Furnaces Recalled

Pose Significant Fire Safety Risk

On July 9, 2001, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced a recall of about 30,000 furnaces sold in California (Recall #01-189). These furnaces pose a substantial risk of fire. The units involved are gas-fired horizontal furnaces equipped with steel NOx rods installed above the burners (commonly called "NOx rod furnaces"). Several Southern California fire agencies have reported residential fires involving these furnaces. CPSC has received 50 reports of fires associated with 140,000 horizontal furnaces manufactured by Consolidated Industries. So far, no injuries have been reported.

Consolidated Industries (formerly Premier Furnace Co.), which is currently involved in Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings, manufactured approximately 140,000 of these furnaces for sale in California between 1983 and 1994 under many different brand names. Seven firms, which sold the Consolidated Industries units under their own labels, are offering to repair or replace certain units. The trade names of these furnaces are Amana, Bard, Sunburst (Carrier), American Best Goettl, Franklin Electric, Goodman, GMC, Hamilton Electric, Janitrol, Johnstone, Liberty, Comfort-Aire, Trane and American Standard. These furnaces originally sold for about $2,000 each. For a list of specific brand names and model numbers, please refer to CPSC's web page at . http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml01/01189.html

About 110,000 of these furnaces were manufactured and distributed under the Premier or Consolidated labels and are not covered by this recall program. However, on-going private litigation could enable consumers to recover at least some of their out-of-pocket expenses for the Premier/Consolidated brand of furnaces.

Additional consumer information regarding the recall is available by telephone toll- free at (877) 347-6456 or at http://www.furnaceinspect.com