Standard BS EN 50615 ensures quality and safety of cooker safety products. The European Union first published the EN 50615 standard for stove guards in March 2015. The standard introduced minimum requirements for all cooker safety products, with the aim of significantly decreasing the amount of kitchen and house fires throughout Europe.
Until 2015, the lack of commonly agreed specifications for stove guards and other cooker safety products slowed the implementation of new fire safety solutions. The European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization published the standard EN 50615 on 6th March 2015, giving specifications for cooker safety products in the EU. Safety devices that meet the standard’s requirements are deemed to prevent kitchen fires effectively.
The EN 50615 Standard for cooker top fire prevention was developed by a working group made up of leading European manufacturers and policymakers. The standard introduced strict minimum requirements for stove guards, grouping the stove guards into three distinctive categories:
Category A – Extinguishing & simultaneous power cut-off
Category B – Preventive power cut-off
Category AB – Preventive power cut-off followed by extinguishing if flame occurs
To meet the EU standard, a stove guard must be able to cut off the cooker’s electricity supply before the temperature on the cooker reaches 320°C. Furthermore, for a minimum of 10 minutes after the cut-off, the temperature must not exceed 350°C. Electricity cut-off must not be triggered by a false alarm.
Stove guards must disconnect the appliance from the supply before ignition and give an audible warning of at least 65 dB for a maximum of 15 seconds, during which time the electricity supply must be cut off.
The BS EN 50615 standard has been a welcome addition in many ways; the main reason being the number of kitchen fires which remained high despite the advancement of cooking technology.
Even modern induction cookers are not as safe as often presumed as their use can result in fast, explosive fires caused by the use of faulty or the wrong kind of pots or pans.
The standard has brought much-needed clarity to the market and now acts as an aid in purchasing decisions for those wishing to improve fire safety in their home, by helping consumers understand what a stove guard or cooker safety device really is and what kind of protection they can expect from it. There are several different products being sold in the market as stove guards; each offering various levels of protection and with differences in operation and reliability. For example, stove turn-off timers – often sold as “stove guards” – do not offer comprehensive protection from cooker fires, as they only help in turning off a cooker that has been left on for a prolonged period of time. Also, devices (some of them also sold as “stove guards”) that monitor user presence in the kitchen can in some cases, due to the implied minimum time limit, not respond fast enough to prevent a fire.
The Firechief Kitchen Stove Guard exceeds the requirements of the BS EN 50615 Stove Guard standard and fulfils the requirements for all types of installations (cooker hood, wall, and ceiling).
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