Suppose there's a laptop charger Amazon without UL certificate -- but at least it claims to have FCC and CE certificates.
Is that enough for electrical safety? From what I understand, these are self reporting certificates and as such... worthless?
Suppose there's a laptop charger Amazon without UL certificate -- but at least it claims to have FCC and CE certificates.
Is that enough for electrical safety? From what I understand, these are self reporting certificates and as such... worthless?
The answer is, a CE mark alone is not enough:
Not all products must have CE marking. It is compulsory only for most of the products covered by the New Approach Directives. It is forbidden to affix CE marking to other products.
Please note that a CE marking does not indicate that a product have been approved as safe by the EU or by another authority
https://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/ce-marking_en
First of all, I wouldn't trust any power supply manufactured from a Chinese supplier. I have personally checked UL marks (they actually had marks from several NRTL's) on supplies being sold from amazon and they have proven fake on several supplies being sourced from china and sold on multiple sites (ebay, amazon, ect). It cost money and time, its much easier to print a silkscreen on a product than to make sure it has undergone testing.
A CE mark is also not enough to be sold in a US market, and in the past retailers would not sell products if they did not have a registered NRTL mark (UL or equivalent). Amazon and other online retailers don't care if you burn your house down (yet), and do not check to see if the products they resell (or their 3rd party sellers) have the proper marks.
I would complain to the retailer if they are selling products that have not undergone proper testing and can prove that they have been tested.
An NRTL mark for a power supply means its been run through a multiple tests and conforms with IEC 61010 and other international saftey requirements. So if you really want to check the saftey of a product, it needs an ETL mark. That being said you can always check an NRTL mark with the NRTL (TUV, MEtlab, UL, Ect).
If its UL there should be a number with an E in front of it. UL's can be checked here: http://database.ul.com/cgi-bin/XYV/template/LISEXT/1FRAME/gfilenbr.html
If it's a different NRTL, then you could check with them.