Warning

[campervanannie]

Not fact checked

Suffolk Trading Standards Imports Surveillance Team have detained 973 diesel heaters at the Port of Felixstowe over the last two months. All products were found to be unsafe, with listings for all sellers removed on eBay.

Consignments arrived at the Port in October and November and were stopped by the team, with samples sent to a test house for assessment.

Each of the products did not meet the requirements of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 because they could present the hazards of fire and death due to poor supporting installation information.

Manuals supplied with the products failed to give measurements for installing and did not give the minimum distance the exhaust pipe can be installed from flammable material, or material that could give off poisonous fumes when heated, such as insulation material.

No warning was provided about heat and dangers to the user if installed incorrectly.

Large parts of the manuals were written in poor English and had incorrect words used. The intended meaning was, in some cases, difficult to understand.

Additionally, the products and instructions did not have the name and address of the importer or manufacturer, and did not included the required Declaration of Conformity (DoC). A DoC is a formal declaration by a manufacturer, or the manufacturer's representative, that the product to which it applies meets all relevant requirements of all product safety directives applicable to that product.

If you have purchased a product that you think may be unsafe, stop using it immediately and report it to Trading Standards via Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 0808 223 1133.

 

[Millie Master]

This kind of thing doesn't surprise me one little bit as those darned Chinkies are not only capable of manufacturing some of the World's best products but also some of the most dangerous that look exactly the same!

 

[Squiffy]

My view is that the majority of dangerous cases are caused by people that have no idea about the fitting and installation of items be they 12volt/240v/Diesel or Gas, or what the consequences are of a bodged or inefficient installation. It seems to me that if the write up is correct the reason for the detention is not because the heaters are dangerous in themselves, its because there are insufficient instructions in good plain English. Quite frankly if people can not understand the principles of safety in fitting any sort of equipment then maybe they should not be attempting the installation in the first place and should be paying someone who (Hopefully) does know. I certainly don't think there is a conspiracy by the Chinese to try and blow up as many British people as they can before the Trading standards people can sieze them off the market. Phil.

Ps The Darwinian theory of evolution works slowly but surely.

 

[wildebus]

My view is that the majority of dangerous cases are caused by people that have no idea about the fitting and installation of items be they 12volt/240v/Diesel or Gas, or what the consequences are of a bodged or inefficient installation. It seems to me that if the write up is correct the reason for the detention is not because the heaters are dangerous in themselves, its because there are insufficient instructions in good plain English.

not because the heaters are dangerous in themselves? you never know! The first 'Chinese' Diesel heater I bought had so many faults I gave up with it in the end. The second one was faulty as well, although not dangerous in that example. The third was good. Any I would not say it was incompetent installation as I fitted one for a friend that was delivered at the same time and from the same seller as heater #1 and that went in no problem and has never given a problem since installed many years ago.

Quite frankly if people can not understand the principles of safety in fitting any sort of equipment then maybe they should not be attempting the installation in the first place and should be paying someone who (Hopefully) does know.

Nice theory. If you look at the posts on Forums and Facebook groups, you will see the general opinion is that yiu can learn how to do anything and everything from the internet, especially by picking the 'answer' from a post that seems like it offers the least work.

I certainly don't think there is a conspiracy by the Chinese to try and blow up as many British people as they can before the Trading standards people can sieze them off the market. Phil.

Ps The Darwinian theory of evolution works slowly but surely.

This may be of general interest and something learnt in the last day ... I don't know when the regulations came out, but we had the OIL Boiler serviced yesterday and as part of the service, the guy fitted a CO detecter in the boiler room (cupboard under the stairs). I know (I think!) CO detectors are mandatory installs for gas-fired applicances but was not aware of them being a requirement for 'alternative fuel' appliances.
It seems a very sensible thing to have mind, and made me wonder why that has not been a requirement before.

 

[Squiffy]

not because the heaters are dangerous in themselves? you never know! The first 'Chinese' Diesel heater I bought had so many faults I gave up with it in the end. The second one was faulty as well, although not dangerous in that example. The third was good. Any I would not say it was incompetent installation as I fitted one for a friend that was delivered at the same time and from the same seller as heater #1 and that went in no problem and has never given a problem since installed many years ago.


Nice theory. If you look at the posts on Forums and Facebook groups, you will see the general opinion is that yiu can learn how to do anything and everything from the internet, especially by picking the 'answer' from a post that seems like it offers the least work.




This may be of general interest and something learnt in the last day ... I don't know when the regulations came out, but we had the OIL Boiler serviced yesterday and as part of the service, the guy fitted a CO detecter in the boiler room (cupboard under the stairs). I know (I think!) CO detectors are mandatory installs for gas-fired applicances but was not aware of them being a requirement for 'alternative fuel' appliances.
It seems a very sensible thing to have mind, and made me wonder why that has not been a requirement before.

Most of what you mention has some truth in it Dave, but you have to pay your money and make your choice, let's face it most things that go wrong with the heaters ( Not the installation of them) is either electrical or mechanical failure and in most if not all instances do not end up catching fire or exploding, they just stop working and for the cost of them you could replace the unit 7 times over against the cost of German unit which also have a habit of stopping working.

I also reiterate my final comment that the Darwinian theory sorts most human problems. Phil.

 

[mistericeman]

Most of what you mention has some truth in it Dave, but you have to pay your money and make your choice, let's face it most things that go wrong with the heaters ( Not the installation of them) is either electrical or mechanical failure and in most if not all instances do not end up catching fire or exploding, they just stop working and for the cost of them you could replace the unit 7 times over against the cost of German unit which also have a habit of stopping working.

I also reiterate my final comment that the Darwinian theory sorts most human problems. Phil.

I've personally come across 3 potentially dangerous examples ...
2 of cracked combustion Chambers (possibly from manufacture)
1 with porosity of the aluminium casting around the glow plug area ...

All 3 of the above had the potential for leakage of carbon monoxide/combustion fumes .

However the biggest risk I would say is from people not actually bothering to download the free installation instructions freely available from multiple sources on the Web ....

But then when folks think they can just bosh a £100 heater in their van and be toasty warm ....
There's little hope of them buying a nearly £1000 one that actually comes with installation instructions ....

I got chucked off one of the many Chinese heater Facebook pages for trying to educate someone about their frankly potentially lethal heater install ...
They had removed the passenger seat and built a raised platform with the exhaust connection below (able to vent Co into the cabin)
And exhaust running directly through and against the insulated rubber cabin mats ...
Then lying on top of the plastic diesel tank ...
The mind boggles

 

[Squiffy]

I've personally come across 3 potentially dangerous examples ...
2 of cracked combustion Chambers (possibly from manufacture)
1 with porosity of the aluminium casting around the glow plug area ...

All 3 of the above had the potential for leakage of carbon monoxide/combustion fumes .

However the biggest risk I would say is from people not actually bothering to download the free installation instructions freely available from multiple sources on the Web ....

But then when folks think they can just bosh a £100 heater in their van and be toasty warm ....
There's little hope of them buying a nearly £1000 one that actually comes with installation instructions ....

I got chucked off one of the many Chinese heater Facebook pages for trying to educate someone about their frankly potentially lethal heater install ...
They had removed the passenger seat and built a raised platform with the exhaust connection below (able to vent Co into the cabin)
And exhaust running directly through and against the insulated rubber cabin mats ...
Then lying on top of the plastic diesel tank ...
The mind boggles

This is as I said, the majority of problems come from installation and not the equipment. As for co2, it's always necessary to have a good monoxide alarm installed too, I have two Fire angels Carbon monoxide/ Smoke alarms, one back and one front. I never ever run my Truma 4e when asleep unless I'm on hook up, and I certainly would not run a diesel heater whilst asleep, but then that's my choice, with the correct bedding/ Sleeping bag running heat over night I have found un necessary and we do use the van over winter, infact we've just returned from my sisters at Bryn Crug in North Wales it went down to -5 over the three nights we spent there, getting up in the morning it takes about 5 mins for the interior to heat up on the Boost setting. Phil.

 

[mistericeman]

I don't have ANY qualms whatsoever on running our genuine eberspacher 24/7 (and have done on many occasions )
As its installed correctly ,
Serviced regularly and we have 2 Co detectors ....

There are thousands if not hundreds of thousands installed in HGVs up and down the country and in all my years of involvement with eberspacher diesel heaters ....
I've never heard of a death from Co related to them ....

Would I risk a Chinese one ....nope not a chance I'm afraid ...
They are made to a cost NOT a quality ....hence the price difference .

As for folks installing them poorly ....well ,
You can't cure stupid I'm afraid .

 

[Squiffy]

I don't have ANY qualms whatsoever on running our genuine eberspacher 24/7 (and have done on many occasions )
As its installed correctly ,
Serviced regularly and we have 2 Co detectors ....

There are thousands if not hundreds of thousands installed in HGVs up and down the country and in all my years of involvement with eberspacher diesel heaters ....
I've never heard of a death from Co related to them ....

Would I risk a Chinese one ....nope not a chance I'm afraid ...
They are made to a cost NOT a quality ....hence the price difference .

As for folks installing them poorly ....well ,
You can't cure stupid I'm afraid .

Darwinian theory

Ps. There are many more Chinese diesel heaters in use than those of German origin yet you don't hear of the Government banning Chinese heaters because of the danger of monoxide poisoning. No unfortunately it's the installations that are at fault just as with Espacher if they are fitted incorrectly by secondhand buyers where instructions are not supplied or folk don't understand the installation procedure.

 

[mistericeman]

Darwinian theory

I was going to mention natural selection

Bit like folks that think it's a good idea to use disposable BBQs in enclosed spaces ...

Frankly IF it was up to me I'd remove all warning signs ...