Whirlpool Class Action Says AquaLift Ovens Don’t Self-Clean

According to a recent class action lawsuit, Whirlpool AquaLift ovens fail to self-clean as advertised by the manufacturer.

Whirlpool sells a line of gas and electric stoves, ranges, and ovens which are equipped with the company’s “AquaLift Self-Cleaning Technology.”

Allegedly dubbed by Whirlpool an “innovation nearly 50 years in the making,” the technology self-cleans the interior of the oven in under an hour using only water and low heat.

According to the Whirlpool class action, AquaLift is advertised as able to remove tough baked on soils during the cleaning process, allowing users to “easily wipe away” food and debris after the cycle is done.

However, plaintiffs in the Whirlpool class action lawsuit claim that these representations are “false, deceptive, and misleading” because AquaLift does not self-clean ovens as advertised.

According to online consumer complaints mentioned in the Whirlpool class action, the AquaLift technology is completely useless. One consumer allegedly asked, “[H]ow can the company get away with advertising [a] self-cleaning oven when it absolutely does not clean one bit?!”

The plaintiffs say that when consumers complain about the failures to Whirlpool, the company advises them to purchase cleaning supplies and manually clean the oven instead. However, these unhelpful recommendations are at odds with the AquaLift reference guide which tells consumers to avoid commercial oven cleaners due to the damage they may cause the oven interior, the Whirlpool class action states.

Plaintiffs in the Whirlpool class action lawsuit claim that they were financially injured in a variety of ways including: paying for a falsely advertised product, overpaying for a product advertised to self-clean but did not, decrease in value of ovens due to failure of AquaLift technology, and out-of-pocket expenses spent to service and manually clean the oven.

The Whirlpool oven class action also argues that the plaintiffs would not have purchased or paid as much money for their Whirlpool ovens if they had been aware that the AquaLift self-cleaning technology did not perform as advertised.

They claim that the only reason they purchased the ovens was the allegedly false representations the company released about the technology.

These complaints are reportedly echoed by consumer reviews on several websites. “Had I known how horrible it was I would have never bought it. I am also not happy with the glass top as that too is difficult to keep clean,” one consumer review claimed according to the Whirlpool class action.

Plaintiffs seek to represent a Class of consumers who purchased a Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, or Jenn-Air oven equipped with AquaLift technology in Minnesota, Georgia, and Washington. They also seek to represent individual subclasses for each of the represented states.

The Whirlpool class action seeks statutory damages, punitive damages, disgorgement, restitution, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

Plaintiffs and the proposed Class are represented by E. Powell Miller, Sharon S. Almonrode, and Dennis Lienhart of The Miller Law Firm PC; Samuel H. Rudman, Mark S. Reich, Jordan D. Mamorsky, Paul J. Geller, Stuart A. Davidson, and Christopher C. Gold of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP.

The Whirlpool AquaLift Ovens Class Action Lawsuit is Angerman, et al. v. Whirlpool Corporation, Case No. 5:18-cv-13832-JEL-SDD, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.