
As a representative of an independent organisation, EEESafe recently attended its third Annual Electrical Safety Conference which is ably run by Electrical Safety First. During a main Plenary Session, which had a selection of Speakers on the main platform, we heard from Douglas Herbeson the CEO of AMDEA. (The UK Trade Association of Manufacturers of Domestic Appliances). They launched their own Appliance Register last year representing all manufacturers, more than a year after we launched ours. We originally launched ours because we were never comfortable completely trusting an organisation that were basically policing themselves, when it came to deciding when to launch a Product Recall. History showed that some organisations failed to do that individually and was the cause of loss of life and serious fires. Questions then came from the floor and we asked Mr Herbeson, did he feel the public could trust the manufacturers Register, given the history of failure that was widely available. (SEE Some of our Links on the right)
He replied that he wasn’t aware of this history, which completely surprised us because it’s all over the Internet. Casting his eyes to the sky as if to suggest he wondered who EEESafe were, he gave vague acknowledgment that he’d heard of us. This despite the fact that we’d met on a couple of occasions and we had written to AMDEA, offering to work together with them and the manufacturers, which would give people a choice of Registers or they could utilise our Independent Register. ESF’s own survey shows that around 35% do not Register appliances with many saying that they did not trust the Manufacturers. So this wasn’t unreasonable. He also stated that because there were only 4 Recalls last year of Large Appliances, which from out point of view raised cause for deep concern. Why? Because those 4 Recalls alone represented approximately 1.2 Million new Fire Risks. Despite repeated attempts through the day, we tried to talk to Lynn Faulds Woods, to make her aware of this, but she declined two of our attempts citing she was really busy, and suggested we contact her after the event.
We felt it worthy therefore to blog this item and record the event, as this may well one day shine a valuable light on the attitude of this organisation, and the position of conflict it holds using it’s own Register.
So Mr Herbeson, Manufacturers and readers, here are a few links that show the history clearly identifying that the reply given at this prestigious safety conference, was in fact untrue.
If you want to use our alternative register where we would inform Registrants of any level of safety concern on Large Appliances, then please visit EEESafe’s National Appliance Safety Register which is HERE. We believe all Landlords should also use this Register and we provide a Special Code for Landlords, so that they can monitor their properties via a single point of contact and ensure tenants record their appliances, and ensure greater safety for the property, the tenant and neighbours.
Interestingly, just the week after this conference, we were contacted by someone claiming their Indesit Washing Machine has blown up, and asked us what they should do.
We recommended they contact the manufacturer as well as informing them of the ESF event and follow their recommendations. However we did add that if they registered the product with AMDEA, the manufacturer may have contacted them potentially preventing the explosion.
Links.
Cumbrian Family’s Lucky Escape.
Six year old dodges Washing Machine Explosion.
Woman hurt as Washing Machine Explodes.
Exploding Washing Machine could have blinded son.
At least 10 deaths associated with Household Appliances
EEESafe Recommends using EEESafe Registered Appliance Technicians. They are required to show us Evidence of Insurance, Record Safety Readings, evidence test and safety equipment used and in date Calibrations as well as check for Recalls. CLICK HERE, to use our Product Recall Checker