Certain Chromagen Ariston Primos heat pump hot water system units sold across Australia have been recalled due to a potential fire hazard. Here’s what owners need to know.
Which Ariston Heat Pumps Have Been Recalled – And Why?
On October 31 2025, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) published a recall notice on its ProductSafety web site concerning two Chromagen Ariston all-in-one models:
- ARIHPWH-200 (Ariston Primos 205L)
- ARIHPWH-280 (Ariston Primos 280L)
Primos units affected by the recall were sold between 12 June 2024 and 22 September 2025, so up until fairly recently.
The reason for the recall is a little vague, but motivating — affected water heaters have an unspecified manufacturing fault that can cause them to malfunction and cause a fire. The notice states “incidents have occurred” without providing further detail on the nature or severity of those incidents.
Aside from that, there’s not a lot of detail provided on the ProductSafety alert. I took a look at the Chromagen Australia website, but it had zero information about the recall at the time of writing. However, there is a form here to arrange a free inspection and repair of an affected unit. Other contact points for the recall noted by the ACCC are:
Chromagen Australia Pty Ltd
Phone: (03) 8587 1578
Email: [email protected]
While awaiting a fix, affected Primos ARIHPWH-200 and ARIHPWH-280 owners are advised to:
“Immediately disconnect the water heater from the power supply by operating the switch next to the device or disconnecting it from the power outlet socket.”
… and to remove any combustible materials surrounding the unit.
Chromagen And Ariston
Founded in 1962, Chromagen’s products are in use in more than 40 countries worldwide. Italy’s Ariston Group was founded in 1970, and focuses on space and water heating. Ariston Group acquired Chromagen in 2022.
Chromagen markets the Ariston Primos units as “designed and engineered in Italy for Australian conditions”, but they are manufactured in China — as many systems are. There’s nothing wrong with that per se as some great gear comes out of China. It’s just good to know.
Tip: it’s a fairly safe bet a product promoted along the lines of “designed and engineered in <insert non-China country here> for Australian conditions” is made in China.
Thinking About A Hot Water Heat Pump?
While the cost of a resistive (i.e. standard electric) hot water system is significantly lower and can be powered during the day with surplus (or otherwise) generation from a rooftop solar system1 , hot water heat pumps are the most *efficient* way to heat water, particularly if paired with solar panels2.
Even with rebates and subsidies, a significant outlay can be involved; so it’s important to choose the right heat pump for your home.
To make matters more confusing, there are many brands to choose from in Australia. And like anything, equipment and installation quality can range from bleh to meh to yeh! While price can be somewhat of a guide, there are comparatively cheap systems that are quite good, and expensive systems that aren’t.
A good place to start gathering brand recommendations is from those that install them, as installers have a role in supporting the units post-installation and are the initial point of contact for warranty claims.
And that’s what we did. We asked installers in the SolarQuotes network the question:
“If installing a system on your own house today, what brand’s hot water heat pumps would you use?”
Taking out the top spot was iStore (towards the budget end of pricing), followed by Solahart (middle-of-the-road) and then Reclaim Energy (one of the more expensive brands).
Read more: The Best Hot Water Heat Pump Systems In 2025.
Beyond those companies, you can see other SolarQuotes-recommended heat pump brands here. You can also read the personal experiences of Australian homeowners with dozens of brands in our hot water heat pump reviews section.
Footnotes
- And the Albanese Government’s planned Solar Sharer Offer (SSO) could be of benefit those with electric resistive hot water systems; particularly households that don’t have solar panels. ↩
- Resistive with solar vs. heat pump water heating has been a topic invariably generating a lot of debate on the SolarQuotes blog. ↩
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Unusual for ACCC recalls to be vague, there will be a lot fo people taking cold shoers and not knowing why, that wont be happy customers.
It is also unusual these days for a company to let it get to the point that the ACCC do the recall – instead of being proactive and getting ahead of the curve and recalling themselves.
Not a good look to be honest.
A company proactively standing behind their product and doing a voluntary recall is a good public relations exercise, being recalcitrant and being forced to act by the ACCC, not so much, particularly after a few cold showers.
There is no doubt that a heat pump hot water service (by virtue of its mode of heating) is much more efficient than a resistive tank, as mentioned by SQ many times.
But efficiency is not king and not relevant when the cost of electricity is low (or zero and renewable electricity is curtailed) as the savings in the cost of that electricity never pay for the large additional capital cost of the unit nor compensate for the higher maintenance and less convenient placement. (Save energy and water when the storage tank is near the common frequent use area, not to mention convenience,…or if you have a long distance to a remote bathroom then have two cheap resistive HWS)
Water heated and stored during times of surplus/cheap/free electricity is then available to be used at any time for no additional effort.
A big win for simplicity.
Tim,
I take your point on efficiently siting the HWS. Mine is indoors, one wall thickness from the shower, 3m from the kitchen sink, 4m from the washing machine. All heat loss is recouped as room heating, primarily in the lounge. No-one calculates that when comparing. Heatpump plumbing could just about reach, I think, but it would be a stretch unless the compressor unit went on the roof. Even off-grid, with up to 5 consecutive heavily overcast days, I’ve never had the battery fail to reach 100% or suffered cold water, despite a resistive element. But a sole occupant is more easily catered for, I guess.
Eric, A distinct advantage of the hot water tank (regardless of method of heating) is the reserve of energy so that less pv coming in is not so much an issue, as you have found.
Even when switched off, our 250L tank will give 6 showers and normal kitchen washing up etc, so 3 days “without sun” for a couple is quite ok.
While our June average yield is about 2kwh per kW of PV, we have never (in 5 years) got 2 days in a row where the yeild is only 0.9 kWh per kW of PV (our lowest ever yield per day with all day rain and very heavy cloud, so a 13kw PV Array runs our all electric house (with 4 freezers and 2 fridges, but a little wood heating)
An added 30kwh battery carries us through without drawing from the grid.
Oh-oh, this is perspective-confirming for the cohort (myself included) who favour a few extra PV panels and the simplicity & reliability of a resistive HWS element – which would have serious difficulty trying to catch fire, submerged deep in 250 litres of water.
But life is full of compromises. Not enough roof, or none at all if you’re a renter, makes the whole “simplicity” strategy economically and ecologically questionable in the long run.
Where grid power is drawn, I’d still want a heat pump while dinosaur coal power plants still roam the earth, belching fire to ruin the lives of our descendants for a century or two at least. (As we’re seriously slow in modifying our behaviour as needed long term.)
My mother has a heatpump water heater, and like a split system aircon, the compressor unit is an outdoor metal-enclosed box with a big fan blowing outward, away from the adjacent brick wall. With a cementsheet soffit lining the eaves, I figure a fire would be limited. Most probably.
Inclined to agree! Seems odd that they could catch fire- would be great to know more.
I would not expect there to be too much combustible material there anyway.
Personal opinion only : If I had one of these outside the house beside a brick or other non-combustible wall, I don’t think I’d bother turning it off.
Erik Christiansen: – “…while dinosaur coal power plants still roam the earth, belching fire to ruin the lives of our descendants for a century or two at least. (As we’re seriously slow in modifying our behaviour as needed long term.)”
Humanity is on a collision course towards a +3 °C GMST anomaly, or more; a world beyond any past human experience. Large-scale depopulation would be likely.
https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lcdocs/submissions/91844/0026%20Geoff%20Miell.pdf
The Earth System is already committed to more than 20 m of sea level rise (SLR), regardless of whether we/humanity make strong cuts to emissions, or not. The energy already in the oceans will continue to drive the ongoing melting of the cryosphere for multi-centuries/millennia. The only way to save our coastlines now is to cool down our planet Earth.
In 2019, Eric Rignot suggested a 4 m/century SLR is in the realms of possibility.
https://youtu.be/DnOykSCOf0c?t=1097
Geoff,
I’m only beginning to become familiar with the names of some of the respected climatologists with decades of experience, so mostly look for multi-sourced information. When the Pentagon, already half a decade ago, I think, analysed that they’d need to prepare for 2m to 4m of sealevel rise by 2100, based on that old data and underestimating linear projections, I figured that there’d be half a billion climate refugees by then, as cities go under.
But Russia, Japan, and much of Europe have dwindling populations (10 million empty homes now, in Japan alone). It may not all come to rely on Australia’s home building speed.
It’s down to building personal and regional climate resilience now. Get off low ground, move inland for distance from cyclones, add ample solar, batteries, and water tanks. A BEV and level 2 charger remove reliance on fossil fuel, which may be unavailable when the chocolate hits the fan.
There’s time to build resilience, but not to avoid climate destruction.
Pretty sure these were being marketed aggressively on Facebook by Chromagen Australia for something less than $200 installed.
I looked into it and wanted at least 300 litres so they suggested 2 x 200 litre Chromagens. All up cost was $398 installed converting from traditional element HWS.
Did a bit of research and the reviews of Chromagen units was typically very poor. Most cited reliability as a major issue.
Heat pumps might be the most efficient but they aren’t the most reliable and in many situations the cheapest to run.
Directly heating convection circulated hot water through roof top panels is still the cheapest in many areas of Australia.
And for reliability use a conventional electric hws and drive it from solar panels during the day. The only cost on most days is the fit per kWh. And with three hours free electricity coming soon use it to heat the water and panels to charge a battery.
In that case the hot water is free. And reliable.
Brian,
Off-grid here, so it’s roof-top solar or the heat exchanger on the wood heater for hot water. But at 6:20 p.m. the PV array was producing more than the 2.3 kW drawn by the resistive HWS element, with several kW to spare. No need for heat pump or potential plumbing leaks on the roof.
Why the HWS draw so late in the day? Of the 54.3 kWh produced so far today, 42 kWh went into the BEV, as the last few days have been overcast. Rather than “surplus solar only”, I give it priority, then the house battery can catch up later. (Always has, before day’s end, in the first 20 months.)
Finn’s “Fill the Roof” mantra seems to cure all ills, even dodgy heat pumps – by obviating the need for them. And for cheap motoring, nothing beats a BEV and lotsa panels! (Only $25k for a BYD1, now, $33k for an MG4. ICE is too expensive to buy, masochistic madness to run.)
I have an Ariston heat pump water heater installed in April 2025. I was contacted by Chromagen on Friday, 31 October. I was advised via a text message that a technician would come to make “minor alterations” on Saturday, 1 November. I was advised to turn off the unit at the power point.
No-one came to do the work.
I have sent repeated text messages asking when the work will be done, but there was no response. I finally called Chromagen on 14 November and was told I would be contacted.
On 18 November I was told a technician would come on Sunday, 23 November, to do the work. Then, on 20 November I was again contacted and told it would be Monday, 24 November.
It is three weeks since I was first advised to turn off the water heater.
Was my household expected to go without any hot water for that period of time? Have cold showers, or boil a kettle of water to wash bodies and dishes?
I have been forced to turn the heater back on for a few hours every two days, despite the risk.