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Sunday, September 15, 2013

Why did CPSC not demand a recall of these defective Heat Detectors

For many years Chemetron  not to be confused with a chemical company with a similar name where the chief provider of Rate of Rise and Fixed Temperature Heat Detectors used in Fire Alarm Systems all over the USA.
But something happened there for a while in early 2004-05 they where limited or  just not available on the shelf's of supply houses .
Then in 2006 I started to get some real problems with them where the wiring terminals would snap off the units rendering them non working
As you can see in the above picture. I immediately notified the CPSC Consumer Products safety Commission after notifying local  Penn Hills Fire Marshal now retired Jack mason of the problem  and he put me in touch with agent Hank Glowgowski who forwarded on to his superiors who conducted and investigation made sure manufacturing process where being done properly  by the manufacturer but a recall was never issued for bad products infield which i am still finding when I inspect the heats.
Now where not talking a lot of money the heats are less than $10.00 each and should be inspected annually and changed out after so many years but how many places do not do regular inspections especially in attics where I found this bad unit so lives are being put on the line when not inspected properly which is well over 50% of the systems out there not getting annual inspections.
Now there are those who argue they  are of limited value for fire protection in first place and they have never seen one tripped during a fire investigation because most fires are smokey and do not put off enough hat to trip units . I beg to differ with them . I have in fact had customers who had fires where the heat detectors did operate .These are one of the very few cost effective detection systems  you can use in many areas where conventional smokes can not be used like above ceilings , attics kitchens etc. despite what limited value naysayers say they have. So once again we have ticking time bombs out there and while good professional techs are looking for and replacing these bad units there are many who have no ideal such a problem even exists in the field and plenty more who could care less at this point I do not think there being made by Chemetron any more and they sold the product  to another manufacturer but in mean time System Sensor has come out with a fantastic heat detector which is of superior design and which I now install exclusively on my customers systems.  

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