CPSC, Emerson Tool Company Announce Recall of Wet/Dry Vacuums

Recall Insight

This CPSC action (record #04053) was formally reported on December 16, 2003. It is classified under Moderate severity, with a current status of Active. Emerson Tool Company, a division of Emerson Electric Co., of St. Louis, Mo. is listed as the recalling firm. The number of affected units is not disclosed in the agency filing, which is common for drug and food recalls where lot-level tracking supersedes unit counts.

The documented reason for this recall is: The exhaust blower ports on the wet/dry vacuums are large enough for a small child to reach inside and touch the spinning blower wheel. This poses a laceration hazard to small children. 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 should contact Emerson toll-free number to request a free insert. The insert is installed inside the blower port, to eliminate the hazard. — 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 6 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 23 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.