This is where we publish the information from those organisations that ask us to share information that may help you and your crew stay safe.
Please note, there are no formal requirements for any organisation that has a recall or safety alert to share such warning with us.
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Morco open flued water heaters – Morco’s critical safety upgrade, BSS briefing for boat owners
Download this briefing as a pdf [LINK]
July 2024 - This matter concerns your personal safety and that of the boat crew and anyone in the immediate area of the boat due to a potential gas leak from specific models and years of manufacture of Morco LPG water heaters.
Following concerns that appliance test-nipple screws may not have been correctly tightened at the time of commissioning or servicing, Morco has issued a safety alert and is offering free upgrades for customers that have the affected models.
Morco’s concern is that un-rectified water heaters can potentially leak unburnt gas that could cause fires or explosions, that may result in burns and injuries.
This briefing is part of the BSS support for Morco’s safety campaign to find affected models and have a Gas Safe registered engineer to install the safety upgrade pack.
The Morco safety upgrade campaign web page is here [LINK]
What’s happened
Morco has identified a potential fire risk on their Primo 6 (MP6), Primo 11 (MP11), EUP6 and EUP11 LPG open-flued water heaters. The affected appliances were sold between 2018 and 2023. It is estimated that there could be several hundred affected appliances on boats subject to BSS Examinations. Note that Primo models are also marked with the name Innovita (see the images on page 2).
The potential gas leak is from installation test-nipple screws (gas inlet and burner test nipple screws). If gas leaks, it could ignite and cause the plastic bezel and control knobs at the front of the water heater to catch fire and melt.
Morco’s safety upgrade pack contains replacement control knobs and an upgrade confirmation label. The contracted Gas Safe registered engineer will carry out the upgrade, including the control knob replacement, then conduct a safety check on the appliance to ensure full safety and apply the label to the front of the heater. This is free of charge to the customer.
Identifying affected models
These are the front face images of the affected Morco models, some have additional model labels including Innovita and Primo.
The water heater’s data plate indicates the model, serial number and year the appliance was made.
If you look underneath the appliance, you should be able to see this data plate at the bottom of the appliance on the right-hand side of the back plate.
Above are two examples of data plates on the affected water heaters. The model number is highlighted in red. The serial number is in the blue box. The year built is immediately right of the serial number.
If you have recently bought your boat and it may have already had the upgrade applied. If so, the evidence that the safet
y upgrade work has taken place is that a yellow guidance label is on the front of the water heater.
The label was supplied in the safety upgrade pack and the upgrading engineer was asked to apply it onto the water heater’s front cover, meaning it should be openly visible and the upgraded appliance readily identified.
Implications for BSS Examinations
If you are planning to arrange a BSS Examination soon and you have a Morco water heater installed on your boat, please read this section very carefully as it sets out what you should expect to happen, and you can make relevant plans.
We are asking BSS Examiners to:
- …promote the Morco campaign to customers who have one of the affected appliances that has not yet had the free rectifying upgrade.
- …take appropriate actions below to keep themselves, and their customer safe, should they find one of the listed models leaking gas, during a BSS Examination.
The following information considers the possible scenarios that may happen when a BSS Examination is arranged and undertaken.
- In arranging a BSS Examination, a BSS Examiner is likely to ask for the identity of the model of any Morco open-flued LPG water heater on the boat in their initial dealings with customers. So, if you can, please check out any details ahead of contacting your chosen Examiner.
If the model is identified as one from the list, and if the rectification work has not been done – the Examiner will urge you to contact Morco without delay to arrange an upgrade, ideally before the BSS Examination takes place. We advise the Examiner to note the discussion and/or email in their records.
- The following sentence is general guidance concerning BSS Examinations that may be relevant to this topic. If there is a smell of leaked gas when the Examiner arrives at the boat, they have been instructed not to carry out a BSS Examination and issue warning notices and potentially alert the navigation authority to an immediately hazardous boat.
- However, if there is no smell of leaked gas, the Examiner will identify the model number of any Morco open-flued LPG water heater in their initial walk-through of the boat.
- If your water heater is one listed by Morco the Examiner will check for the yellow label confirming the safety upgrade has been carried out, in which case, the BSS Examination can continue as normal.
- However, if you have a listed Morco open-flued LPG water heater without the yellow label, the Examiner will carry out the LPG tightness test (Check 7.12.2) as soon as practicable. the flame picture test (Check 8.8.1) and the flue spillage test (Check 8.10.4) will follow on as normal.
- Should the LPG tightness test reveal leaking gas, the required further checks on the heater will not be carried out and the Examination will be recorded as non-compliant, and you will be provided a report with appropriate comments as to why this is the case. You will also receive an Additional Observation (AO) comment in the Examiner’s report as follows.
‘This boat’s Morco water heater has been identified as possibly one of the appliances subject of a safety alert and in urgent need of a free upgrade to prevent a potential fire or explosion from leaking gas. Please get in touch with the Morco helpline on 01482 325456 or at gaswaterheaters@morcoproducts.co.uk’
You should be provided with the BSS Examiner’s report (BSSER) including these comments as soon as possible after the BSS Examination.
- ends -
Download this briefing as a pdf [LINK]
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