Safety Recall of ABS Steel Cylinders and Some Backpacks

Update 31/1/15: Yesterday we took delivery of a nice big box of new ABS Steel cylinders. It was very satisfying to put all of our ABS airbag/steel cylinder bundles back on sale this morning.  Do check them out if you're interested- we constantly monitor prices of these to make sure that we are very competitive.  However, if you want a real bargain, look at our BCA airbag/cylinder bundles on the same page.

We have just been informed that ABS are recalling all steel cylinders filled before 3/12/14 and certain backpacks.  

The following products are affected by the recall:
-all European ABS activation units in steel (steel + handle) with a filling date before 03.12.2014.
-ABS backpacks with integrated Twinbag system (double airbag) on the market since 1996, including ABS Inside Partner models (Bergans, Dakine, Deuter, Haglöfs, Ortovox, Salewa, The North Face, Vaude), where the backpack has ever been activated with a European steel cartridge (including for training purposes).

Products not affected by the recall:
-Carbon cartridges
-Steel cartridges with a filling date from 03.12.2014
-ABS Mono airbags

Full details, information on whether your cylinder/pack is affected, and instructions on what do next are found on the ABS website here.

As I write this, our whole stock of steel cylinders is just about to be uplifted by UPS and returned to ABS. Consequently, all of our airbag backpack/steel cylinder bundles have been temporarily disabled on the website.  We hope to have the new and unaffected steel cylinders in stock in the near future (probably shortly after Christmas), so should be back to business-as-usual very soon.

On behalf of ABS I'd like to apologise for the inconvenience associated with this recall.  If it's any consolation, I can imagine there are a few people at ABS in a state of shock, as they contemplate return of every steel cylinder and most of the airbags that they've sold over the past 20 years.  Ouch.  

Tweet