LG Class Action Says Refrigerator’s Cooling System is Defective

A California woman says LG needs to take responsibility for defective ice and temperature control systems in its LG refrigerators.

Plaintiff Cynthia Kao says the ice-making system and cooling control system in her LG refrigerator both fail to do what they’re supposed to. Defects in these systems cause food to spoil and ice to melt and leak, she alleges.

She is holding defendant LG Electronics USA Inc. responsible for fixing these alleged defects in accordance with the LG refrigerator warranty, on her own behalf and that of proposed Class Members.

Kao says that in September 2014, she bought an LG refrigerator, model number LFX31945ST.

She says she bought that particular refrigerator in part because of two features: the Slim SpacePlus ice system, which opened up more storage space inside the refrigerator by putting the ice maker components inside the refrigerator door; and the Smart Cooling Plus system, which would provide temperature and humidity control in different zones within the fridge, each of which was purportedly optimized to keep a particular type of food fresh.

Within a year of purchasing her LG refrigerator, Kao says, it began to show various error messages. Sometimes it would simply stop working, she says. To fix this problem, an LG representative allegedly told her to restart the refrigerator’s computer by unplugging the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Sometimes, Kao claims, she had to go through this unplugging cycle several times in a row to reset the refrigerator. Meanwhile, she says, the ice system inside the refrigerator door shut down, and ice melted and leaked onto her kitchen floor.

On other occasions, Kao says, the ice system would clog with ice, causing it to stop working. Kao says an LG representative told her she would have to empty the ice tray once a day to prevent the system from clogging.

The Smart Cooling Plus system also failed to perform as advertised, according to Kao’s LG refrigerator class action lawsuit. She says the Smart Cooling Plus system failed to properly cool her food while the refrigerator was showing error messages, causing the food to spoil.

Other LG refrigerator owners have reported similar problems, Kao says. She quotes complaints found on LG’s website and on Amazon in which owners report ice makers jammed full of ice or allowed ice to melt. Others report their refrigerator or freezer fails to maintain the right temperature, causing food to spoil.

Replacing components of the refrigerator’s computer failed to fix the problem, according to some of these owners.

Kao proposes to represent six different plaintiff Classes, generally covering persons in the U.S. who purchased an LG refrigerator with either a Slim SpacePlus ice system or a Smart Cooling Plus System within the four years prior to the filing of her LG refrigerator class action lawsuit.

She seeks an award of compensatory, punitive and statutory damages, restitution, court costs and attorneys’ fees, plus an order barring LG from continuing the allegedly unlawful conduct complained of.

Kao is represented by attorneys Robert W. Thompson, Kathleen M. Hartman and Jimmy T. Nguyen of Callahan Thompson Sherman & Caudill LLP.

The LG Refrigerator Defective Ice and Temperature Systems Class Action Lawsuit is Cynthia Kao v. LG Electronics USA, Case No. 8:17-cv-01181, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

UPDATE: The LG Refrigerator Defective Ice and Temperature Systems Class Action Lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed on May 9, 2018.