"The Tefal ActiFry is a very safe innovation - it has undergone over 500 hours of safety tests and had to pass an independent laboratory test to gain the European Safety Standards BS EN 60335-1 and BS EN 60335-2-9. The ActiFry has been designed to 'fail safe'. This means that in the event of a product failure, it will shut down safely with all power cut immediately."
The statement goes on to say that of the 150,000 ActiFrys sold in the UK the vast majority of products have had no problems whatsoever and that customer satisfaction is very high.
"Since the launch of the ActiFry in 2007 we are aware of only 1.26% that has suffered from a faulty fan motor overheating," it says. "Most of these customers have reported their products producing smoke or sparks inside the unit.
"We accept that it may be possible for a short-lived flame to appear inside the unit should any oil residue be on the heating element casing. We reiterate that even if this did occur the product is still safe. The product will not catch fire as it is made from 20% fibreglass reinforced polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) which is flame retardant."
The statement concludes: "To reiterate, over 98% of customers have not reported any problems at all and Tefal has been in consultation with Trading Standards that looks after the interests of consumer safety and it has stated that it has no cause for concern."
The statement concludes: "To reiterate, over 98% of customers have not reported any problems at all and Tefal has been in consultation with Trading Standards that looks after the interests of consumer safety and it has stated that it has no cause for concern."
With our new Actifry, the lab replicated six month's use, in just three days and everything seemed to work fine. However, when the scientists simulated a fan failure - which they say is one of the most common faults in products like this - the Actifry should have been able to cope just fine, but within seconds it was on fire.
TÜV Product Service compliance services manager Richard Poate, who tested the Actifry for Watchdog, said: "Anything that emits that degree of smoke and fire could have potential catastrophic effects. This is a fundamental design issue that should have been detected very, very easily. All the safety standards require you to simulate failures like motor failure, fan failure, and how this got past the safety testing is really quite beyond me. In my opinion, there should be a recall."
What do they mean by fire.
I'll stick with trading standards and EU safety tests and not go all hysteria.
I wouldn't worry about mass hysteria like that.
I wouldn't worry about mass hysteria like that.