Fisher & Paykel says it will do "everything humanly possible" to track down owners of dishwash drawers that may carry a fault that could cause parts to melt.
That did not stretch to a product recall yesterday, prompting criticism by the Consumers' Institute.
About 30,000 of the dishwashers, built between January 2001 and December 2002 with serial numbers starting with Alpha C or Alpha U, could be affected.
Fisher & Paykel says that on "very rare occasions" ants and insects such as cockroaches could get in and cause product failure.
Customer services general manager Brian Nowell said an additional part - which monitored electricity going into the machine and shut it down if problems occurred - would be sent to owners on its database.
But he admitted the database contained only about 10,000 names.
While Fisher & Paykel hadn't discounted a general recall, the "strike rate" of such recalls hadn't been great in the past, Mr Nowell told National Radio.
Consumers' Institute chief executive David Russell said F&P's efforts were not good enough.
"They must come out publicly and not just work through the database they have, simply because somebody may have bought a dishdrawer, installed it in a house then sold the house, so a subsequent house owner would not be registered with the supplier."
Mr Nowell admitted a recall could help to contact people not on the company database.
Advertisements could appear in newspapers within two weeks.
- NZPA
F&P failure to order recall sparks watchdog's snarl
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