Do Companies Like Russound Make Sure The Customer Is Safe?

Residential fire safety is a big deal. In the United States there is a good record of home fire safety and various governmental and private testing companies be sure the products we own are safe. Many products are labeled with logo’s and declarations of safety by testing agencies like Underwriters Laboratories and TUV Rheinland. When we encounter a product that is not safe, sometimes the results are tragic.

When dangerous products are found we’ve the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to report dangerous products to. The U.S. CPSC will investigate and institute a recall if necessary. The consumer electronics industry has done much to insure that people are safe inside their homes from fire caused by electronic equipment. The television industry made the decision that Television’s in America would be safe by making certain no flammable parts are exposed to electronic devices that could throw off a spark way back in the Nineteen seventies.

Consumer electronics have many components that can throw off a spark such as resistors, diodes, transistors and capacitors. Basic overloads or component failure could cause a condition creating small fires inside your TV or stereo. Voltage surges due to lightning as well as electric company problems are one of the primary causes of electronic part failure. A voltage spike may cause a sudden failure or a delayed (or latent) malfunction of these components.

Whenever an electronic component fails, it could simply cease conducting electricity or open the circuit it is in or it could short the circuit. Short circuits could cause over heating of the part in question or surrounding circuits. This excessive heating could cause a little fire inside your electronic device and is often seen outside the cabinet as a puff of smoke or bad smell coming from the device.

It is crucial that this small bit of fire can not be utilized to ignite any surrounding flammable material and create a more substantial and more serious fire. In American televisions, the plastic cabinets are manufactured from fire resistant material and even though it is easy to burn an opening in the cabinet with a torch, the fire goes out once the torch is removed.

There is a web site where a customer that had a ‘whole house’ audio unit catch fire in his home and he details his experience with the manufacturer, Russound and also the testing agency TUV Rheinland. The Russound CAV6.6 caught fire in his home and burned outside the cabinet. He was able to extinguish the fire with a fire extinguisher, but if he was not home, his family and home might have been lost.

Instead of admit there was a problem with the product, a Russound executive threatened to sue the customer if he told anybody about the fire. There was a CPSC recall of the product, but the approved fix for the CAV audio unit left the combustible material exposed to all the parts capable of burning up. Russound and TUV Rheinland instead made the decision to place a fuse in line with just one component that can discharge a spark.

Neither Russound nor the testing agency, TUV Rheinland inspected the Russound CAV device that caught fire prior to proclaiming the defect and prescribing a fix. The question is: Would you sleep better with consumer electronics that cannot catch fire, or products like the ones manufactured by Russound and tested by TUV Rheinland that probably won’t catch fire? You decide.

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