Electrolux has become the third appliance brand to announce that its refrigeration products in the UK will be fitted with metal or aluminised backing from the end of May.
The news follows similar moves by Gorenje and Whirlpool after calls to address the issue from the London Fire Brigade and safety campaigner Lynn Faulds Wood.
The Electrolux group, which also includes the AEG and Zanussi brands, claimed that the decision was not made because of any concerns regarding the safety of its products, but to stay ahead of anticipated changes in European legislation.
Peter Spencer (pictured), managing director for UK and Ireland, said: “True to our commitment to quality, safety and a best-in-class consumer experience, we wanted to confirm the introduction of new backing material for all of our refrigeration and freezing products in the UK.
“We continually review the design of our refrigeration and freezing products – including backing materials – and in anticipation of potential future regulation updates, from the end of May 2018, all Electrolux Group fridges, freezers, and fridge-freezers produced for the UK and Ireland markets will feature a metal or aluminised-based backing.”
The group claimed to have an “excellent” safety record and to have sold more than a million refrigeration and freezing products in the UK with no major incidents involving issues with the plastic backing on its products.
Sophie Davidson, head of product line, kitchen, explained: “As part of our safety process, we focus our efforts and investments on the creation of intelligent design using the safest components. We started this process several months ago to ensure that we stay ahead of any anticipated changes to European legislation regarding the safety of refrigerating appliances. These refrigeration products are compliant to BS EN 60695-11-5:2017 and meet the new international refrigeration and freezing standard IEC60335-2-24. Our ambition has been to ensure we are compliant with what we believe will represent the global standards up to 2020.”