As a business owner, you have a lot to learn from what other organizations have done wrong. Companies in different industries make notable mistakes in manufacturing and marketing their products. For example, they can sometimes fail to inform or warn customers about any defects or side effects from using their products. 

Let’s take the pressure cooker explosion lawsuit as an example. To make a profit, the pressure cooker manufacturers distributed defective products. However, they ended up facing lawsuits for endangering public safety. 

In this blog, we will discuss the pressure cooker lawsuit and the lessons your business can learn from it.

Understanding the Pressure Cooker Lawsuit

This device uses high-pressure steam in a sealed vessel to cook water-based food items. Not only does that save energy, but your tasty food also requires less time to cook. Moreover, cleaning them is pretty straightforward. 

But the question is: can a pressure cooker explode? Yes, these appliances can explode if there’s a high-pressure buildup. That usually happens when the pressure cooker has defective materials or is used improperly. 

However, pressure cookers from certain brands exploded mainly because of the faulty and low-quality materials used during manufacturing. These companies did this to save money during the research and development phase. Similarly, the devices didn’t go through a proper trial. They also lied to their customers about the appliances’ safety.

All these compelled the affected individuals to file product liability lawsuits. According to TorHoerman Law, a few pressure cooker lawsuits have been settled. The plaintiffs received financial compensation for the severe burns, concussions, lung damage, etc. 

3 Things Businesses Can Learn from Pressure Cooker Lawsuits

Various product liability lawsuits can teach your business how to avoid failure and what not to do. For instance, you can learn the importance of being transparent with your customers. 

The pressure cooker lawsuit is one such instance. Companies like Tristar, Ninja, Cuisinart, NuWave, etc., made mistakes while manufacturing and testing their pressure cookers. As a result, most of their products have been recalled from the market. 

Hence, your business can learn the following things from this incident: 

#1. Ensure Proper Testing Before Releasing a Product

Pressure cookers are a modern marvel. As mentioned earlier, it uses less energy, time, and water during the cooking process, leading to the preservation of vitamins and nutrients in the food. 

That’s why most of the pressure cooker manufacturers knew that their products would succeed if released in time. They wanted to roll out this kitchen appliance as soon as possible to capture the top position in the USD 4.9 billion market (as of 2022). 

While their business intentions were pure, the process was illogical and somewhat illegal. Unfortunately, their products didn’t go through enough testing procedures before being released. As a result, most of the appliances sold had structural defects. These included faulty gaskets, bad-quality lid seals, malfunctions in the digital indicators, damaged wiring, defective release valves, etc. 

All these led to pressure cooker explosions that caused people to get severely injured. Most victims suffered thermal burns, disfigurement, loss of eyesight, and other physical pain. 

Lesson

Businesses should never rush to release an appliance or product to the market without proper testing and repairs. If anything seems out of place, you should revisit its manufacturing process and make changes. The more research and development you do, the less likely it is for your product to fail. Moreover, it ensures safety for the customers who are going to buy from your brand. 

#2. Avoid Lying to Your Customers for Profit

The pressure cooker manufacturers knew about the defects in some of their products. Even then, they marketed the appliances as safe and easy to use. They did this because they didn’t want to compromise their profit by postponing product releases and sales. 

However, this negligent behavior caused their customers to experience pressure cooker explosions that led to severe health complications. Victims also suffered property damage worth over USD 1 billion. 

As a result, hundreds of people filed product liability and false advertising lawsuits against the manufacturers. Now, these companies are expected to pay individual compensations between USD 25,000 and USD 2,000,000 to settle lawsuits. 

Lesson

Businesses should learn never to lie to their customers. Cheating them and focusing on profit isn’t worth it because that’ll eventually hamper your company’s reputation. Hence, you should always be transparent and truthful with the consumers who love using your products. Otherwise, your brand will lose money and credibility after getting a bad reputation. 

#3. Don’t Blame Your Customers

Sometimes, pressure cooker explosions happen due to the user’s fault. Some people don’t read the instructions before using the appliance in a hurry. That’s when they do things incorrectly, and disasters occur. 

For instance, filling out the cooker with the wrong amount of water, overheating, not cleaning the appliance properly, or opening the pressure valve prematurely. All these can possibly lead to explosions due to an excessive pressure buildup inside the cooker. 

Hence, the accused companies tried to blame the explosions on their customers’ inability to use the product. However, it’s statistically unlikely that over 5,000 people failed to read the instructions altogether. 

It proves that the pressure cooker manufacturers knew about the defects and tried their best to divert the blame. They wanted to avoid facing any lawsuits for their negligence because the settlements would cost them a fortune. This ‘blame game’ caused everyone to become furious, which eventually led to product recalls. 

Lesson

All these prove that businesses should learn accountability for their actions. That’s especially crucial if your manufactured products have caused any discomfort to the consumers you serve. When that happens, your company should accept the mistakes and do something to rectify them. 

In conclusion, the pressure cooker lawsuit is a gentle reminder of what happens when companies fail to comply with safety standards. For example, the companies accused of distributing faulty pressure cookers have to pay thousands of dollars in compensation. 

If you don’t want to face similar consequences, you must learn from their mistakes. For instance, proper testing is necessary for all products you release into the market. Similarly, you should avoid lying to the customers and blaming them for your mistakes. All these instances will help you keep your business relevant.