South Floridians Beware! Defective Toilet Part Causes Toilets to Expolode Posing Risk for Serious Injury

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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada have ordered Flushmate to recall its “Flushmate III Pressure-Assisted Flushing System.” The faulty pressure system can shatter the tank of the toilet, causing impact or laceration wounds to their unsuspecting patrons. All “Flushmate III Pressure-Assisted Flushing Systems” manufactured between October 1997 and February 2008 pose the risk of exploding. Just because you installed your Flushmate system after 2008 doesn’t mean that you’re in the clear. Your system may have had a shelf life well beyond its manufacture date, since these systems were sold already inside toilets and sold separately at big-box hardware stores such as Home Depot and Lowes. Toilets that carried this Flushmate system include: American Standard, Crane, Kohler, Eljer, Mansfield, St. Thomas and Gerber. Approximately 2.3 million toilets in the United States are affected by this recall.
Consumers have been urged to immediately turn off their water supply and determine if their toilets are impacted by this recall. The recalled “Flushmate III Pressure-Assisted Flushing System” is made of black plastic and is rectangular in shape. The date code/serial number is 16 characters long and can be found on the label located on top of the Flushmate vessel. If you want to decipher it yourself: the first six numbers are the date code, which begin at 101497 (which stands for October 14, 1997–the first date of recalled items) and continue through 022908 (which stands for February 29, 2008–the last date of recalled items). If you don’t want to go through the trouble of figuring it out yourself, you can visit Flushmate’s website here and plug in the serial numbers to the toilets that you think may be impacted by this recall. If your toilet is affected, call Flushmate’s toll free number (800) 303-5123 to request your free repair kit.
At this time, there have been 304 documented complaints of Flushmate systems exploding and 14 pending claims from people suffering “impact or laceration injuries.” Aside from being held liable for property damage, Flushmate faces very probable liability for injuries caused by their exploding vessels. This is because every person or business involved in the supply chain of a product, from the product’s initial design until its arrival in the consumer’s hands, has a duty to provide a product that is reasonably safe for its intended use. Any unreasonably dangerous defect that causes an injury, provided that the consumer used the product according to the manufacturer’s or supplier’s specifications, could make the manufacturer or supplier liable for any harm or injuries they cause. Product liability claims usually involve a “strict liability” standard. This means that an injured person can recover damages from a manufacturer or supplier without proving actual negligence on the part of the manufacturer or supplier.

The Deerfield Beach injury attorneys at Goldman & Daszkal represent people in Palm Beach and Broward County who have been injured by dangerous or defective products. Contact our law firm through our website or call us today at 888-504-HURT(4878) for a free and confidential consultation to discuss your case.