Dodgy USB chargers in the news

[king9017]

If you've read the news today, you will have heard about the NSW women who died from electrocution due to a dodgy USB charger. The person who sold her the charger face 2 years jail and $800K fine. I've noticed that the chargers pictured in the news today are currently available on eBay and many have been sold. Fair Trading has advised everyone not to buy or use these, and to dispose of them if you have them in your possession. I wonder what eBay will do about this?

Story:

http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/ftw/About_us/News_and_events/Media_releases/2014_media_releases/20...

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/faulty-usb-phone-charger-blamed-for-sheryl-aldeguers-death-20140627-zsoc8....

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/woman-found-dead-holding-laptop-in-apparent-electrocution-...

[amber-eyed-girl]

If you see any, and are sure, report them to eBay.

Chargers have been in the news a bit lately, there have been electrocutions overseas too.

Thank you for putting the story up to let everyone know.

[patchoo78]

If you see any and theyre around the $4-$5 mark they're defiitely dodgy.. The ones Belkin sell that look like those are $25.

There is a slight error in the story; it wasn't a charger, it was a USB adaptor which the charge cable plugs into..

She would have been better charging her phone off the lap top if it was plugged into a powerpoint

[cq_tech]

This problem occurs because not all of the cheaper unapproved chargers are double-insulated with opto-couplers, in order to to reduce manufacturing costs, so that when the switched-mode power supply fails, it allows mains voltage direct access to the USB cable. At best, it will fry your phone or laptop, but if you happen to be using it at the time, you also run the risk of receiving a fatal electric shock, which is what happened in the case above.

This is also a wake-up call for anybody living in an older home which hasn't been protected by an earth leakage circuit breaker (ELCB). They have been mandatory in new homes for quite some time now but there are still an awful lot of older houses out there which still don't have them fitted.

If you do happen to live in a house which doesn't have an ELCB fitted in the fuse box, do yourself a life-saving favour and pay an electrician around $150 to have one fitted. If it saves your life, or those of your children, it will definitely be money well spent. If you don't know whether you have one or not, then please go and check your fuse box now.

[phorum_junkie*]

I have been advising buyers for years to never buy chargers, batteries or anything else of that nature from ebay, cheapo shops or anywhere else other than an established electrical retailer or the company making the equipment they are going to be used with. At best they will fry your equipment, at worst they will kill you and in between they will potentially cause a fire and burn your house down.

There is not a lot ebay can do about it but buyers can decide that risking their life and homes tosave a few bucks is not a good idea.

[putney32]

it was purchased from a 'booth' in a suburban shopping mall in Sydney

[phorum_junkie*]

Trading Standards and Customs here in the UK are waging a constant war against the cheapo shops that sell these dodgy, unsafe leads. Trouble is there is so much profit in them that as soon as they confiscate and destroy one shop or market satall's stock another starts selling them. Even if whole containers are stopped at the point of import they selers have paid so little for them in the first place that they just buy more.

[padi*0409]

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@cq_tech wrote:

This problem occurs because not all of the cheaper unapproved chargers are double-insulated with opto-couplers, in order to to reduce manufacturing costs, so that when the switched-mode power supply fails, it allows mains voltage direct access to the USB cable. At best, it will fry your phone or laptop, but if you happen to be using it at the time, you also run the risk of receiving a fatal electric shock, which is what happened in the case above.

This is also a wake-up call for anybody living in an older home which hasn't been protected by an earth leakage circuit breaker (ELCB). They have been mandatory in new homes for quite some time now but there are still an awful lot of older houses out there which still don't have them fitted.

If you do happen to live in a house which doesn't have an ELCB fitted in the fuse box, do yourself a life-saving favour and pay an electrician around $150 to have one fitted. If it saves your life, or those of your children, it will definitely be money well spent. If you don't know whether you have one or not, then please go and check your fuse box now.

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cq, one of the best I've seen on this one.

Those onsellers deserve to be slammed with huge fines.

EBay should be held accountable for allowing these to be auctioned/BIN on their site...........

But then I guess it's pretty hard to shut down hackers/scammers/NPB's and bad sellers.

Take care and well done on this one,               Padi. 

[cq_tech]

Thanks Padi; I really felt I needed to put it out there because I was very saddened to learn of the death of that poor woman in Sydney, particularly when it was such a terrible waste and so unnecessary, and could have been so easily avoided if her home had been fitted with an ELCB, and I also believe that this is one of the rare occasions where the government should legislate to make the fitting of ELCBs to ALL residential properties retrospectively mandatory, with massive fines for non-compliance.

The first time I cracked open one of these Taiwanese cheapies I was absolutely horrified to observe that there was no opto-coupler isolating the 240VAC primary from the 5VDC secondary which essentially meant that in the event of component failure, there was a distinct possibility that full mains voltage could be sent down the DC cable, not only instantly destroying whatever was being charged, but also electrocuting the owner if they just happened to be holding it at the time.

Since then I've cracked open quite a few and I was somewhat pleased to note that not all of the cheap Asian chargers lacked this crucial piece of componentry, making them every bit as electrically safe as their more expensive brand-name counterparts. Unfortunately, as long as there is currently no way of telling which ones are safe to use, they should all be banned from importation to Australia, and if that means banning them all from being listed on ebay, then so be it.

I agree with you when you say that ebay should be held accountable, because as things stand legally, ebay is complicit in the importation of dangerously illegal electrical products from Asia, and they can't claim ignorance because as we all know, as far as the law is concerned, ignorance is no excuse. Perhaps a few million dollars in punitive penalties might make ebay reconsider their present position.

[padi*0409]

Perhaps cq, if this one gets Ebay slammed for allowing non-compatible devices to be put on line, then maybe they'll take them off the site.(if the seller bought them on eBay).

Either way eBay should not be listing non-complient electrical devices. FULL STOP.

Why does it take someone to report the listing before someone gets killed?......Unfortunately that's the way that eBay works (and covers their ar.se)

But the 240/110volt sales are really worrying, I'm an old member here but even I have been stiched up by our freinds in China, luckily I had the RCD so no-one was hurt......

BTW, is there does seem to be a part of eBay that's called "Trust and Safety", they will not divulge phone numbers etc, they will not let you talk to T&S by email or phone, they appear to to be a secret part of the system.

Believe me I've been there and tried to talk to them. 

It will possibly take a legal case on this one (if the seller bought those devices off eBay), to shut them all down.

Not happy on this one cq for all the reasons that you've shown and some of my own..................

The scammers and hackers, well that would be an easy one to shut down as well.....GF eBay do it..............