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Makers of Duracraft Air Cleaner systems, Duracraft Corp., was acquired by Honeywell. This turned out to be an unfortunate acquisition for Honeywell because soon after the merger a large number of complaints regarding the safety of Duracraft’s DH3000 and DH900 series humidifiers were lodged with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Honeywell, who simply wanted to acquire and sell Duracraft air cleaner units, the Duracraft humidifier and related products, now had a serious legal issue on their hands.
The Duracraft DA5020 HEPA Filter Legacy
Prior to the Honeywell merger, Duracraft was known as a manufacturer of quality air purification systems, humidifiers, filtering, and prefilter systems. The Duracraft Hepa filter and air cleaners were considered to be some of the best and many, in fact, are still used today. Versions of the Duracraft da5020 HEPA filter are still sold by many retailers because consumers are still using the air cleaners that require them. So what went wrong with the air purification dream?
Duracraft Tactics Cost Honeywell $800,000
According to a CPSC report dated October 29, 2001, Duracraft had been selling the DH3000 humidifier until 1991 when the company redesigned the unit because of leakage from the water tank. The new design was then sold as the DH900. Duracraft advised the CPSC staff that, “the units redesigned in 1991 did not exhibit any safety related defects during the firm's functional or life testing, and that no changes had been made to address any safety related defects.”
As of February 1996, Duracraft had received at least 68 claims that both the DH3000 and DH900 series humidifiers were unsafe. Cases were cited where the units would emit smoke and/or sparks or actually catch fire. The CPSC became involved in late ’96 and began questioning the company, but Duracraft (by now a subsidiary of Honeywell) denied any knowledge of a problem with the units. In August of 1997 a six-year-old child perished in a house fire that was found to be caused by a faulty DH900 humidifier. At the suggestion of the CPSC, Duracraft issued a recall of the units, but the damage had been done.
The CPSC took legal action against Honeywell/Duracraft and the result was a settlement of $800,000 paid by Honeywell. While Duracraft has had problems with these specific units, the company still offers quality filters and other units that have operated without problems. So, don’t write off the Duracraft air cleaner.
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