Mitsubishi Electric has announced a voluntary recall of all Ecodan heat pumps except UK-manufactured models.
Mitsubishi Electric UK has issued a product safety recall after a component failure in one of its Ecodan air source heat pumps.
The power receiver component in one W85 (medium sized) unit, manufactured in China, failed under pressure, seriously damaging the outdoor unit. This type of failure is only possible when the unit is operating, but should this happen while there is anyone in close proximity then there is the potential for injury. The company said it was not prepared to risk the possibility, however slight.
Mitsubishi Electric is writing to all affected households and instructing that all heat pump units that contain this component should be turned off. The recall affects all of the Ecodan models (W50, W85, W90, HW140) except W85 models made in Scotland (model number PUHZ W85VHA2-BS), which it is continuing to sell as these were manufactured using a different process.
The model numbers affected are: PUHZ-W50VHA; PUHZ-W50VHA-BS; PUHZ W85VHA; PUHZ W85VHA-BS; PUHZ W90VHA; PUHZ-HW140VHA; PUHZ-HW140VHA-BS; PUHZ-HW140YHA; PUHZ-HW140YHA-BS and PUHZ-HW140YHA2-BS.
“We have installed more than 6,000 of these units in the UK over the last few years and have had a single component failure in one of our units,” said John Kellett, general manager of the company’s domestic heating systems department. “We are very aware that any incident with a heat pump has the potential to undermine confidence and we wanted customers to realise just how much importance we place on product reliability and safety.”
All sales have been stopped with immediate effect.
Mitsubishi Electric is instructing everyone affected to switch their Ecodan unit off and use their immersion heater to supply their hot water. The company is also implementing a replacement programme with its installer base.
“This is obviously quite a task and it could mean that some customers may be without their heat pump for some weeks,” explains Kellett. “We are doing everything we can to get a replacement heat pump installed as soon as possible. We recognise the inconvenience this will cause and apologise sincerely.”
A dedicated webpage is being set up to help customers identify which models are affected at www.mitsubishielectric.co.uk/response-team.
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