Calor Lite 6kg gas cylindersa product recall

[FrintonMike]

Just back from 10 days away without EHU and started with two full bottles, both 2012, One bottle ran out after seven days and I thought that I would see if two local Caravan dealers had any Calor Lite. As I thought neither had any and did not know when they would receive any. One dealer had at least 30 empty bottles waiting for Calor to collect.
They also said that at the local Calor depot they had two people checking each bottle but the depot still had no full ones to send out

 

[Gozza]

Another update...i was in my local caravan dealer today, and they had a notice...on what appeared to be official Calor letterhead. ..saying that Calor were now only handling the recall through Calor main depots. That dealer didn't have any Lite anyway, but if this IS official Calor policy it doesn't seem to be furthering the objective of getting the dodgy cylinders out of circulation as quickly as possible. The notice said they were doing this to enable them to "data capture customers".

 

[xtrailman]

I have an 2008 6kg gas lite, can't get anyone to replace it, I've emailed calor but as yet received no reply.

 

[MagsAlan]

Both our cylinders were in the date range affected so took them to the local Calor depot. They had no replacements but took ours in and gave us receipts for them. Deliveries could arrive any time so we are to keep phoning to see if they have any in stock.

 

[xtrailman]

I was told they had run out of the "tickets" supplied by Calor, only 25 of them, no mention was made of giving a receipt.

I'm not concerned as my touring has finished until next April. But I'm surprised that Calor don't appear to have planned the recall logistics'.

But I had to remove the cylinder to outside our shed due to a gas smell. Or it might just be my imagination.

 

[MagsAlan]

Yes I perhaps chose the wrong word. They do say something like 'Product Recall' on one side with our name & address on the other.

 

[ProfJohnL]

.........I'm not concerned as my touring has finished until next April. But I'm surprised that Calor don't appear to have planned the recall logistics'.

But I had to remove the cylinder to outside our shed due to a gas smell. Or it might just be my imagination.

Hello Xtrailman,

If you have a Calor gas cylinder which you suspect is leaking, then you must contact Calor so they can arrange with you its safe disposition.

To be fair to Calor, a recall for safety reasons is never easy to plan. they always come out of the blue, so its difficult to cover all possible eventualities before the event arises. The clear priority must be to remove all suspect cylinders from circulation, and arranging replacements is very much a secondary consideration.

 

[RogerL]

I know that those whose storage sites insist on no gas have no choice but keeping gas cylinders at home, other than in the open air does have it's dangers because sheds and garages don't have the relevant ventilation in the even of a gas leak, however caused.

But this is pot calling the kettle black as my domestic boiler and gas meter are in the garage, the boiler is room-sealed but the meter and gas pipes feeding them aren't - I do also keep gas cylinders in the garage for short periods.

Just be aware of the risk.

 

[xtrailman]

.........I'm not concerned as my touring has finished until next April. But I'm surprised that Calor don't appear to have planned the recall logistics'.

But I had to remove the cylinder to outside our shed due to a gas smell. Or it might just be my imagination.

Hello Xtrailman,

If you have a Calor gas cylinder which you suspect is leaking, then you must contact Calor so they can arrange with you its safe disposition.

To be fair to Calor, a recall for safety reasons is never easy to plan. they always come out of the blue, so its difficult to cover all possible eventualities before the event arises. The clear priority must be to remove all suspect cylinders from circulation, and arranging replacements is very much a secondary consideration.

In our area the stockist haven't received any gas lite replacements now for three weeks.

Why is the question I 'm asking, I can understand a back log but no deliveries is not on, hence dealers only selling existing stock if they have any, refusing to exchange for recalls.

 

[xtrailman]

I know that those whose storage sites insist on no gas have no choice but keeping gas cylinders at home, other than in the open air does have it's dangers because sheds and garages don't have the relevant ventilation in the even of a gas leak, however caused.

But this is pot calling the kettle black as my domestic boiler and gas meter are in the garage, the boiler is room-sealed but the meter and gas pipes feeding them aren't - I do also keep gas cylinders in the garage for short periods.

Just be aware of the risk.

I keep my caravan at home and normally the gas cylinder stays in the caravan.

But since my wet locker farce after 3 repairs I have since started to store the cylinder in the shed. So I can lift the trays to give air circulation to the floor and carry out damp checks.

I do have two older calor 3kg? bottle that I store in a dedicated storage compound that is covered and ventilated, I guess the better option would be to make room for another cylinder.

 

[Gozza]

......But I'm surprised that Calor don't appear to have planned the recall logistics'.

...To be fair to Calor, a recall for safety reasons is never easy to plan. they always come out of the blue, so its difficult to cover all possible eventualities before the event arises.

True, but Calor know that they're dealing with a hazardous product and I'm astonished that someone hasn't sat down and written out a recall procedure, in slow time before there was any emergency, so they had loads of time to think about it. As I said elsewhere (I think it was earlier in this thread), that's standard practice in the food industry and any food supplier which didn't have a product recall process, and practise it regularly, would soon find itself not supplying any of the major supermarkets.

I think it's fair enough that the sheer number of cylinders needing replacing is leading to problems with supply of new ones - assuming they've made the same number of new cylinders every year since they started, the number needing examination and possible replacement is more than half of the number ever made. I also think it's fair enough that if they did have a recall process, it wouldn't allow for this many cylinders to be potentially affected. But the communication around this should be far better, and that's something that can be planned in advance. Half of the stockists appear not to know the terms of the recall, at least one that's been reported here didn't even know the recall was happening, and the recall process has changed half way through (now changing at main depots only, according to what I was told yesyerday, see my post earlier in this thread, about 21:00 on 3-11-14.) The only mention of the recall on Calor's website is a link at the bottom of the front page, which if you were only coming to the site looking to buy gas you probably wouldn't spot - and that link still refers to "return to any CalorLite stockist", which is wrong according to what I was told yesterday.

Thnk goodness this has happened when it has - given that CalorLite is mainly a caravan gas, most of the affected cylinders are going to be out of use for the next few months and people won't mind waiting for a new one - if the process allowed switching a dodgy cylinder for a chitty against a new one (which seems to be possible in some places and not others), most people wouldn't mind waiting a couple of months for their new cylinder. I suspect if this was peak caravanning season, and users were being told "we'll take your cylinder but we can't replace it, and we don't know when we will be able to", many would fall to the temptation to keep on using what may be a dodgy bottle.

 

[RogerL]

Is it the sheer number that need replacing - or "just" the sheer number that need testing? The proportion actually faulty may be low and the backlog may be simply Calor's inability to test at a fast enough rate.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Is it the sheer number that need replacing - or "just" the sheer number that need testing? The proportion actually faulty may be low and the backlog may be simply Calor's inability to test at a fast enough rate.

Hello Roger,
Something of a moot point. As far as the customer is concerned any cylinder in the suspect batches has to be replaced - as a matter of imperative safety. Until the suspect cylinder is emptied and inspected/tested Calor will not know how many need to be taken out of service. Undoubtedly this process is going to ramp up the work of Calor's testing facilities, and it will take some time to clear the backlog.

 

[ProfJohnL]

........... I'm astonished that someone hasn't sat down and written out a recall procedure, in slow time before there was any emergency, so they had loads of time to think about it. As I said elsewhere (I think it was earlier in this thread), that's standard practice in the food industry and any food supplier which didn't have a product recall process, and practise it regularly, would soon find itself not supplying any of the major supermarkets...................

Hello Gozza,
I am absolutely certain that Calor will have written recall procedures, and tested them as far as they reasonably can. But without actually having to manage a real recall, there will always be some aspects of the process that will be a best estimate, and some aspects that couldn't have been reasonably foreseen until the system was actually put into action.

But do I need to remind you of the food industries failures in the Horse meat scandals? Some shops were devoid of beef products for several days or weeks, So even your benchmark system was not perfect.

There are good reasons why you can't really compare this recall with food suppliers processes. Basically if there is a food scare, the basic advice is to stop using the product and that mitigates the hazard, But with this recall the cylinder is the hazard, so simply possessing one is hazardous and the hazard is not diminished if the cylinder is turned off or disconnected.
SO IF YOU HAVE AC SUSPECTED CYLINDER DON'T WAIT, RETURN IT TO YOUR CALOR DEALER IMMEDIATELY.

Because most foods have relatively short shelf lives, and no recycling of old product into new, their manufacturers have to be able to totally resupply the shelves several times per year. So if a small number of batches have to be recalled, it would only take a few days to have the shelves fully restocked with new product.

By comparison gas cylinders are recycled so there is only a very small manufacturing requirement to service the natural scrappage of cylinders which I guess will be no more than about 1% of the cylinder population annually.

I'm certain Calor have been taken by surprise by the Calorlite issue, and as we have seen it has tested the robustness of their recall management processes. Whilst I am not directly affected by the recall, I am pushing Calor to become more proactive and to face the shortcomings of the process we have had reports of on the forum.

Many years ago I was involved with a gas safety recall when the supplier of a gas valve changed a component material without authorisation. The same sub assembly was used by several different appliance manufactures, and when problems started to be reported we all had to act. National paper adverts (in the days before widespread internet availability) 24 hour customer service telephone lines, printed recall notices and service bulletins for dealer showrooms etc.

One of the big problems we had was with the dealer network. Their response to the information they were given was very inconsistent.. Some dealers were brilliant, most were accommodating, and a few were worse than useless. Sounds familiar?

 

[JTQ]

I had the opportunity to visit Calor, Southampton, yesterday as I had cause to be back in the area.
No issue at all about exchanging an empty FOC under the recall scheme.
Thanks to those that rattled the cage, the message has obviously now got through to them.

 

[xtrailman]

Just phoned local stockist at Sheffield they supply all dealers in our area, Gas and hire.

No stocks until at least end of next week.
so I suppose stock levels depend on local demand.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Just phoned local stockist at Sheffield they supply all dealers in our area, Gas and hire.

No stocks until at least end of next week.
so I suppose stock levels depend on local demand.

Hello Xtrailman,
Even if they don't currently have stock, they should offer to take any suspect cylinder off your hands.

The danger lies with the cylinder itself, The suspicion is the cylinder will deteriorate over time regardless of whether it's used or not, so its in your own best interests to get any suspect cylinder to the dealer as soon as possible and out of your hands to mitigate the danger.

Tell Calor directly if any dealer refuses to take suspect cylinders.

 

[xtrailman]

Calor haven't even bothered to reply to my email sent last weekend.

As the cylinder is outside I'll wait until the suppler has a replacement.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Calor haven't even bothered to reply to my email sent last weekend.

As the cylinder is outside I'll wait until the suppler has a replacement.

Look up the recall notice

http://www.calor.co.uk/recall
And you will find phone number. If the dealer has refused to accept the suspect cylinder call Calor and report them. Ok they may not have a replacement at the moment but protect yourself.

You have a ticking bomb outside - Knowing there is a recall concerning a possible gas leak, if anything were to happen, your insurers would be less inclined to handle your claim.

GET IT TO THE DEALER and don't be fobbed off.

 

[FrintonMike]

Our local dealer had a delivery on Tuesday but no lite bottles only standard bottles. They have no idea when they will receive their back order

 

[FrintonMike]

Was in our local dealers yesterday and he had just had a delivery which included 36 lite bottles so it seems as if they are coming through again