Consumer Product Safety

Hottoku Nabes (pan)

September 25, 2001

Accidents of "Hottoku Nabes (pan)" (Calling Attention)

Accident information on the "Hottoku Nabe *" for a household use was reported to the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (hereinafter referred to as "NITE").
At present, NITE examines to unfold the origins of the accidents, however, after the investigation into the company, for preventing similar accident from happening again, NITE decided to call attention to the users by introducing the accident occurrence situations.

1.Accident Cases of "Hottoku Nabe"

  1. (1)A user poured oil into this product to approximately 60% of its depth and when she heated it for 2 - 3 minutes, the inner pot was exfoliated from the outer pot and blown off to the ceiling to make two holes in the ceiling.
    This blast sent the oil in the product flying all over the circumference to splash on the user, however, the oil temperature was low so as to prevent him from being hurt.
  2. (2)When a user oiled this product and heated it in the empty state, several minutes later, with a big sound, a bang, the product fell off a gas range onto a floor. When the user looked at the product, the bottom of the inner pan was deformed and swelled.
  3. (3)When this product was heated at a heating power a little bit lower than the medium heat, the inner pan was exfoliated, flown high to hit a ventilator and then rebounded back to hit the user on the face. The user was suffered from the whiplash injury.
  4. (4)When a user poured oil into this product till 1/3 of the depth and heated it at the strong heating power to cook fried food, 2 - 3 minutes thereafter, the inner pan was exfoliated, flown, and hit a ventilator positioned upward by 1m. The oil splashed over the ceiling and hit the user on the back and the hands, however, the oil temperature was not so high to save the user from being burned.
  5. (5)When a user fried materials using this product, the inside of the pan was flown out. The user cut the thumb and the small finger of the right hand by the flown inner pot and got burned on the wrist.

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2. Measures Taken for the Product

The importer of this products submitted a report to the NITE that the accidents highly possibly occurred by combining three conditions together, (a) water entered into the air layer in the pan, (b) the pan was used at the strong heating power, and (c) after the water entering into the air layer in the pan, the flange between the inner pan and the outer pan was closed into a completely sealed state.
This company takes measures such as replacing the appropriate precuts for the improved type.

The products are as follows. If you have the following product, or when any ambiguity of interpretation is found, make contact to the following company.

product information
Product Name Target Products Name of Firm Contact Number
Hottoku Nabe
Size (diameter):
14, 18, 20, 22, and 24cm
Periods of Selling:
September 2000 -
Arnest Co., Ltd. 0256 - 64 - 2525

Contact us

 Consumer Product Safety Public Relations Division  Product Safety Technology Center  National Institute of Technology and Evaluation
Phone number:+81-6-6612-2066
Fax number:+81-6-6612-1617
Address:1-22-16 Nankokita, Suminoe-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka 5590034, Japan MAP