ECN Forum Forums Safety Discussion and News Safety News and Product Recalls Dangerous PC PSUs

Also beware of the "Name Brand" Power Supplies especially Antec (Except the Seasonic built units)as they are made to be quiet and therefore have inadequate cooling for the caps used and can fail early I have had one fail early and take out the Motherboard and Video card and Ram Luckily my Hard drive survived. Plus Antec was nice enough to replace those components with new ones(I build my own custom computers)

I've had some power supplies with no NRTL marks. Definitely lower quality. No solder mask on the PCB and no strain relief for the wiring (tugging on the wires pulls directly on the solder joint). Parts teepeed because of change to design without redesign of the PCB. But this isn't too suprising since any company too cheap to get their products listed or recognized probably cut other corners as well.

Hardwareguy, you made one statement that I find to be backwards. European product approval is MUCH easier than the United States and Canada. In fact, its a joke in comparison. Even Mexico is tougher.

To apply an NRTL mark in the US, you must submit samples for testing to a Nationaly Recognized Test Lab such as UL, Intertek/ETL, CSA, Curtis Straus, MET labs, etc. The NRTL must be authorized as an NRTL by OSHA and operated and audited under ISO 17025 (defining appropriate laboratory procedures). After product approval, the NRTL will make regular visits to your factory to make sure you are still building your product with the appropriate components - the ones that were identified as critical during the initial product evaluation. The safety standard in the US and Canada was adopted from the international IEC version, but adds requirements, sometimes rather significant. For example, Europe does not have a "power cross" test for telecom circuits to ensure safety from fire in the event a tip or ring pair comes into contact with outdoor power lines. Also, in the US a user-accessible exposed SELV (low voltage <60vdc) circuit must remain within SELV limits. In Europe, under fault conditions, it is allowed to jump to the maximum voltage allowed for a telecom circuit.

In Europe you only need to apply the CE mark to get your product to the store shelves. The CE mark means "this product complies with all applicable compliance criteria, and I can supply data to back up this claim". The CE mark is a "self declaration". There is no requirement for third party verification, and no requirement to audit manufacturing facilities. You can apply the CE mark based on design data if that suits you (good luck on that lawsuit).

To me, the no fuse issue would raise an eyebrow, but it does not mean the product "fails UL". Computer power supplies are currently Listed to ANSI/UL 60950-1 and/or CAN/CSA C22.2 No. 60950-1 (themselves a variation of IEC 60950-1). This harmonized safety standard specifies safety under normal operation and under single-fault conditions. As with many standards, there is no specific requirement for a fuse. If failure analysis indicates no fuse is needed, then you don't need one. That said, under single fault conditions, primary to secondary insulation damage is likely to occur if there is no electrical fuse and there is no thermal fuse. But, protection may be provided by other active circuits, or by Listed fuseable wire in the primary circuit...or something else.

OSHA requires use of Listed equipment in the workplace, and your insurance company may fight you on a claim if you have a fire as a result of using non-Listed equipment (that being the whole purpose for creating Underwriters Laboratories). A reputable company that only sells to US/Canadian customers should not be selling non-Listed or CE-only electrical equipment to the general public. You probably won't find this stuff at a North American Walmart or Sears.

Do the sayings:

"You get what you pay for;" and,

"Let the customer beware" apply here?

Reno: those sayings should apply. I am concerned that we, as Americans, have fallen into a mindset that imported items should be low cost and high quality (because many have been). Retail now tends to be all about price competition. I guess we all know that one major electronic retailer fired all its knowledgable salespeople to cut costs. Even if you know enough to question products, there may not be anyone who can advise you. I feel privileged to have access to this forum, where such things are up for discussion.

HWG,
I had a 400W Raidmax PSU nearly burn my house down last year, I was at work when the fire started and the quick actions of a fellow FF contained the fire to one room, plus smoke damage.
What annoyed me the most was the fact that the PSU was being used nowhere near it's output capacity, in-fact it had an old 386 computer running Mandrake Linux on it for my weather station.
I had the idea that bigger was better, when 200W probably would have done the job.
I lost a lot of radio gear in that fire and it turned out upon investigation that the fuse in the PSU was rated at 3 times what it should have been, this was out of the factory.
Also what I found, was that the MCB at the panel had blown, but the PSU (According to my mate) continued to burn "with bright yellow flames and thick acrid smoke exiting the rear fan aperture".
Now, one thing that you guys have to remember, is that brands mean nothing anymore.
We've had parallel importing here for close on 10 years now, this is where cheaply made brand name goods are imported without the consumers awareness, but are sold as the real thing.
These goods are made as cheaply as possible and have huge mark-ups once they make it to the retail stores.
All that aside, I really don't see how you can tell the quality of a SMPS based on wieght, maybe I'm missing something here?

hardwareguy,
You can do some checking of the UL information here.
You type in the UL category code (everything before the "." on the powermax page that you linked to) This will give you a list of every manufacturer that has a UL listing under that product code. Note that "QQFU2" is the only valid category code listed on that page and Leadman Electronic Company does not have a valid listing in that category. You could send a note to UL with that page link and ask them to check on it.
Don

It isn't a foolproof measure by any means, but more weight generally means larger heatsinks on internal components, larger transformers/inductors, and bigger capacitors, all of which can help improve longevity.

Mike, Thanks for that story. Many of my friends and family think I'm daft switching off the power to my PC when it's not in use. After hearing of your experience, I intend to carry on doing just that!

A point I often find myself making when people ask about the "best" brand of domestic TV/VCR/DVD etc. Frankly, at the typical consumer-product end of the market, I don't think there's anything to choose between them these days.

Thanks for the PSU blacklist. I checked Microcenter, none of them except for the Coolmax were sold there.