Are UL or CSA approved wall warts enough?

Hi,

The subject more or less says it all, my question is: "Is using a UL or CSA approved wall wart considered a safe, legal, and relatively liability free way to create devices for retail to end users?"

The background to this, is that I've been asked to research the UL requirements for some friends who are looking to import low power electrical devices from overseas. The devices are not currently certified or tested to any North American standard. They are low power; however, so I am wondering if it is a good idea to switch the power supplies to UL listed wall warts.

I've done a quick survey of gear around the house, and with the exception of my laptop, I have not found any wallwart powered devices that have a UL or other stamp directly on the device -- they all seem to rely on the safety (and implied reduction in liability) offered via external power supplies.

Thanks in advance for the insights!

Regards!

Leonard

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I would certainly us a UL/CSA/CE approved wall wart. That takes care of the major saftey issues. Some devices require FCC approval if they have a risk of radiating RF and devices that connect to the phone lines have other requirements that must be met.

The US does not require UL for consumer items but I would certainly want anything plugged in the wall to be an approved device though I just looked at my cell phone charger and it doesn't list any approvals.

In the European Union any electronic device must be tested and to some very rigorous standards to justify the CE mark

Dan H

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Dan H

** Better find out if that is even possible first.

Using an internal PSU allows unlimited possibilities with voltages, number of voltage rails etc while wall warts offer a very restricted range.

......... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

One of my customers builds machines for industry that contain electronics. It's a pretty big company. They try to have all the voltage levels low and use UL approved power supplies whenever they can. One of the owners told me the cost of the power supplies was miniscule compared to insurance costs and liability exposure. Bear in mind that the machines they make are all operated by well educated men and women and the insurance companies still like that UL approval. ERS

Reply to
Eric R Snow

Thanks Dan.

So a listed wall wart should prevent stupid things like short circuits and over/under voltage situations from developing into bigger problems (i.e. fires)?

Yes, from some of the other threads I've read on Usenet and a couple forums, I've gathered that most US jurisdictions don't technically require UL. However, in practice, I'm sure it makes a big difference when you're trying to get retailers on board! As an aside, it seems that here in Canada, CSA or cUL is legally required in some provinces.

LC

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Phil,

Thanks for the reminder. For the particular product at hand, I'm pretty sure it'll be possible.

LC

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** Here is another one:

When replying, hit "options" first and then "reply".

That way, we can see who you are replying to and the previous text .

Googlegroups is set up for Googlgroups users, not usenet.

...... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

Thanks for that! I realized the lack of quotes a few minutes after I posted. =(

I'm so used to Free Agent doing some reasonable quoting for me. Since I don't post much on Usenet, I still haven't quite gotten used to GoogleGroups. Now if only I could get GoogleGroups to auto-"star" my own threads...

LC

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me

That's almost trivial - go to advanced search, and search on yourself as author. ;-)

Cheers! Rich

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Rich Grise

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