A product safety recall is a way for manufacturers and other organisations to notify the public of known risks or potential dangers of electrical equipment.
We have combined together various resources for product recall feeds into a single search form to enable the easy search of product recalls in a single place.
The safety of electrical appliances and equipment is of the upmost importance for the prevention of electrical shock, burns, fire and injury.
All items of electrical equipment should be designed and manufactured to meet the minimum safety requirements as set out by the relevant British Standard, for example 13 Amp electrical sockets must satisfy BS 1363.
A copy of BS 1361 13 A plugs, socket-outlets, adaptors and connection units – Specification for rewirable and non-rewirable 13 A fused plugs can be purchased directly from the British Standards Institute (BSI) along with all other British Standards.
If you have our Electrical Tools and Reference App you may already be aware that we have included a “Product Recalls & Safety Alerts” feed for electrical products.
Includes feeds from:
You can download this app from Google Play and the App Store, or for further details see Electrical Tools and Reference App.
When a product is recalled be that for safety reasons or any other reason the manufacturer may attempt to contact all of the known owners of the product.
One way they might do this is by contacting the persons who have registered their product, remember seeing a sticker on the front of the last washing machine you purchased stating something along the lines of “Register your product for a free extended warrantee” ?
Another way recalled electrical products might be announced is via various online feeds such as the ones listed above.
Many fires are caused by cheap unsafe counterfeit or unbranded electrical products. It is worth checking all of your electrical products to see if you or anyone in your household or workplace is unknowingly in possession of any products of this type, this could include phone chargers, laptop chargers, batteries, electric fan heaters, extension leads, socket adapters ect.
Here is an article by Buckinghamshire fire and rescue regarding a phone charger fire.
The devastating aftermath of a phone charger fire.
Some electrical products are copied versions of reputable branded companies products designed to look and feel just like the genuine product, but cheaper.
The problem is in order to manufacture and sell those electrical products cheaper, corners are cut, and it is generally the safety aspect which suffers.
Common counterfeit products include phone chargers and iPhone lightning cables, which have been known to be the cause of many fires. Apple have some advice on how to spot the fakes – How to Identify counterfeit or uncertified Lightning connector accessories.
Whilst every effort is made by most manufactures of electrical appliances and equipment to meet and satisfy (and sometimes exceed) the minimum requirements of the relevant British Standard (and any other relevant standards), there are however some who don’t, the online marketplace is flooded with cheap unbranded dangerous electrical products.
Identifying dangerous electrical products can be a difficult task unless you know what to look for, sometimes it maybe obvious such as the wires hanging out, but a lot of the time the dangers are hidden.
Many manufactures and independent websites offer advice on what to look for and how to spot dangerous and/or fake electrical products and also how to tell the fakes from the genuine, they can include detailed differences between fake products and the genuine article along with pictures and explanations.
If in doubt, get an expert out!
The Portable Appliance Test is an electrical safety inspection and testing of electrical products checking that the appliance is safe to use and looking for defects.
A snippet from the HSE states:
The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require that any electrical equipment that has the potential to cause injury is maintained in a safe condition.
For further information see – Maintaining portable electric equipment in low risk environments (INDG236(rev3)).
The HSE also offer a Q&A regarding common PAT questions which can be found here – Portable appliance testing FAQs
IET Code of Practice for In-Service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment sets out the requirements for Portable Appliance Testing, if you wish to conduct Portable Appliance Testing (PAT) then an official recognised training course is strongly recommended.
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