KUALA LUMPUR - Some electric kettles sold in Malaysia are unsafe as they are fitted with sub-standard controls, said a leading manufacturer of controls and cordless connectors for kettles, jugs and other water boiling appliances.

If the controls, which allow for electric kettles to be automatically switched off, fail to work, it can lead to fire or electrocution, said UK-based STRIX Ltd consumer safety manager Richard Moorhouse.

He said an independent electrical testing and certification institute found that some brands currently sold in Malaysia had controls which did not comply with international safety standards. Since March last year, the institute declared certain kettles available in Malaysia to be unsafe as they were fitted with copies of controls which look - but do not operate - like STRIX kettle controls, he said in an interview recently. In June, the same institute withdrew the safety certificate of a manufacturer in Guangdong, China, for supplying copies of STRIX R72 and P69 controls which were fitted into kettles to be sold in the European market, he added. Moorhouse said such copies did not follow the exact parameters of the controls' design, which in the case of STRIX controls, involved 3,000 different parameters to be measured and controlled.

As a result of faulty "reverse engineering" - measuring a genuine part to reproduce copies - controls may not work as intended. To ensure that kettles would be fitted with safe and genuine parts; STRIX would be working with local authorities, Moorhouse said. He said STRIX also held meetings with kettle makers and consumer associations in Malaysia to discuss the issue. Malaysia manufactures, assembles and imports 500,000 to 600,000 electric kettles per year. Moorhouse said consumers should purchase well-known brands when in doubt. To help consumers identify kettles fitted with STRIX controls, manufacturers usually affix STRIX's logo (an owl) on the packaging, either by attaching the logo in the form of a hologram me or by printing the logo on the packaging.