CPSC, Electrolux Home Products, Inc. Announce Recall of Garden Tractors

Recall Insight

This CPSC action (record #02550) was formally reported on August 6, 2002. It is classified under Moderate severity, with a current status of Active. Electrolux Home Products, Inc., of Cleveland, OH is listed as the recalling firm. Federal records indicate About 22,000 units are affected.

The documented reason for this recall is: Under certain operating conditions, the rear wheel hub may crack or wear and spin free on its axle, resulting in a loss of power to the wheel and brake, which poses the risk of injury to consumers. Distribution information was not included in the agency filing, so consumers should assume broad potential exposure until the firm publishes point-of-sale details. The remedy documented by the agency is: Consumers who have purchased one of these garden tractors (within the affected date code range) are asked to stop using the tractor immediately, call the appropriate telephone number for your model i… — consumers holding this product should act on that instruction rather than relying on general guidance.

To put this record in context, PlainRecalls indexes 83,949 recalls across the FDA, CPSC, NHTSA and USDA FSIS going back to 1995. Within the same product category, the database holds 6 closely related recalls, of which 1 were also issued by CPSC. That clustering is a signal — repeated actions in a narrow category often indicate a systemic quality-control issue, a supplier-wide contamination, or a design defect that has propagated across product lines. This recall is roughly 24 years old; older recalls can remain relevant because many units enter resale, rental, and secondary-market channels where the original warning never reaches the end user. Always cross-check the recall number against the official agency page before relying on any summary.