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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?

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    FCC is entirely about radio interference and promises nothing about product safety. But usually these things have dozens of marks on them. Are you sure you're not missing a UL-equivalent one?
    – The Photon
    Dec 7, 2017 at 6:47
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    100% , the seller said so. I asked whether they have UL/ETL certificates and they said they have FCC and CE certificates. amazon.com/ask/questions/TxVXAF40RFG4US/ref=ask_ql_ql_al_hza
    – chx
    Dec 7, 2017 at 7:01
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    Ideally you would include a photo of the label with all the markings. Indeed, a product with only FCC and CE logos is very fishy. FCC means "Meets disturbance regulations" and CE means even less. CE is actually quite useless. What you want for safety are UL, VDE, GS or Kema logos. These are proper safety regulations. Dec 7, 2017 at 7:07
  • Care to move that into an answer?
    – chx
    Dec 7, 2017 at 7:09

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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.

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  • Where you wrote "ETL" I think you mean NRTL (Nationally Recognized Testing Lab). "ETL" is the mark of one particular lab, Intertek, which inherited the logo from the Edison Testing Lab, IIRC.
    – The Photon
    Dec 8, 2017 at 3:21
  • Yep, I have no idea what I was thinking, it is fixed Dec 8, 2017 at 6:35

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