Friedrich Recalls 2,000 KÜHL Window Air Conditioners After Two Motor Fire Reports
Friedrich is recalling about 2,000 KÜHL Q and KÜHL S window air conditioners. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says the control board inside the motor can fail, and there are two reports of a motor igniting — one of which caused smoke and fire damage to a home. No injuries have been reported. Stop using the unit, check the serial number on the plate inside it, and call Friedrich. The remedy is a free replacement or a refund.
The recall was announced on September 17, 2026 (CPSC recall number 26776). The hazard CPSC states is "risk of serious injury or death from fire and burn hazards."
What makes this one unusual is how new the machines are. These units sold from January through August 2026 for between $1,300 and $2,000 — at PC Richard & Son, Grainger, Johnson Supply and other appliance retailers nationwide. Friedrich's own notice says the affected units were built between January 28 and March 27, 2026. So the recall covers air conditioners bought this year, most of them installed for a single summer, and a good number of them still sitting in a window right now.
Which units are covered
Six model numbers:
- KCVQ08B10A
- KHVQ10B11A
- KCVS08B10A
- KCVS12B10A
- KCVS12B30A
- KCVS16B30A
The model alone does not settle it. CPSC says only some serial numbers within these models have the motors involved. Friedrich's recall page names the motors — 1000581 and 1000582 — and lists the serial ranges by model:
| Model | Serial numbers |
|---|---|
| KCVQ08B10A | D122600351–D122600670 |
| KHVQ10B11A | D112600003–D112602227 |
| KCVS08B10A | D052601083–D052601332 |
| KCVS12B10A | D062600009–D062600550 |
| KCVS12B30A | D062600552–D062600800 |
| KCVS16B30A | D062600801–D062600992 |
Friedrich adds that not every unit inside those ranges is affected, so the ranges narrow the field but Friedrich has to confirm your specific unit.
The recalled air conditioners have a gray front and a black air discharge grille, with the Friedrich name and logo in the lower left corner. The KÜHL Q control panel sits in the top left corner of the unit; the KÜHL S panel is on the right side, below the grille. They were made in Mexico for Friedrich Air Conditioning Co. of San Antonio, Texas.
The model and serial number are inside the air conditioner, not on the outside of the cabinet. Friedrich's instruction is to open the front white panel; the rating plate with both numbers is behind it.
What to do
- Stop using it now. CPSC's instruction is to stop using the recalled air conditioners immediately — not to run them until a replacement arrives.
- Get the serial number, then call. Friedrich is on 800-541-6645, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT, Monday to Friday. The recall page is at
friedrich.com/product-recall, also reachable from the "Recall Information" link on friedrich.com. - Know which remedy you are owed. CPSC lists the remedy as a refund or a replacement unit. Friedrich's page is more specific: eligible KHVQ10B11A owners get a refund, and the other five models get a free replacement unit.
- Do not pay anybody for this. No diagnostic, no service call, no parts.
Why we are running this
We do not rate Friedrich. Nothing on this site scores it, and no comparison of ours changes because of this recall. We are running it because of what $1,300 to $2,000 does to a person's instincts.
Our repair-or-replace guide runs on the 50% rule: replace only when the appliance is past half its expected life and the quote is more than half the cost of a new one. An air conditioner built this January to March fails the first test outright, which normally means repair it. That is the wrong conclusion here, and not because the rule is wrong — because the rule assumes a quote exists. There is no quote. The correct answer is a free replacement or your money back, and an owner who starts pricing a control board has already lost money the recall would have saved.
The same goes for opening a claim. Our home-warranty guide puts the average plan near $876 a year before service fees, and the case for one rests on big-ticket failures. A service fee spent on a recalled unit is a service fee wasted — the manufacturer owes you the whole machine.
We have covered this shape of recall before — most recently Galanz's 121,680 retro refrigerators, pulled in July over an electrical fault that could ignite. The difference is price. The Galanz fridges were $330 to $520, cheap enough that people ignore the notice; a $2,000 window unit is expensive enough that people assume a premium brand's product could not be the problem. Two ignitions in two thousand units says otherwise. Go and open the front panel.