Guaranteed Safe Home Appliances – A Filipino Consumer’s Right

Can you imagine a day without the use of home appliances particularly for Filipinos in the urban areas?

The use of electrical machines has become so common that most of us are dependent on them because they make our lives more comfortable and daily chores easier to do.

These electrical appliances are widely used in homes, schools, offices, and business establishments. The relevance of their safety and performance is therefore high to ensure that consumers get their money’s worth.

As one of the lead offices in empowering consumers based on the Republic Act 7394 or the Consumer Act of the Philippines, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) upholds the rights and responsibilities of consumers drawing on the vigilance and involvement of the buying population.

The second among the eight consumer rights is the right to safety, which says that a consumer shall be protected against the marketing of goods or the provision of services that are hazardous to life and health.

Through R. A. 4109 or the Standards Law, the DTI’s Bureau of Philippine Standards (BPS) requires manufacturers and importers of critical products under its list of Philippine National Standards (PNS) for mandatory certification to secure the Philippine Standard (PS) license or the Import Commodity Clearance (ICC) certificate prior to distribution and sale in the market.

The DTI subjects products to inspection based on the specifications of the relevant PNS and Department Administrative Orders 04 and 05, series of 2008.

Random product samples are drawn per shipment or production batch and submitted to a DTI-accredited private testing laboratory or in the absence of private laboratories, to the BPS Product Testing Division for verification or confirmatory product tests.

When products have successfully passed the tests and inspection, the DTI issues either the PS license or the ICC certificate to a manufacturer or importer that authorizes them to stamp the PS mark or place the ICC sticker on the product or product package.

DTI Consumer Protection Group (CPG) Undersecretary Atty. Victorio Mario A. Dimagiba underscores, “The PS and ICC marks guarantee a consumer that an appliance has undertaken extensive safety and performance inspection prior to its sale and distribution.”

“Consumers are also guaranteed that these PS and ICC-marked home appliances contain proper information on its identification details (brand name, name and address of manufacturer or importer, serial and batch numbers) use, operation, and precaution,” Dimagiba added.

The safety tests on household appliances based on relevant PNS are conducted to ensure that the products sold in the market are safe and high in quality. These tests include protection against electric shock that checks insulation resistance; protection against excessive temperature of components and accessible parts that measures temperature rise; and protection against mechanical hazard tests for sharp edges and stability of parts.

Among the critical products that the DTI regulates are home appliances because they affect lives, property and health. The home appliances that are required to undergo the BPS certification scheme are electric fans; flat irons; kitchen machines such as blenders, microwave ovens, rice cookers, airpots and coffee makers; refrigerators; audio and video products such as TV sets and CD,VCD and DVD players; toasters, electric stoves and hot plates; washing machines and air conditioners.

In purchasing reliable and safe home appliances, the DTI advises consumers to check on proper labels, ensure that there is an instruction manual or installation guide included in the product, and always ask for an official receipt. Particularly for refrigerators and room air conditioners, the DTI urges consumers to scrutinize their energy labels that specify the appropriate Energy Efficiency Factor (EEF) and the Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER).

The energy labels as a guide for consumer say that a higher EEF of a room air conditioner means lower operating cost while a higher EER of a refrigerator means a lower electricity cost.

The DTI enjoins consumers to read instructions for the proper use of products to avoid accidents such as fire and electrocution. Instruction/Product manuals provide setup and installation information; warranty and servicing details; power requirements and energy information; included and optional accessories; parts list; product limitations; performance; special features; and recommended maintenance and troubleshooting. With such information, consumers will be guided on how to get the most out of any appliance; know how and what to do in case it malfunctions; and maintain an appliance’s optimum performance for the duration of its expected lifecycle.

Moreover, since product warranty provisions are included in the instruction/product manuals, consumers are able to know their rights in case the appliance sold to them turned out to be defective.

For the complete list of home appliance and their brands that bear the PS & ICC marks, visit the BPS portal www.bps.dti.gov.ph. Consumers may report establishments that sell critical products without the PS or ICC mark or with a questionable PS or ICC mark to DTI Direct 02-751-3330 or 0917-8313330. (DTI/JBV/LTC/PIA-Mimaropa/Calapan)

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