Dozens of carbon monoxide alarms sold over Amazon and eBay have been withdrawn from sale after failing safety tests.
Four alarms available for sale on the retail websites failed to detect the presence of the gas, making them potentially lethal in the event of a carbon monoxide build-up in a home, an investigation by Which? found.
The consumer group urged anyone who purchased one of the devices – which all claimed to meet British safety standards – to replace them.
One of the alarms, the Topolek GEHS007AW CO, failed to detect the gas in more than 80 per cent of the tests conducted by the watchdog. It was bestseller on Amazon, where it retailed at £14.99.
Three other unbranded alarms, made in China and sold through Amazon and eBay for less than £10, also repeatedly failed to sound when there was carbon monoxide in the air.
[...] Amazon and eBay have removed the alarms from sale and also “de-listed” another 50 lookalike alarms believed to be identical to the three unbranded alarms.
Which? advised anyone who owns one of the alarms to replace it immediately and to contact the company they bought it from for a full refund.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday June 25 2018, @05:25PM
Legally, if it is imported into the UK it should be subjected to the relevant safety checks. As I acknowledged in my previous post, buying on EBay might mean that the purchaser is also the importer. I'm not sure how such things are managed in the UK at the moment with this sort of thing. It might be more a case of caveat emptor.
The cost is not an issue. Goods for sale in the UK (and Europe) should meet the appropriate safety specifications - where such specifications exist - and be fit for purpose,