Are your CO alarms safe?
News at Howland Jones | 20/08/2018
We’ve all seen the scandalous stories of dangerous products on TV programmes like Watchdog and Fake Britain. It comes as no surprise then, to hear that there cheap brands of carbon monoxide alarms available to buy in the UK have the safety standards marks on the packaging, but in tests dangerously fail to meet these safety standards.
There are also ‘knock off’ alarms on sale – copies of reputable manufacturer’s products that look the part, but also don’t meet EU safety standards in tests.
Carbon monoxide alarms are currently a legal requirement for solid fuel appliances (open fires, wood burning stoves) in private rental properties. The Housing White Paper earlier this year tackled the need for carbon monoxide alarms to also be mandatory by law in rental properties for gas appliances - this received cross party support. We expect the new legislation in the coming months, so the demand for carbon monoxide alarms is due to rise sharply.
Three brands were ‘named and shamed’ by Which? last year and as a result, Amazon and eBay removed these from sale. These were ATZ Essentials, Mudder and Binwo brands.
See the Which? article here:
If you are purchasing alarms, beware of prices that seem too good to be true – they probably are!
The advice is to always purchase a trusted brand from a reputable retailer and check the packaging for the EU safety standard EN 50291.
For those of you preferring to take advantage of the services of the Howland Jones Handyman, you can be assured the alarms provided and installed by us are genuine Kidde or Fire Angel brand.
Carbon monoxide is deadly and we welcome the forthcoming change in the law for carbon monoxide alarms to be mandatory for gas appliances. If you’d like to know more, or arrange for our Handyman to fit new alarms at your rental property, please contact us.