Health Canada has issued a recall of heat recovery ventilators (HRVs) manufactured between January 2002 and July 2009 and sold under various brand names such as Venmar, VanEE, Broan and others.  A safety device designed to cut off the power supply in case of overheating may not work.  You can check to see if your HRV is affected by the recall here.

What you should do?

If your unit is included in the recall, Venmar will send you a current-limiting adapter device free of charge or, for certain air exchanger models, arrange to send a technician to upgrade the equipment at no cost to you.

The current limiter won’t extend the life of your HRV or prevent it from breaking down. This is a second level of protection to ensure that an overheated motor does not cause a fire. When an air exchanger reaches the end of its useful life, it is normal that its motor overheats, makes noise and even emits smoke. The function of the integrated safety device and the current limiter is to shut off the power supply before any overheating causes a fire.