About 1,738 DHASUWT hair dryer brushes sold on Amazon.com for roughly $27 have been recalled because they lack the immersion protection device federal rules have required on hand-held hair dryers since 2011. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, posted the recall on September 10 and reports 10 incidents of the hair dryer smoking or catching fire. No one was hurt.
The recalled product is the DHASUWT Hair Dryer and Blow Dryer Brush, Model XR-8801, a black paddle brush with a pink design and three heat settings, sold from October 2024 through June 2026.
The shock hazard is the one that kills
The fires are the reported harm, but the recall’s headline hazard is the missing safety part. In the CPSC notice, the agency states that the dryers “lack an integrated immersion protection device,” and warns of a “risk of death or serious injury from electrocution or shock if dryers fall into water while plugged in.” A hair dryer is used beside a sink and a bathtub, and a plugged-in one that slips from a hand into a basin is exactly the event the device exists for.
The recall also flags “smoking and fire hazards,” and the ten incidents are the evidence for that second risk. The notice does not describe how any of the ten unfolded or how much damage they caused.
Set against the size of the recall, ten incidents among about 1,738 units works out to roughly one report for every 174 brushes sold, or about 0.6%. The notice does not say whether the ten reports came from separate owners or how long each brush had been in use.
The 2011 rule behind the missing shock cutoff
The requirement is codified at 16 CFR part 1120, which says hand-supported hair dryers must provide integral immersion protection that complies with section 5 of the UL 859 standard or section 6 of UL 1727. The rule rests on section 15(j) of the Consumer Product Safety Act, and a hair dryer without the protection is treated as a substantial product hazard. That legal status matters at the border: the regulation says noncompliant dryers “shall be refused entry into the United States,” and it exposes sellers to reporting and recall duties.
The protection itself is a small circuit in the plug or cord. A ground fault circuit interrupter, appliance leakage current interrupter or immersion detection circuit interrupter senses the leakage of current that occurs when the appliance gets wet and, in the words of the Federal Register final rule, will “disconnect the hair dryer from its power source” within a fraction of a second.
Roughly 110 deaths before the devices existed
The same Federal Register document gives the historical record that justified the requirement. Between 1980 and 1986, before industry standards required the protection, CPSC counted 110 electrocutions from hair dryers, an average of 15.7 a year. After the first UL requirement, 39 electrocutions occurred from 1987 to 1990. After an enhanced standard, the count fell to 12 in 1991 to 1997, and to three between 1998 and 2007. No new immersion electrocutions were reported from 2006 through 2010.
The drop from 110 to three is the argument for the rule, and it is also the reason regulators treat a dryer that skips the device as more than a paperwork error. CPSC’s June 9, 2011 release announcing the unanimous 5-0 commission vote said the rule gives the agency authority to “stop shipments of violative hair dryers at U.S. ports of entry, and issue product recalls.”
The same model number is still for sale elsewhere
The DHASUWT recall is narrower than the problem it points to. In an August 13, 2026 warning, CPSC told consumers to stop using hair dryer brushes with the same model number, XR-8801, sold under other names on Walmart.com, eBay.com and TikTok Shop for $15 to $30. Those sellers, identified as Zuoxukeji, Jowenia and TruPart, had not responded to the agency’s recall requests, so no refund exists for those buyers. CPSC’s instruction is to unplug the dryer, cut the cord and put it in the garbage.
Buyers of the DHASUWT brush have a remedy. Junkins, the trade name of Shenzhen Weihua Chenyu Technology Co., Ltd. of China, is offering a full refund. Owners must unplug the unit immediately, cut the power cord, and email a photo to [email protected], which is also the company’s only listed point of contact. The notice gives no phone number, so the refund depends on an email exchange with a seller based in China.
The two notices, a month apart, describe one model number sold under several names on four marketplaces: Amazon.com, Walmart.com, eBay.com and TikTok Shop. Of the 1,738 units in the recall, the record does not say how many remain in use.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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