A new report has been recently published that investigates temperature limits of non-functional hot surfaces of CE Marked household appliances that are covered by European product standard EN 60335-2-9. This standard applies to household electric portable appliances that have a cooking function. The standard goes on to list a range of examples, however the report only focuses of products belonging to the following groups; mini ovens, raclette, toasters, contract grills, sandwich toasters and waffle irons.
The report, which has been generated by the LVD ADCO (Low Voltage Directive Administration Cooperation), investigates the safety problem concerning temperatures of hot surfaces that are likely to be touched and whether EN 60335-2-9 adequately addresses this potential hazard. The report explains that testing was undertaken by 11 countries on 196 products (of which 191 were unique) and found that 76% were not in compliance with the temperature limits of the standard. Further to this only 27% of the products featured a warning label, of which over half of these products were found to be incorrectly labelled.
The report concludes that CENELEC should revisit standard to align the standard to CENELEC Guide 29 and to investigate removing loopholes within the standard. It also advises that warnings should only be used as a last resort and not be used as a common escape clause within the standard. Finally it recommends that manufacturers pay more attention to the temperature limits, as the number of products found to have a serious non-compliance (where the temperature rise is more than 50K above the allowed upper limit) was far too high.
The full report can be downloaded from the European Commission’s website.
Comments are closed.
