Every year, we buy thousands of products from manufacturers we trust but consumer review site, www.reevoo.com, has discovered that a host of appliances, as well as not functioning as they were intended, also demonstrate worryingly dangerous side effects.

By sifting through thousands of product reviews, Reevoo found that a number of everyday appliances were causing havoc in the Nation’s homes.

As well as white goods generally behaving badly, it also seemed to be a case of Hotpoint by name, Hotpoint by nature with both their ovens and washing machines causing problems with burning smells and overheating. Of the Hotpoint 5TCGW cooker, Peter from Ross said “the side panels of the cooker become extremely hot when the oven is in use…it could possibly lead to a fire if anything is left touching it”. The Hotpoint WT960 washing machine emitted a “smell of burning after a month and a half”, according to another reviewer.

One customer, who bought the Russell Hobbs Steam Generator iron writes about the experience - “it suddenly explodes into clouds of very hot steam and brownish "guck" leaks onto the ironing”.

And the alarming reports don’t stop inside the house either. There were numerous problems with the Barrel BBQ. Julia from Nottingham said that as soon as she put food onto it, “the whole thing set on fire”. Jane from Durham had similar problems when the “wooden handle…got so hot it caught fire”.

Reevoo did find that as well as faulty products, there were a number of incidents where you’d be hard pressed to blame the product. Michael from Lochinver bought the Proline PLC218WA Freezer and reported “My wife banged her head twice on the lid before learning that it has to be 'parked' in the fully vertical position”.

Reevoo asks shoppers who have already bought goods from leading internet stores, including Woolworths, Currys, Dixons and the Carphone Warehouse, to rate their purchases. All comments, whether full of praise or highly critical, are then published on both the e-tailers’ websites and on www.reevoo.com.

Shoppers can also keep up-to-date on the latest consumer news and reviews on Reevoo’s blog at www.decidewhattobuy.com.