Everyone who manufactures, imports, supplies, retails and trades gas appliances or fittings in New Zealand must ensure their products comply with its established regulatory framework. This applies whether the appliances or fittings are imported or domestically produced.

Who must comply?

Importers or manufacturers of gas appliances must ensure their appliances meet the safety obligations. Suppliers should note that appliances supplied by both electricity and gas will have obligations under both the electricity and gas regulations. For instance, a gas water heater that needs an electrical supply is both a gas appliance and an electrical appliance.

In addition, there are obligations in regard to Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) and energy efficiency in some appliances. Details on EMC and energy efficiency requirements may be found at the following websites respectively:

www.rsm.govt.nz(external link)

www.eeca.govt.nz(external link)

Certain LPG fittings (such as cylinder regulators) also have controls placed on them through the Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations.

Who is a supplier?

A supplier is anyone who imports, manufacturers, trades, retails or otherwise supplies gas products in New Zealand. Supply is defined in the Gas (Safety and Measurement) Regulations 2010(external link) as “supply (or resupply) by way of gift, sale, exchange, lease, hire, or hire purchase”.

A supplier includes:

• a New Zealand manufacturer who makes any gas product for supply in New Zealand
• an importer of gas products intended for supply in New Zealand
• a distributor, wholesaler, retailer or trader, including online, or private individual selling gas products in New Zealand
• an authorised agent, resident in New Zealand, acting on behalf of a supplier to New Zealand.

The regulations explicitly state that the obligations on appliance importers also apply to persons who import gas installations such as caravans.

Distributors and retailers should check that compliance requirements have been met before offering products for sale.
It is illegal to sell gas appliances that are in an unsafe condition.

Compliance

The

• Gas Act 1992(external link) and 
• Gas (Safety and Measurement) Regulations 2010(external link) 

require all gas products to be safe, often to a specified standard and for their construction and maintenance to meet the specified requirements.

They also require any person to ensure as far as reasonably practicable that gas products prevent serious harm.  

The Regulations identify certain features or circumstances that cause products to be unsafe.

Safety requirements

All products must comply with a general requirement to be safe.

Gas appliances must also be certified in accordance with a recognised certification regime.  Exceptions to this are appliances that have a design capacity to consume 60,000 megajoules or more of gas energy per hour and gas appliances or fittings that are endorsed under Regulation 57(external link).

The regulations provide for prohibition(external link) of specific product that does not meet essential safety requirements.

In addition to essential safety requirements there are special regulatory controls relating to the supply of gas products listed as being declared articles.

There are provisions that apply to the supply of second hand appliances within New Zealand.

Gas products in use must meet the requirements of operational safety.

Where instructions are required to safely install and/or use gas products, these must be in English and provided by the supplier.

Gas products that met the regulatory requirements at the time of manufacture or import are not considered to be unsafe just because of changes in regulatory safety requirements.  If an appliance type or model becomes unsafe or subsequently considered to be unsafe, that specific type or model would be formally prohibited.