Expectation of durability: broken hob stand?

Hello all,

imagine how livid I was when I dropped the cast iron pan stand from one of the rings of the Whirlpool AKT466/NB gas hob, onto the cushioned lino kitchen floor, only to have it break in two!

Needless to say it's now out of warranty by 6 months.

The question is, under the Sales of Goods Act, should I not expect a detachable part such as one of the pan stands, to be sufficiently durable, given that it is intentionally detachable for cleaning, etc?

It's quite obscene that a replacement, which is just a lump of cheaply cast iron (probably made in a sweatshop in Asia) is listed at £50.99!! If I had to replace all four, that would be 58% of the original price of the hob!

Should I not be entitled to expect the pan stand to withstand a fall from kitchen surface height onto a cushioned lino floor?

Michael

Something which is detachable (or even in this case, loosely placed on top and never attached in the first place) and is expected to be removed regularly for cleaning, can, I say, reasonably be expected to be dropped from a height equivalent to a typical kitchen surface. In the same way that a television remote control can be reasonably expected to be dropped regularly from the height of the arm of a chair or a coffee table.

Michael

So what you are saying in effect is that there is no onus on *any* manufacturer of *anything* mobile to make it withstand any sort of dropping whatsoever? That goes for TV remote controls, pan stands, torches, keys, mobile phones? Any device that gets moved around on a regular basis either as part of its use or part of its cleaning routine?

It clearly doesn't go for CD players because they are intended to sit in/on a piece of furniture, but that's an entirely different class of product.

Michael