JA2015 - Blenders, Mixers, & Small Kitchen Appliances
Household electrical appliances are being addressed as a product group. This will entail a priority-setting exercise for future Joint Actions. For JA2015 it is proposed to target one specific product group.
This Activity will focus on blenders, mixers and small kitchen heating appliances such as toasters. These are considered to be present in more than 80% of European households and a number of issues are present in these products, such as:
- poor internal wiring that may cause fires or electric shocks,
- burns from accessible hot surfaces (toasters and irons),
- cuts caused by moving parts (blenders and mixers).
In fact, in the last three years more than 10 RAPEX notifications have been issued covering unsafe characteristics of products on the European market.
Main Hazards with household electrical appliances:
- Break up during normal operation (mixer blades)
- Insufficient flame retardants in plastics resulting in a fire hazard
- Electric shock from lack of earthing for accessible conductive parts
- Electric shock from reduced internal creepage and clearance distances
- Electrocution and fire from dangerous fitted plug
Objectives
- To ensure that the blenders, mixers and toasters available on the EU market for consumers are safe and carry the appropriate warnings and instructions
- To remove from the market unsafe products.
- To develop a priority-list of household electrical appliances tools to be targeted in future joint actions
The Activity anticipates the testing of 100 appliances (including products sold online as appropriate).
The Final Technical Report of this activity can be downloaded by clicking on the cover page of the report. Very interesting information can be found within this report and it is particularly useful for market surveillance authorities and anybody else interested to know more about safety of household electrical appliances.