Two types of gas regulators have been withdrawn from the market after tests revealed they pose a “serious risk to consumers”.
The recall involves TPA Butane LR2522 and Liquicontrol Malta regulators, the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority said yesterday.
It found that most of the regulators on the market were only suitable for butane gas but not for liquefied petroleum gas, LPG, the gas supplied in Malta.
Earlier this year, consumers complained that gas was leaking from regulators and even causing fires at the top of the cylinders, prompting the Malta Standards Authority to issue warnings and send the regulators to Finland for testing.
Then, Liquigas, the main supplier of liquid propane gas said it had already voiced its concerns with the standards authority and insisted its regulators were fully certified and had no compatibility issues.
The consumers’ authority said yesterday it was in contact with the importers of the regulators to make sure that “the necessary actions are taken to safeguard their consumers”.
“Following risk-assessments on the results, the authority came to the conclusion that some of the non-compliances pose a serious risk to consumers,” it said.
It reserved the right to impose other sanctions on the importers and distributors allowed by law.
It urged the public to check the regulators, which were all marked according to the type of gas they were designed to handle. Consumers should ensure that regulators work properly on LPG cylinders and those marked with butane should not be used on LPG cylinders.
The public was also urged to follow the guidelines issued by the Malta Resources Authority to replace aged regulators, as recommended by the manufacturer, and use appropriate flexible hoses with an expiry date printed on them. Normal water hoses should never be used and flexible hoses should be secured to the regulator nozzle with hose clips, it said.
The authority reminded consumers to immediately contact the operator – whose contact details have to be printed on the cylinders by law – for any queries.
In a statement yesterday, Liquigas said there were just under 4,000 of the Liquicontrol regulators on the market and, “as a preventive measure, the manufacturer, Lagoplast, has agreed to replace these regulators with an updated version”.
It explained that the new regulators were being modified to be fully compliant with the required standards and, once certified again, would be supplied free of charge to all those who had bought one. These should be available in September. A company spokesman said that “no leakages or issues of compatibility have been reported with any Liquicontrol regulator since it was introduced last year”.
Liquicontrol regulators were manufactured by Lagoplast, a reputable supplier in Italy with many years of experience manufacturing LPG equipment and had never had any problems with this type of regulator, the spokesman said.
However, once the authority decided that the regulators “are not fully compliant”, Liquigas insisted that all necessary measures were taken by its supplier to “ensure the highest standard of quality and safety”, he added.