involves six models of stainless-steel GE-brand French door refrigerators with bottom freezers that were manufactured between February 2020 and August 2021.
The fridges were primarily sold in the U.S. from February 2020 through January 2022 at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Best Buy, and other home improvement and home appliance stores, as well as online at Lowes.com and BestBuy.com, for $1,900 to $2,500. The recall notice includes 2,300 fridges sold in Canada as well.
Consumers should contact GE Appliances to find out if their unit is part of the recall and “schedule a free in-home service call to have the freezer’s handle mounting fasteners replaced and the handle re-installed,” the recall says. The company is contacting all known purchasers directly.
“Consumers can continue using their refrigerators,” the company wrote. “If the handle is loose, a consumer can open the freezer by gripping the edge of the freezer door where the flexible rubber sealing gasket meets the metal freezer door.”
The brand name, model, and serial number for each unit are printed inside the refrigerator, on a label on the top of the left side.
The affected models are GFE26JYMKFFS, GFE26JYMNFFS, GNE27EYMKFFS, GNE27EYMNFFS, GNE27JYMKFFS, and GNE27JYMNFFS.
The serial numbers for the affected models begin with one of these two-letter combinations: DR, FR, GR, HR, LR, MR, RR, SR, TR, VR, ZR, AS, DS, FS, GS, HS, LS, or MS.
Consumers can contact GE Appliances at 888-345-4671 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or online at the company’s fridge recall notice page.