Recall: Visonic Recalls Amber Personal Emergency Response System Kits Due to Remote Pendant Battery Signal Failure

Description: The recalled Visonic Amber Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) kit enables a user to push a button on a pendant to signal a request for assistance. An Amber kit consists of one wireless pendant worn by the user, one Amber brand base station, generally connected to a phone line, a power supply and backup battery. Base stations are white, rectangular and measure about 9 inches wide by 7 inches deep by 2 inches high with emergency, call and check buttons. The emergency button is red on the Classic model and grey on the SelectX model. Recalled Classic models have catalog number 0-7425 and serial numbers 0408044281 through 4410052723. The first four digits of the serial number are manufacture dates from January 2008 through August 2010 in WWYY format. Recalled SelectX models have catalog number 0-100729 and serial numbers 2308600299 through 3013079617 The first four digits represent manufacture dates June 2008 through July 2013 in WWYY format. The first two digits are week of manufacture and the second two numbers are the year of manufacture. For example serial number 2308 600299 indicates a manufacturing date of the 23rd week of 2008 or roughly June 2008. Each unit has an external label on the back of the base station, with the product name and serial number. Only Amber Classic or SelectX base stations that are placed in Common Area Mode by a professionally trained PERS system installer and are used without additional base stations, are included in the recall.

Name of product: Visonic Amber Classic and Amber SelectX Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) Kits

Units: About 24,000

Manufacturer: Visonic Ltd., of Tel Aviv, Israel

Hazard: A single Amber Base station set to Common Area Mode will not detect a low battery or dead battery warning signal from the remote pendant that notifies the end user or system administrator to replace the pendant battery.

Remedy: Consumers should immediately contact their system installer or a Visonic alarm installation professional to determine if their Amber base station is set to Common Area Mode, and if so, to either reset their unit to another mode or make other system changes, such as adding an additional base station. Only a professionally-trained PERS system installer can identify and modify the particular mode configuration. Owners are also reminded to manually test their Amber PERS pendant regularly for low battery status.

Recall date: September 11, 2013

Incidents/Injuries: The firm received one report of a pendant that failed to operate due to a low battery undetected by the base station in Common Area Mode. No injuries have been reported.

Sold At: Visonic distributors and professional alarm installation firms nationwide from January 2008 through August 2013 for between $220 and $240 for the kits.

Importers: Visonic Ltd., of Westford, Mass.

Manufactured in: Israel

Consumer contact: Visonic at (800) 223-0020 from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or online at www.visonic.com and click on North America and click on Product News under the Solutions and Products tab for more information about the recall.

Recall number: 13-280