Warning over ‘dangerous’ carbon monoxide alarms for sale on eBay and Amazon

Consumer watchdog Which? found the alarms failed to detect presence of the deadly, odourless gas

A battery-operated carbon monoxide alarm that failed 10 out of 28 tests by watchdog Which? (Which?)

“Dangerous” carbon monoxide alarms are being sold on eBay, Amazon, AliExpress and Wish, Which? has warned.

The consumer champion said the government was failing to take the urgent action needed to hold the marketplaces to account after tests of alarms bought on the sites found they failed to alert households to the presence of the lethal odourless gas.

The group is calling for online marketplaces to have more legal responsibility for preventing unsafe products on their platforms.

In total, across the five faulty alarms, Which? found 46 listings on AliExpress, 42 on eBay, 41 on Wish and 20 on Amazon.

One of the unsafe models was first flagged to eBay by Which? seven years ago but this year’s tests found the model still cannot be relied on to sound when needed.

It failed to respond to carbon monoxide 10 times out of 28 CO detection tests and it was far too quiet when it did sound.

The same dangerous alarm was listed on AliExpress, Amazon, and Wish.

A total, 149 listings for unsafe CO alarms were identified by Which? across the four online marketplaces and have since been removed.

EBay is the only online marketplace that discloses sales figures which showed that at least 1,311 of the alarms identified by Which? found had been purchased.

The models, all unbranded and made in China, featured prominently on the online marketplaces when listings were filtered by cheapest first, in some cases being sold for as little as £5.

This unbranded alarm failed to sound in 15 out of 28 carbon monoxide detection tests (Which?)

Another unbranded CO and smoke alarm, which failed to trigger 22 times when CO was in the air, was listed by 22 eBay sellers, with 718 sales recorded, and by two sellers on AliExpress.

A separate unbranded alarm, which failed to sound in 15 carbon monoxide detection tests, was available for sale from six sellers on Amazon and eBay.

Last week, the government provided an update on its long-delayed product safety review but it failed to provide reassurances of a crackdown on marketplaces any time soon.

The review was launched in March 2021 but Which? said it has still not resulted in any real action to tackle the problem, which could be delayed until after the next general election.

Avril Samuel, whose daughter Katie died of CO poisoning at her home, raised concerns about unsafe carbon monoxide alarms being sold online.

Katie Haines (middle) with her parents Avril and Gordon Samuel (Which?)

“A carbon monoxide alarm forms the second line of defence against carbon monoxide poisoning - the first being that all carbon-burning appliances should be regularly maintained and serviced by a registered engineer,” she said.

“If the alarm is not to standard, that defence is negated and could have fatal results.”

Figures indicate that carbon monoxide poisoning has caused more than 200 accidental deaths in England and Wales in the past decade.

Sue Davies, head of consumer protection policy at Which?, said: “This is the latest in a long line of examples of unsafe products being readily available on online marketplaces, with far too little action taken by the platforms to prevent them being allowed for sale.

“The government cannot delay any longer. It must move at pace to establish new regulations that put consumer safety first and enable tough enforcement action against online marketplaces that break the rules.”