From the living room to the kitchen, and from the garden to your car, our homes and vehicles are full of electrical equipment, but are the products we own safe?
Firefighters have worked with the local community safety team at Gosport Borough Council to offer free Portable Appliance Testing (PAT) for residents’ appliances.
On Tuesday 14th January from 11am-2pm Gosport Fire Station will open its doors to the public to bring in their small electrical appliances to be tested by experts, receiving a free £10 voucher towards a replacement if their product fails.
Another Portable Appliance Testing event is being held by Gosport Borough Council at the Town Hall on Saturday 8th March).
Station Manager Jason Boh said:
“It is great to be able to work with our partners at Gosport Borough Council and open our doors to the community and offer free Portable Appliance Testing to help keep residents safe in their homes.
“We all want our appliances to last longer and work safely, so it is important your electric products are checked or serviced, and registered appropriately with the manufacturer to ensure you are notified in case it is recalled.”
Make sure your electrical products are registered
There are 40 million large appliances in use in UK homes which are unlikely to be registered with the manufacturers. This means that the owners of these products are unlikely to find out if the appliance in their home has been recalled for safety reasons.
Registering your electrical products means that the manufacturer can easily contact you if your product turns out to have a fault, be dangerous or needs recalling.
Electrical products such as chargers, hair dryers, straighteners, kettles, irons and toasters are recalled more regularly than you might think but many remain unregistered so continue to be used, putting their owners at risk of electrical shocks, fires or even death.
Each new electrical appliance you buy for your home should be registered but if you haven’t registered your older products, it’s not too late.
With Register my Appliance Week (20-26 Jan) coming up, there is no better time to check you’ve registered all your electrical items, especially new gadgets you may have received over the festive period.
How do I register my appliances?
There should be paperwork with the product explaining how to register the product and instructions on how to operate and maintain it.
If you’ve had the item for a while and have lost the paperwork it’s still possible to register it. In order to register your product, you’ll need the brand name, model, serial number and the date of purchase (or as near to it as you can remember).
AMDEA’s Register My Appliance portal provides a quick and easy solution offering online access to more than 70 leading brands, with most accepting registration of both new and older appliances.
Alternatively, The Electrical Safety Council provides information of electrical products that have been recalled since 2007. Check electrical product recalls to make sure that your home is safe.
