North American customers beware of Chinese power cords.

[Jeff1946]

Recently I bought an inexpensive 30V 5A power supply.  Been happy with it.  Recently read a comment on a Youtube review of a similar supply that sometimes the neutral and hot leads are reversed.  So as Dave says, "take it apart."  Internal wiring looked fine, but to check plugged it in and found that on the fused side on the power cord socket went to neutral.   With a little investigation found the AC cord was miswired.  Note many cords have an N and an L marked on the female side.  The L (load) should go to the hot lead on the male.  If you hold the female and male plugs facing you with the ground lead down the left and right slots on the female should connect to the left and right slots on the male.

So I replaced the miswired cord with a good one.

Out of curiousity, on 240V systems are both power lines fused and switched?

[wasedadoc]

Out of curiousity, on 240V systems are both power lines fused and switched?

Sometimes both are switched but I've never encountered both being fused.

[dobsonr741]

Yes. Recently bought a USB-C power + switched output extension cord. The outlet Live/Neutral was reversed, and the switch disconnected the neutral, not the live. 
Monoprice did not attempt to repair or replace, they issued a full refund after I reported. The extension cord sold under multiple names, picture is below.

[floobydust]

It's lower manufacturing cost, having mains go to the on/off switch and another lead to the fuse. Gets rid of the jumper. The chinese do this in many products, as well they flip Line and Neutral. It's forbidden to switch or fuse neutral in appliances, according to NA Electrical and Safety Codes.
I guess they don't understand this or have it in their own regional safety standards.

[Manul]

I've seen both lines fused on devices, but it is not typical. In some cases both switched. But at least in my country (which is part of EU) we are not thinking about L or N too much, so to speak. Plugs can go both ways, there is no correct direction, so it means that L and N is not really defined down the stream. You can measure after pluging the cable if you are interested, but that's pretty much it.

[shapirus]

I guess they don't understand this or have it in their own regional safety standards.

not sure about China, but in Europe wall sockets are symmetrical and the plugs can be inserted either way*, so there is no way to predict which of the wires will be live or neutral in the power cord. If it's the same in China, then they probably don't know (or don't care) that some sockets are designed so that live and neutral can't change their positions.

*but there are nuances. there are some designs that enforce a specific arrangement of L and N.

[vk6zgo]

Out of curiousity, on 240V systems are both power lines fused and switched?

Sometimes both are switched but I've never encountered both being fused.

With the USA/NA "split phase" type supply, both legs are "hot" w.r.t. earth (ground), so, yes, some equipment does fuse both legs.
Technically, that does not conform with Australian wiring rules, but I have seen it on quite a lot of equipment used for TV monitoring, etc, so it seems to have "slipped past".

There is not a lot of point in fusing both sides with 230v nominal systems like Oz & EU, etc, as the Neutral & PE (ground) are usually connected together & to an earth spike at the entrance to the premises.

Switching both sides, on the other hand, protects against just such an occurrence as you experienced.

[Psi]

A lot of the cheap china T12/T15 soldering station clones have the power switch mounted in the neutral line.

Since phase and earth are still connected the leakage keeps slowly charging up the PSU capacitors and every so often is enough for the MCU to try turn on and you get a beep and then it instantly dies.

So yeah, if you notice your china soldering station keeps randomly beeping even when power switch is off, that's why

[vk6zgo]

Recently I bought an inexpensive 30V 5A power supply.  Been happy with it.  Recently read a comment on a Youtube review of a similar supply that sometimes the neutral and hot leads are reversed.  So as Dave says, "take it apart."  Internal wiring looked fine, but to check plugged it in and found that on the fused side on the power cord socket went to neutral.   With a little investigation found the AC cord was miswired.  Note many cords have an N and an L marked on the female side.  The L (load) should go to the hot lead on the male.  If you hold the female and male plugs facing you with the ground lead down the left and right slots on the female should connect to the left and right slots on the male.

So I replaced the miswired cord with a good one.

Out of curiousity, on 240V systems are both power lines fused and switched?

"L" stands for "Live" not "load", where "L" means the same as "hot".
The location of L & N on the wall socket & plug are normally a "mirror image", not the same.

The pinout on that end of an "IEC" cord which plugs into the equipment should be the same as the wall socket.

[Doctorandus_P]

I agree with Shapirus, here in Europe nobody cares about swapping neutral and live in applyances. Plugs are bidirectional and from the "safety point of view" both wires are regared "live". The fixed wires in houses does have a color scheme. Blue for neutral and brown for live, but from the outside you can only guess which side is where on a wall socket.

Some appliances can have nasty effects, for example those orange sodium lamps can wear premature if the live wire is connected but the neutral is not. In such cases usually double throw switches are used, or if you want to cheap out, you can measure where the live wire is to put the switch on that side (with fixed installations).

I have a DMM with such a "contactless voltage sense" mode. I sometimes use this to find the neutral wire. I hold one hand over the sensor of the DMM, and put one of the measurement probes (does not matter which) into a wall socket.

[james_s]

A lot of power cords are junk, I've found some that are CCA instead of proper copper wire too.

In North America 240V circuits are fused and switched on both sides because both sides are live 120V to neutral with a split phase system. In other parts of the world there is only one leg, 240V to neutral so it wouldn't make sense to fuse both sides.

[shapirus]

In North America 240V circuits are fused and switched on both sides because both sides are live 120V to neutral with a split phase system.

This fusing concept is curious. The fuses don't always blow both at the same time, right? If one of the fuses is blown, the second wire will still remain live. What's the point of fusing both then?

[Monkeh]

It's forbidden to switch or fuse neutral in appliances, according to NA Electrical and Safety Codes.

You lack polarity control on unearthed equipment. Try that one again without worrying about a functional switch.

In North America 240V circuits are fused and switched on both sides because both sides are live 120V to neutral with a split phase system.

This fusing concept is curious. The fuses don't always blow both at the same time, right? If one of the fuses is blown, the second wire will still remain live. What's the point of fusing both then?

To protect against shorts to ground or overload between one leg and neutral.

[james_s]

This fusing concept is curious. The fuses don't always blow both at the same time, right? If one of the fuses is blown, the second wire will still remain live. What's the point of fusing both then?

Because if either one develops a fault to earth, you want the fuse on that side to blow. The fuse is to protect the wiring from fire, not to completely de-energize the device to prevent a shock.

In practice there is always a circuit breaker in the panel now though, at least in houses built within the past ~60 years and that will be linked so an overload on either side trips the whole breaker.

[MrAl]

Recently I bought an inexpensive 30V 5A power supply.  Been happy with it.  Recently read a comment on a Youtube review of a similar supply that sometimes the neutral and hot leads are reversed.  So as Dave says, "take it apart."  Internal wiring looked fine, but to check plugged it in and found that on the fused side on the power cord socket went to neutral.   With a little investigation found the AC cord was miswired.  Note many cords have an N and an L marked on the female side.  The L (load) should go to the hot lead on the male.  If you hold the female and male plugs facing you with the ground lead down the left and right slots on the female should connect to the left and right slots on the male.

So I replaced the miswired cord with a good one.

Out of curiousity, on 240V systems are both power lines fused and switched?

Do they have a UL or other rating stamp somewhere on the device, like on the back?

[dobsonr741]

One more catch: the IEC320 cable came with my Quicko has reversed Live/Neutral. L/N is written on the C13 end, and it N is live when plugged in to a proper US wall socket. The guts of the Quicko station is wired properly - fuses and disconnects the assumed live. The fault is with the cable they provided. 

That makes a nice 100% failure rate of the Chinese IEC cables I own.  And yes, both cable has UL, the other has also Intertek, CSA and ETV.

[radiolistener]

Out of curiousity, on 240V systems are both power lines fused and switched?

No, just one. There is no difference between N and L lines, because you can plug it into a mains socket in both variant. But there is also a GND line which is designed in that way to not allow connect it to N or L socket hole.

[helius]

You lack polarity control on unearthed equipment. Try that one again without worrying about a functional switch.

Some 2-pole connectors enforce polarity when the cords and sockets are correctly wired. The NEMA 2-15 is such a connector.

Some will ask "Why? For double-insulated equipment it doesn't matter", but the reason goes back farther than that.
It is so lamps with Edison sockets would not make the sleeve live.

[Electro Detective]

I check all equipment current draws, correct fusing and IEC cords etc, I even check the checkers! Who needs drama? 

FWIW I've seen dumbass assembly practices and wiring snafus from back in the day, local and international,

wayyy before China began their monopoly on electronics (and everything else)


i.e. blame yourself for not checking, especially if buying CHEAP

oh, and if it's the wrong fuse value, don't lose sleep if it's on the wrong leg,
the BBQ will happen, regardless of the weather 
 

 

[jonpaul]

Hello: Reversal of Neut/Grd/Hot is a potentially lethal fault/


I would inform the supplier /Amazon/Ebay of the violation and ask for the seller be banned.

As good practice, We use only USA made IEC power cables eg from HP/TEK/GenRad.
 
All junk from  Commie China CAN NEVER BE  trusted especially for compliance or safety.

But you can be sure the ChiComms use the least effort/quality/performance/compliance.

Jon

[Gyro]

"L" stands for "Live" not "load", where "L" means the same as "hot".
The location of L & N on the wall socket & plug are normally a "mirror image", not the same.

The pinout on that end of an "IEC" cord which plugs into the equipment should be the same as the wall socket.

For accuracy rather than nitpicking, L stands for Line, not Live [EDIT: Only for UK/EU apparently, not Oz]. Hence you have Line and Neutral (Line is still live / hot of course).


P.S. I believe the North American equivalent is Phase and Neutral, (or Phase and Phase for 230V outlets) but I might be wrong there.

[vk6zgo]

"L" stands for "Live" not "load", where "L" means the same as "hot".
The location of L & N on the wall socket & plug are normally a "mirror image", not the same.

The pinout on that end of an "IEC" cord which plugs into the equipment should be the same as the wall socket.

For accuracy rather than nitpicking, L stands for Line, not Live. Hence you have Line and Neutral (Line is still live / hot of course).


P.S. I believe the North American equivalent is Phase and Neutral, but I might be wrong there.

Nope, in Oz, it's "Live". "Potatoes, potartoes" sort of thing!

[Gyro]

Don't worry, you'll catch up.

[MrAl]

Nobody answered the question of if they were UL approved or not, or at least had that marking on the product somewhere.

This would tell us if they did not obtain a rating or if they faked it.  Either way would be bad but would be interesting to know.
If they did not obtain a rating then we know what the story is.
If they did fake a rating then we know that they do this now so any of the companies may do that too, so all have to be checked.
Now that i think about it though i think i will check all mine too and all new ones that i get.

[jonpaul]

The Chinese have no ehtics, copy anything to make money,  including trademarked safety symbols, CE, UL, VDE, TUV.

Nothing printed or claimed on a Chinese product has any credence including  safety/PFC/EMI  regulation or compliance testing.

 Jon

[themadhippy]

About the only thing stamped on a chinese product you can trust to be genuine is "made in china"

[dobsonr741]

If at least one person changes his mind and breaks the “buy cheap from China” addiction then this thread achieved something.

[james_s]

P.S. I believe the North American equivalent is Phase and Neutral, (or Phase and Phase for 230V outlets) but I might be wrong there.

Hot and Neutral typically. "Phase" might be used in industrial settings where you typically have 3 phase power but you don't often see that in a residential application.

[MrAl]

The Chinese have no ehtics, copy anything to make money,  including trademarked safety symbols, CE, UL, VDE, TUV.

Nothing printed or claimed on a Chinese product has any credence including  safety/PFC/EMI  regulation or compliance testing.

 Jon

Haha.  Just to be a bit more PC, i think the right way to state this is to just say that they are ethically challenged (chuckle).

I was really just wondering if this particular product followed that trend or they just ignored it altogether.  If they ignored it altogether it would be easier to prove that it is unfit for sale in this country.

[MrAl]

About the only thing stamped on a chinese product you can trust to be genuine is "made in china"

Ha ha, well put 

[dobsonr741]

Just in case - Product Incident Reporting: https://www.ul.com/resources/market-surveillance-departments

“The following are examples of what should be reported:
- Fire, shock or other personal injury or property damage allegedly caused by UL certified products
- Misuse or misrepresentation of a UL Mark
- Noncompliance with UL Solutions requirements for that product
- Unauthorized or counterfeit UL Marks
- Inappropriate or unauthorized reference(s) to UL Solutions on packaging, web sites, brochures or ads”

[james_s]

It's pretty much futile the way things stand currently. You could play whack a mole reporting products until your life expires through natural causes without making a dent.

[helius]

P.S. I believe the North American equivalent is Phase and Neutral, (or Phase and Phase for 230V outlets) but I might be wrong there.

Hot and Neutral typically. "Phase" might be used in industrial settings where you typically have 3 phase power but you don't often see that in a residential application.

On 230V equipment it is L1, L2, and N. 115V only needs L1 and N. Of course vernacularly electricians and everybody else does call L1 "hot" or sometimes even "phase" but the latter is kind of affected I think.

[Watth]

There are several standards for sockets in EU. cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets#CEE_7_standard
For example, for earthed sockets an plugs:
German's standard (Schuko" or type F) is symmetrical, therefore allows to switch live and neutral.
French standard (Type E) has a protruding prong for earth that makes the socket and plugs asymmetrical, ensuring a proper live/neutral separation.

[AndyBeez]

About the only thing stamped on a chinese product you can trust to be genuine is "made in china"

Although these days North Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia are sources for officially made in the PRC products; especially stuff with high labor inputs and very low western retail prices. Chinese factory workers now expect to be paid fair wages, wtf?

Quality power adapters from somewhere inside the cheena republic, via a Sydney dumpster: EEVblog 1526 – I put 283 Double Adapters in Series with a 2kW Load!
https://www.eevblog.com/2023/01/30/eevblog-1526-i-put-283-double-adapters-in-series-with-a-2kw-load/

[jmelson]

In North America 240V circuits are fused and switched on both sides because both sides are live 120V to neutral with a split phase system.

This fusing concept is curious. The fuses don't always blow both at the same time, right? If one of the fuses is blown, the second wire will still remain live. What's the point of fusing both then?

If fuses are used, they protect the WIRING from a fault to ground.  If the device has developed an internal short, it could be from either line side, or both.
In general, ALL 240 V loads should have linked dual pole breakers in the power panel, so both hots should be interrupted when either pole trips.
Yes, in the special case of a hard fault on one pole of a 240 V load, and a fused panel, if one fuse opens, it could cause the unit to run on 120 V from the non-blown fuse side through the short.  But, fuse panels are going to be QUITE rare in the US today.  I have not run across even ONE in the last 30 years or so.  And, I've been in older buildings with corner-grounded open delta service, but that still had breakers.  I'd guess that power install dated to the 1950's.
Jon

[jmelson]

It's pretty much futile the way things stand currently. You could play whack a mole reporting products until your life expires through natural causes without making a dent.

My mother in law had a cheap power strip.  It had a UL marking on it.  If you turned it upside down, the plugs would fall out, even though it was new.  I reported it to UL as a probably fraudulent UL marking.  I never heard back from them.
Jon

[themadhippy]

If fuses are used, they protect the WIRING from a fault to ground.

You must have some clever fuses in your location,are they smart fuses? ,over here they couldn't  care less how that over current happens, a fault to earth,a fault between phase and neutral ,a fault between phases or just some numskull using the wrong sized device will all result in the same thing,the need to reset/replace the fuse.

[floobydust]

The Chinese have no ehtics, copy anything to make money,  including trademarked safety symbols, CE, UL, VDE, TUV.

Nothing printed or claimed on a Chinese product has any credence including  safety/PFC/EMI  regulation or compliance testing.

 Jon

We allow these products into our countries, all the while it kickstarts their industries because they can make and sell junk. With no consequences or legal path to the offenders.
The West is to blame as well in allowing this to continue.

Last time I went through UL reporting an unsafe product, it ended up the safety standard had no spec for hot running parts, a resistor at 85°C was acceptable. After a few years, it looked quite bad burned phenolic and there is no fuse in the product, so I put in the complaint - but the specific safety standard ignored these requirements common in other safety standards. It was an old UL product-specific standard.

To argue with UL, you'd have to pay for a copy of the standard and since they had already certified the product - meaning the error was on their part- it gets the cover up.
Many Western companies are importing cheap stuff from china, putting a brand name and minimal or fake safety approvals, reselling it for profit.

[ejeffrey]

In North America 240V circuits are fused and switched on both sides because both sides are live 120V to neutral with a split phase system.

This fusing concept is curious. The fuses don't always blow both at the same time, right? If one of the fuses is blown, the second wire will still remain live. What's the point of fusing both then?

We have either hot-hot-ground or hot-hot-neutral-ground.  Either side can develop a hot to neutral or ground fault.  GFI circuit breakers are not universal although they are being required in  more and more places there is a very long tail of circuits that dont have it.  So really in NA you *need* to fuse both legs of any grounded or neutral using equipment that runs off of 208/240 otherwise the fuse isn't doing anything useful.  It's the same as fusing all three phases of a three phase system.

If you have GFI and no neutral wire then you can probably use a single fuse to protect against phase to phase faults and rely on the GFI for phase to ground, but unless you build that into your equipment it's not guaranteed in the US.  Double insulated equipment can also use a single fuse because there is only a single fault path.

[james_s]

Last time I went through UL reporting an unsafe product, it ended up the safety standard had no spec for hot running parts, a resistor at 85°C was acceptable. After a few years, it looked quite bad burned phenolic and there is no fuse in the product, so I put in the complaint - but the specific safety standard ignored these requirements common in other safety standards. It was an old UL product-specific standard.

To argue with UL, you'd have to pay for a copy of the standard and since they had already certified the product - meaning the error was on their part- it gets the cover up.
Many Western companies are importing cheap stuff from china, putting a brand name and minimal or fake safety approvals, reselling it for profit.

A resistor running at 85C doesn't strike me as a big problem, it's common for them to be spec'd to higher operating temperature than that. Yes it will eventually cook cheap phenolic PCB, but it's not going to start a fire.

[richnormand]

If you need another reason not to trust power cords from China look at this thread:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/fake-power-cord-why-it-came-with-a-hard-drive-reader-kit/

A three prong cord that looks standard but does not have a ground wire connected to the ground pins....   
Next time you go rummaging in your power cord box to connect an instrument that requires a ground for safe operation don't forget to x-ray it for safety if it comes from China.... err a simple ohmmeter check will do I guess but it wont help the undersized wires though.

[shapirus]

err a simple ohmmeter check will do I guess but it wont help the undersized wires though.

this is why I usually bring my milliohmmeter to the pickup point to check the cables before paying for them.

[Watth]

err a simple ohmmeter check will do I guess but it wont help the undersized wires though.

this is why I usually bring my milliohmmeter to the pickup point to check the cables before paying for them.

Just push a dozen amps through the earth wire and ask a trusting friends if it feels hot.

[floobydust]

A resistor running at 85C doesn't strike me as a big problem, it's common for them to be spec'd to higher operating temperature than that. Yes it will eventually cook cheap phenolic PCB, but it's not going to start a fire.

The 24/7 hot running resistor from mains blackened the phenolic PC board, cooked the parts next to it and eventually started smoking. The heat degrades the plastics as well. After a few years, the components are roasted in a bad way.
No fuse, so I hit the horn on that cheap ass chinese junk as any EE would do, sent it off expecting UL would have a finding. The UL product-specific safety standard only cared if the thing worked or not (which it did). Other standards have requirements for a fuse, component temperature testing etc. It did not call any of those standards, which IMHO it should.
Many of the UL standards are quite old going back to the early 1920's like the one for soldering irons. They have accumulated wisdom but fail to update them, and then harmonized standards (IEC) are a second, competing set. It does make a mess. Manufacturers will certify to a lax, old standard whenever possible.

UL can only issue a "warning" about a counterfeit UL mark i.e. https://www.ul.com/news/public-notices they are only concerned protecting their brand name.
UL 817 Standard for Cord Sets and Power-Supply Cords USD $800 plus subscription costs.
The irony of the chinese aggregating all safety standards and posting them for free, whereas you or I can't look at them in order to highlight any shortcoming, is another crime.

It's a massive problem to allow unsafe, fake certified products into your country. The certification agencies have their own ecosystem profiting from test services, approvals, selling standards. It adds a massive burden to SME and does nothing to stop junk from coming in at our ports.

[MrAl]

Hi,

As a rule i always use resistors at 1/2 their rated power or even less.  They can get really, really hot if run at higher power.
You can definitely cook eggs on the 10 watt power resistors if the resistors are powered more than about 1/2 their rated power.
If you run one up using a power supply, you can find out fast, just watch your fingers you won't want to touch one.

[james_s]

Hi,

As a rule i always use resistors at 1/2 their rated power or even less.  They can get really, really hot if run at higher power.
You can definitely cook eggs on the 10 watt power resistors if the resistors are powered more than about 1/2 their rated power.
If you run one up using a power supply, you can find out fast, just watch your fingers you won't want to touch one.

Just taking this example of a ceramic power resistor series: https://www.vishay.com/docs/30216/cpwcpwn.pdf

The max rated operating temperature from the datasheet is 275C, so yes, resistors will run very hot at full rated power.

[floobydust]

Power resistor specs are out to lunch. Those temps are completely unrealistic because the FR-4 gets heated up, as well as any parts nearby especially plastic. Noobs think a "3W" part can do 3W. I have looked at dozens to correlate physical size verses "the spec" because they are literally 1/2 the size they used to be and defying the laws of thermodynamics lol.

For power cords, the chinese Walmart DVD player with <20AWG cheapola power cord Intertek certified, looked terrible. I'm not sure how the IEC standard allows a "6A" rated 20AWG 0.5mm² cord to be connected to a 15A branch circuit. It seems like something to melt and burn up when overloaded. Unless the DVD player's internal fuse is purported to cover that. But IEC power cords can get mixed up, a 6A cord on a 15A appliance. That is another known trap I believe.

[james_s]

Resistors like that are typically not mounted directly to the PCB, they stand up on wide metal leads an inch or more above the board. I still wouldn't want to run one at >200C, but 100-150C is not unreasonable.

[jfiresto]

... For power cords, the chinese Walmart DVD player with <20AWG cheapola power cord Intertek certified, looked terrible. I'm not sure how the IEC standard allows a "6A" rated 20AWG 0.5mm² cord to be connected to a 15A branch circuit....

Do they? I just checked one hundred (100) Europlug cords from various manufacturers, which may be used on 16A 230VAC circuits. They all have 2 x 0.75mm² conductors, even though the plug is only meant to carry up to 2.5A.

[jfiresto]

And to answer my own question, IEC 60335-1 (2001), section 25.8, table 11 lists the "minimum cross-sectional area of conductors" for a household supply cord as 0.5mm² for an appliance with a rated current of >0.2A and ≤3A. Does the current standard still allow this?

[BeBuLamar]

If at least one person changes his mind and breaks the “buy cheap from China” addiction then this thread achieved something.

It's too late for that. Chinese products should be avoided in the late 80's early 90's. Today the Chinese made products ranging from the best to the worst. You really have no choice.

[sokoloff]

For power cords, the chinese Walmart DVD player with <20AWG cheapola power cord Intertek certified, looked terrible. I'm not sure how the IEC standard allows a "6A" rated 20AWG 0.5mm² cord to be connected to a 15A branch circuit. It seems like something to melt and burn up when overloaded. Unless the DVD player's internal fuse is purported to cover that.

Because the DVD player is extremely unlikely to draw 10+A for a sustained period. It's going to draw 0 mA [off], 5mA [standby], 100mA [in use], or 50+A [line/hot/phase shorted to neutral or ground]. Whatever the fault current is will be high enough to clear the fault by tripping the overcurrent protection device before the power cord gets dangerously hot.

It's the same reason we can use a 1 AWG copper grounding conductor on a 400A feeder. 1 AWG is only good for 110A (@60°C rating) to 145A (@90°C rating), so how can it protect a 400A feeder? It protects it because the fault currents are 1-2 orders of magnitude over 400A, so the OCD clears the fault before excessive heating occurs.

Or a similar reason to why we can use a 50A breaker and 50A receptacle with 10 AWG copper conductors for a limited duty-cycle welder.

[Electro Detective]

About the only thing stamped on a chinese product you can trust to be genuine is "made in china"

Ha ha, well put 

It's an easy poolitically korreckt  fix

updated product sticker > "Made in  (enter ubiquitous sweat shop country here) 

BUYER BEWARES! 

Prease reads: big solly for customer upsets, but no havs wallantee comes for this !!! is velly cheep, what you want? 

please be understands and no be a rayseest pliz. "


FWIW: It's 2023, surely some impoverished nation has begun to knockoff knockoffed Chinese products   

Surely the underhanded slithering western corporats have gone that route too, or soon will,
their business skillset, imagination and brain capacity can only go that far 

[dobsonr741]

Re: UL complaint process: I reported the power cord with crossed live/neutral. UL responded back the next business day:

"We reviewed the information provided.  The photo bears the Intertek cETLus mark - not a UL Mark.  The reference "CONFORMS TO UL STD 817" does not mean UL tested the product.  It is the manufacturer’s declaration UL Standards were used during the Intertek (not UL ) certification process. 

Since the product does not bear a UL Mark and we did not test the product, we cannot comment on the safety of the product.  You may wish to report your concern to Intertek.  For your convenience, here is a link to their report form.
https://www.intertek.com/inspector-center/product-complaint/
 
Thank you for contacting UL Solutions.  We look forward to assisting you in the future."

UL a a company passed the test in my books. The spotlight is on Intertek now, where I sent in the same report.