has described 250 of the most popular fridges and freezers on sale in the UK as “potentially unsafe”, adding that they could be putting lives at risk. The organisation demanded that retailers immediately stop selling the models it had identified after an investigation showed that the backing material on almost half of all the fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers tested was made of an unsafe plastic that posed a fire risk. UK safety rules require refrigeration appliances to pass a glow wire test to assess their fire resistance. This involves putting a hot wire through a sample of the fridge or freezer backing material and seeing whether it catches alight. and other parties to see whether standards can be made even more stringent.”• Consumers can use Which?’s new tool to check the backing material of hundreds of the most popular fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers currently on the market.

Source: The Guardian April 05, 2018 04:52 UTC