Ryobi Recall: Fan Blade Pieces Can Break Off
March 15th, 2017. By LucyC
A jet fan blower that bites? You betcha! Ryobi is recalling its defective electric jet fan blowers—not really sure what these are—but I’m guessing it might have something to do with gardening.
The recall has been prompted by a rather high number of reported injuries. Apparently, the blower is prone to breaking in a rather bad tempered sort of way, having already caused 10,681 “incidents”, including 25 reports of minor injuries, such as lacerations to the face, hands and legs. These injuries are caused by fan blade pieces being discharged from either end of the blower. Got that?—EITHER end.
The deal is, according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), the plastic fan inside the blower can break “causing the fan blades to be discharged from either end of the blower tube, posing a laceration hazard.”
Talk about the element of surprise. One minute you’re blowing the leaves away and the next you’re in the middle of cloud of plastic shrapnel. Depending on where and how you’re holding this thing—a good deal more tender body parts could suffer harm.
No wonder this thing gets low ratings from Home Depot customer reviews:
About 121,000 of these defective Ryobi Electric Jet Fan Blowers were sold in the US with another 1900 in Canada and 1100 in Mexico.
We can all breathe a huge sigh of relief however, as the CPSC notes that no property damage has been reported. Depends how you define property, I would say.
Here’s the skinny: the recall involves the Ryobi 8 amp Electric Jet Fan Blowers with model number RY42102 and a serial number between EU15401D170001 and EU16239N999999. The model and serial numbers are printed on the data label on the bottom of the blower. The blower is black and green with “RYOBI” printed on the side of the blower. “8amp JET FAN” is also printed on the side of the blower.
Given the number of “incidents” (not sure exactly what that refers to) and injuries, it seems this recall might be just a bit overdue .
If you own one of these things—you’re being advised to stop using it. If you contact One World Technologies, Inc. they will provide you with a free replacement—one that presumably doesn’t turn into a weapon of mass destruction. FYI—One World Technologies is the importer.
The blowers were sold exclusively at Home Depot stores nationwide, in Canada and Mexico and online at www.homedepot.com from December 2015 through December 2016 for about $40.
And while we’re on the subject of gardening—what ever happened to rakes? Good for the heart, good for the environment—easy on the ears and not prone to explosions of any kind. That’s left to the user’s discretion.
Here’s the full information about the Ryobi recall from the CPSC.
While using my RY42102 blower(090264001) the red fan blew apart, sending pieces out the discharge. Luckily I ended up with minor lacerations.All I’m asking for is my money back or a new blower. Thank you. Please reply.
What about compensation for people like me that have had it explode on them befor being notified of a recall?? It was not fun and it hurt like being sand blasted with sharp plastic chucks.
I just used my Ryobi Jet fan blower for the first time in 2018. I was out of town last year and did not use it, so it was last used the summer and fall of the year I purchased it in 2016. It’s the same model number and between the serial numbers listed above. I was about 5 minutes into blowing the grass clippings off the sidewalks and driveway when it exploded with loud boom. I received a cut on my right wrist it bled a bit but it does appear to be a minor laceration. If it had gone really deep right near my veins on my wrist I could have done some serious damage. I have some pieces of plastic appear to be parts of a fan blade it blew out the back end. I’m going to be calling Ryobi this morning and finding out about getting some sort of compensation for all this I have used their products for many years and never had any problem like this. You would think that between the records kept by Home Depot and Ryobi that we might have been informed about this as soon as the recall went into effect!
August 24th at 7pm while using my ryobi ry42102 blower EU16025D170043 the red fan blew apart sending pieces out just had minor cuts all I want is money back or new blower that want blow apart
How do we trade in or get refunded for our blowers?