SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20181126-B7F91-2147384155. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: Mater Industrial MH-75T-KFA (Forced Air Kerosene Space Heater). Incident: I purchased a Master Industrial Products kerosene space heater model MH-75T-KFA, S/N 170722309. The fuel tank's cap is made of a plastic that appears to be incompatible with kerosene. What happens is that the portion of the cap that is inside the tank swells making it very difficult to remove. Once you successfully pry it off the tank, you cannot get it back on because the "nose" of the cap is larger than the hole it goes in due to the swelling of the plastic. So one has to operate the heater with an OPEN fuel tank or you can modify the cap by sanding off the swollen area of the cap to get it to fit for a short time, which most consumers would not think to try to do. The locking pin in the cap's nose also falls out due to the swelling of the plastic. The plastic continues to deteriorate due to being incompatible with kerosene, even after a sanding modification. I called the manufacturer and found out that they offer a metal cap that you can purchase (they won't provide for free) which on face value, seems to indicate they know they have a problem with their plastic fuel cap. This model (or the entire series that uses these plastic caps) should be subject to a recall before serious fires occur from people operating these heaters without the fuel cap. I have the faulty cap in my possession.