News from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs Washington, D.C. 20207

For Immediate Release
Furnace Recall Hotline: (877) 347-6456
July 9, 2001
Contact: Ken Giles
Release # 01-189
(301) 504-0580 Ext. 1184

CPSC Announces Recall of Furnaces in California

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is announcing a recall of about 30,000 furnaces sold in California. SixSeven firms are offering to repair or replace certain furnaces, which were sold under their own labels, but were manufactured by Consolidated Industries Inc. The units involved are gas-fired horizontal furnaces equipped with steel "NOx" rods installed above the burners and are commonly called NOx rod furnaces. These furnaces pose a substantial risk of fire.

CPSC has received 50 reports of fires associated with all of the 140,000 horizontal furnaces manufactured by Consolidated Industries Inc. No injuries have been reported.

All the furnaces can be identified by the steel rods installed above the burners. The firms participating in this recall are Amana Company, L.P., of Amana, Iowa; Bard Manufacturing, of Bryan, Ohio; Carrier Corporation, of Syracuse, N.Y.; Goettl Air Conditioning Inc., of Phoenix, Ariz.; Goodman Manufacturing Company L.P., of Houston, Texas; Heat Controller Inc., of Jackson, Mich.; and The Trane Company, a division of American Standard Inc., of Tyler, Texas.

These gas-fired horizontal furnaces have steel rods (right) installed above the burners.

Private labelers sold these furnaces in California under the following brand names and model numbers, which areis written on a label on an outside panel of the furnace.

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Home, hardware and specialty stores, and independent contractors sold these furnaces in California from January 1983 through December 1992 for about $2,000.

Consumers should check to see if their furnace is is part of this recall immediately. , and Iif so, or for more information, they consumers should contact their local furnace installer or service provider. The recall program offers free inspection and repair of the furnaces. Consumers can elect to receive a new furnace, free of charge, except for installation costs. For more information or to schedule a free repair, consumers should call toll-free at (877) 347-6456 anytime, or contact the recall web site at www.furnaceinspect.com. Consumers should have the brand name, model number and serial number of their furnace available when they call or contact the web site. The recall program offers free inspection and repair of the furnaces. Consumers can elect to receive a new furnace, free of charge, except for installation costs.

CPSC issued a safety alert warning about these furnaces in September 2000. Consolidated Industries (formerly Premier Furnace Co.), which is being liquidated under Chapter 7 bankruptcy laws, manufactured approximately 1490,000 of these furnaces for sale in California between 1983 and 1994 under many different brand names. About 1160,000 of these furnaces were manufactured and distributed under the Premier/Consolidated labels. They are not covered by this recall program. However, there is on-going private litigation which could enable consumers to recover at least some of their out-of-pocket expenses for replacement or repair of the Premier/Consolidated brand furnaces. For more information about the private litigation, call Rob MacDonald at (408) 808-1410 or visit his the web site at http://www.white-mancdonald.com/.

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