The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced that more than 255,000 Vornado tower heaters, sold for years at Costco, Kohl's, ACE Hardware, and other major retailers, have been recalled after the agency received reports of units overheating, catching fire, and causing at least one smoke inhalation incident.

The heaters were manufactured in China and sold to American consumers for between $40 and $50 apiece. Some had been on store shelves and available online since August 2013. The CPSC's sales window stretches all the way through May 2026, meaning units were still moving as recently as last month.

That is a staggering timeline. For nearly thirteen years, a product with a known defect, a fan blade that can separate from the motor shaft, causing the unit to overheat, melt, and potentially ignite, sat in American homes, dorm rooms, and offices. Vornado received 32 reports of overheating. Eight of those involved actual fires. One person suffered smoke inhalation. And still, quarter of a million of these heaters circulated through some of the country's best-known retail chains before the recall came down.

What went wrong inside the heater

The mechanical failure is straightforward and alarming. The CPSC found that the heater's fan blade can detach from the motor shaft. When the fan stops spinning, the unit keeps generating heat with no airflow to dissipate it. The enclosure and internal components overheat and melt.

A Costco member letter described the hazard in plain terms, as FOX Business reported:

"The fan blade can detach from the motor shaft, which can cause a stopped fan condition, leading to overheating and melting of the enclosure and internal parts. Melted internal parts can ignite and breach the enclosure if the thermal cut off or fuse does not timely activate, posing a fire hazard."

Read that last clause again. The heater's own safety mechanisms, the thermal cutoff and fuse, may not activate in time to prevent the fire. That is not a minor engineering footnote. It means the backup system designed to prevent exactly this kind of catastrophe can fail, too.

Where the heaters were sold

The recalled product is the Vornado SRTH small room tower heater. Costco sold the unit between August 2013 and January 2017, listing it under item number 1002889 with UPC 43765008478. Costco sent a letter directly to its members alerting them to the recall.

But the heater's retail footprint extended well beyond Costco. The CPSC said the units were also sold at Kohl's, Bed Bath & Beyond, ACE Hardware, Vornado.com, and Amazon.com from August 2013 through May 2026. That breadth, spanning big-box stores, hardware chains, and online marketplaces, means the recalled heaters could be sitting in homes across the country, many of them purchased years ago and long forgotten until the next cold snap.

Consumers who own the recalled heater are urged to stop using it immediately. The CPSC directed owners to contact the Vornado Recall Team at 888-240-2768. The agency did not specify what remedy, refund, replacement, or repair, would be offered, leaving that question unanswered for now.

Thirteen years is a long time

The sales window alone raises hard questions. A product first sold in 2013 was still available for purchase in 2026. During that span, Vornado accumulated 32 overheating reports. Eight fires broke out. Someone breathed in enough smoke to generate an official incident report. Yet the recall arrived only now.

When federal agencies tasked with protecting the public take years to act on accumulating safety data, consumers bear the risk. That principle applies whether the danger comes from a chemical tank crisis requiring emergency federal intervention or a $45 space heater sitting three feet from a sleeping family.

The CPSC's announcement did not explain why the recall took as long as it did, or at what point the agency determined the defect rate warranted pulling the product. Those are fair questions for an agency whose entire mission is to keep dangerous consumer goods off the market before they hurt people, not a decade after they start catching fire.

Made in China, sold everywhere

The CPSC confirmed the recalled heaters were manufactured in China. That detail is worth noting in a broader consumer-safety context. American households remain heavily dependent on Chinese-manufactured small appliances, and the quality-control chain stretches across oceans, factories, and distribution networks that federal regulators struggle to monitor in real time.

None of that excuses the domestic side of the equation. Vornado is the brand on the box. Costco, Kohl's, ACE Hardware, and Amazon are the names consumers trusted when they handed over their money. The responsibility to ensure a space heater does not burn down a living room does not end at the port of entry.

Federal oversight of consumer products has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in recent years, though the debates often center on agency budgets and staffing rather than the fundamental question of speed. When confirmation hearings for federal security leadership dominate headlines, the quieter work of agencies like the CPSC tends to fade from public attention, until a recall like this one lands.

What consumers should do now

Anyone who owns a Vornado SRTH small room tower heater should stop using it right away. The CPSC's guidance is unambiguous on that point. Owners should contact the Vornado Recall Team at 888-240-2768 to learn what options are available.

The recall covers more than 255,000 units. Given the thirteen-year sales window and the number of retailers involved, many owners may not realize they have a recalled product. Space heaters are seasonal items. They get tucked into closets in April and pulled out again in October. A heater purchased at Bed Bath & Beyond in 2015, a retailer that has since closed most of its stores, could easily be sitting in a garage right now, waiting for winter.

That is the particular danger of a recall that arrives this late. The product has had years to scatter across millions of households, change hands at yard sales, and disappear from the original buyer's memory. The CPSC can issue the announcement, but reaching every owner of a cheap appliance sold over thirteen years at six different retailers is another matter entirely.

Accountability in government extends beyond the political fights that grab front-page attention, whether those involve feuds between senators and federal law enforcement leaders or quieter failures at consumer-protection agencies. The families who plugged in a Vornado heater and trusted it not to set their house on fire deserve answers about why it took this long.

A quarter-million fire hazards sat in American homes for up to thirteen years before anyone pulled the plug. That is not a recall. That is a confession.