The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has served Haier with an immediate Requirement to Warn Notice, requiring the electrical manufacturer to contact owners whose heat pump tumble dryers were modified under its recent Corrective Action Programme. The notice was published on 1 August 2025. More than 17,000 owners are affected and must stop using the appliances immediately because a fire risk still exists1.
OPSS had already published Safety Reports in May 2025 alerting consumers to the risk of fire in certain heat pump tumble dryer models, and at that stage recommended that affected consumers seek a modification from the company1. The regulator has now judged that programme unsatisfactory.
"OPSS has told Haier its modification programme is not satisfactory"
Under the notice, the company must inform those affected to tell them to switch off their appliance immediately1. The brands involved are listed below.
| Brand |
|---|
| Baumatic |
| Candy |
| Caple |
| Haier |
| Hoover |
| Iberna |
| Lamona |
| Montpellier |
OPSS directs owners of these brands to check whether their model is affected and to contact the company1. The notice itself is a three-page document published alongside the announcement1. The announcement does not state how many of the 17,000 appliances have already been modified, what proportion of owners Haier has so far reached, or what remedy, if any, will follow the stop warning. Those points have not been reported1.
Why it matters for households
A tumble dryer is one of the more energy-hungry appliances in a home, and heat pump models are usually chosen because they run at lower temperatures and use less electricity than condenser or vented types. A stop warning removes that appliance from use at a stroke, which affects both the household's running costs and the practical job of drying laundry. The risk identified is fire, not performance, so the concern is safety rather than efficiency1.
For a household weighing up energy independence, the episode is a reminder that the safety of an appliance sits with the manufacturer and the regulator, not with the buyer. The product markings and standards that a dryer carries at the point of sale, and the regulation and policy framework behind them, are what determine who is responsible when a fault emerges later. A modification carried out under a corrective programme does not close a case on its own; the regulator can decide the programme has not done enough, as it has here1.
What happens next
Haier is under a statutory obligation to contact the owners who took part in its Corrective Action Programme and to tell them to switch off their appliance immediately1. OPSS has not said in the announcement what further action it will take if the company does not comply, and no deadline for the contact has been reported1.