CPSC, Schneider Electric North American Division Announce Recall of AFCIs

Recall Insight

This CPSC action (record #05035) was formally reported on November 3, 2004. It is classified under Moderate severity, with a current status of Active. Schneider Electric North American Division, of Palatine, Ill. is listed as the recalling firm. Federal records indicate About 700,000 units are affected, a scale large enough to require multi-state distribution tracking.

The documented reason for this recall is: An AFCI is an electrical circuit protection device (circuit breaker) that detects electrical arcs from cracked, broken or damaged electrical insulation and shuts off power to the circuit before the arcing leads to a fir… 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: Installed AFCIs will be replaced free of charge through electrical contractors. Consumers can return uninstalled AFCIs to the retailers or distributor from whom the unit was purchased for a free repl… — 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. 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 22 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.