Of course many AC powered devices from major brand name companies are manufactured in china and perhaps that makes people confused a bit. The difference is that they are actually built to required safety standards using proper AC rated components. Its a PR nightmare if a belkin or apple charger kills someone. Plus a lawsuit. Here only one little Australian store gets shut down. Likely no way to go after the random chinese manufacturer.
If its AC powered and some direct-from-china unknown brand / no brand, avoid like the plague. Also the cute Apple logo won’t help if it counterfeit. Buy from major stores.
Good advice, although even genuine items can go bad, no one should get complacent with anything electrical, I was always careful, but tended to not be so worried about CE marked or similar electrical items as they would have been thoroughly safety tested and safe or so I thought
Until I had a genuine wall wart type 1 amp charger with all the appropriate ce markings etc that came with a product from a well known company
One evening I could smell a strong electrical/plastic burning smell, whilst hunting the source I heard a large bang then found the source, the charger had the corner blown off it(the capacitor had exploded or at least I think that was what was there) and the whole unit was hot, burnt, melted and blackened, hate to think what could of happened if I’d not been at home when it happened
Now I never leave anything like that switched on unless I am at home to keep a check on it
“Mrs Aldeguer was talking on her phone, which was plugged into a charger, when she died. The charger, which did not meet Australian safety regulations, had inadequate shielding causing 240 volts to ‘arc’ and pass from the charger through the phone into her body.
It is believed that Mrs Aldeguer died instantly and her body, which had burns to the chest and ears, was found the following day …”
Caution on cheap USB chargers: ” how much distance (known as “creepage” and “clearance”) there must be between the primary and secondary sides to prevent a shock hazard”
It is sad these things happens, but it is just about impossible to avoid it. Or said another way: The price to avoid it is very high.
I try to improve the general quality of imported stuff with my tests (Here the 5000 volt test), but it is no guarantee and the effect of my tests is very very limited on a world wide scale.
You basically has to inspect all imports and check against some sort of approved database. That would mostly prevent private import of any mains powered stuff and not be a 100% solution.
You would get a significantly price increase on anything mains power, with that type of limits on import and general custom handling of imported stuff would also be much more expensive.
The price — once unsafe products are made and in the marketplace — is going to be very high.
Especially with the “lottery” problem where you never can count on getting the same exact product twice.
The price to avoid creating dangerous electrical equipment is: educated* designers and manufacturers.
The list of things that can be done wrong is exhausting, but not complete. Consider for example
That points to a list of things found wrong with a single example of a reflow heat gun — several are potential fatal problems.
This is all likely worse outside the USA, which uses 110 volt mains, which can kill you.
Much of the world uses 220 volt mails, which damned well will kill you.
See below — actually 340 volts DC in a cheap charger!
_
*“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
How well does this translate?
如果你觉得教育是昂贵的，尝试的无知。
(Often misattributed to Derek Bok, but the original appears to be from a 1913 newspaper editorial that said:
“Education is ‘expensive’? In a sense, yes. But ignorance is infinitely more expensive.”
Design education is free; don’t trust me to tell you the right answers, I’m an amateur, I just googled it:
CALCULATING SPACING BETWEEN PCB TRACES FOR VARIOUS VOLTAGE LEVELS
CIRCUIT BOARD LAYOUT GUIDELINES
This is an expert’s commentary about this specific problem and the general design issues:
NOTE, what follows is an earlier electrocution, from 2013:
Tiny, cheap, and dangerous: Inside a (fake) iPhone charger
——excerpt follows——-
Thoughts on the death of Ma Ailun
According to reports, a woman in China was tragically electrocuted using her iPhone while it was charging. This seems technically plausible to me if she were using a cheap or counterfeit charger like I describe below. There’s 340 volts DC inside the charger, which is enough to kill. In a cheap charger, there can be less than a millimeter separating this voltage from the output, a fraction of the recommended safe distance. These charger sometimes short out (picture), which could send lethal voltage through the USB cable. If the user closes the circuit by standing on a damp floor or touching a grounded metal surface, electrocution is a possibility. If moisture condenses in the charger (e.g. in a humid bathroom), shorting becomes even more likely….
…
… I wondered how this power supply could have met the UL standards with clearance less than 1 mm. Looking at the charger case more closely, I noticed that it didn’t list any safety certifications, or even a manufacturer. I suddenly realized that purchasing the cheapest possible charger on eBay from an unknown manufacturer in China could actually be a safety hazard. Note that this sub-millimeter gap is all that’s protecting you and your phone from potentially-lethal 340 volts. I also took the transformer apart and found only single layers of insulating tape between the windings, rather than the double layers required by the UL. After looking inside this charger, my recommendation is to spend a bit more on a charger, and get one that has UL approval and a name-brand manufacturer….
———-
Comment: the lottery is ok for flashlights, at worst we get disappointed.
For high voltage mains-powered equipment, well, “do ya feel lucky? do ya?”
It’s said she was charging phone and laptop. Phone with ear plugs in. Laptop on chest. Power somehow crossed from earphones into ear and across to laptop.
She had burns in ear.
Could someone explain that because I don’t get it. Is it anything to do with how some laptops feel funny when being charged? My friends MacBook if you run your finger across the metal exterior while it’s charging, your finger will have this strange vibration. Unplug charger and it feels like normal metal again. It’s very strange and must have something to do with earthing.
HKJ is that funny feeling / missing earth dangerous under any circumstances ? I know apple products do this but their chargers are known to be of high quality.
The "funny" feeling is not dangerous, but the reason behind can be.
If the equipment is marked with two squares inside each other, it is supposed to be safe (Except for production faults).
But if it due to a missing earth connection it is NOT safe. Equipment that is supposed to use an earth connection has much more lax requirements for isolation, because the earth connection is supposed to handle any isolation leak.
In both cases a GFI will improve safety significantly.
