Vizio has issued a recall order for 245,000 LED TVs over safety concerns on the product's stand assembly.
The recall affects the Vizio E-Series TVs, for both the 39-inch and 42-inch models, sold between December last year and June of this year.
"The stand assembly can fail and cause the television to tip over unexpectedly, posing a risk of impact injury to the consumer," stated in the official recall order filed with the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The official document details the model numbers affected by the recall order, which are E390-B0, E390i-B0, and E420i-B0, and also the serial numbers of the affected units.
The recall order reports that there have been 51 incidents wherein the affected TVs have tipped over due to the faulty stand assembly. However, no injuries have been associated with the defect.
Vizio writes that customers using TVs affected by the order should immediately remove the unit from the stand assembly and place the appliance on a safe and steady location. Customers should then contact Vizio to request for a stand assembly replacement through the company's toll-free numbers or dedicated support webpage.
The replacement stand assembly will be shipped to customers within a week, with the customers receiving a notification once the replacement is in transit.
Vizio adds that customers that have had their TVs mounted on the wall should also request for a stand assembly replacement, just in case that it will be needed in the future.
The tipping over of TVs has become a growing issue, with the CPSC releasing a report that shows how a big-screen TV can potentially become a safety hazard within a household. Safe Kids Worldwide in 2012, using CPSC data, reported that one child dies every three weeks due to a TV tipping over, with one child being rushed to a hospital emergency room every 45 minutes for the same reason.
Consumer Reports, in a blog post about the issue, said that preventing the tipping over of TVs is very possible, given the proper information and instructions.
Wall mounting the TV, or securing it through anti-tipping straps, will keep the appliance away from surfaces that may be too small to properly hold the TV. One factor that is contributing to the growing issue is that some families are placing newly bought, bigger TVs on surfaces that were once used for small TVs, which does not provide ample space or support for bulkier and heavier TVs.
