Avoid deadly USB chargers - cheap products from China

I came across a video that was talking about people in Europe and Russia getting killed in their bathtubs by their cell phones. Well it turns out they were plugged into a charger and some of these chargers are super cheap, have no isolation and are not engineered to "western" standards (or Japanese, Korean, etc...). There is a reason that products have a UL on them, that stands for Underwriters Laboratories which does testing of the saftey of products and gets their stamp of approval as to being safe - I think they are an insurance group of some kind. I'm pretty sure these products have no such testing.

So here is the video that explains how people are electrocuting themselves



Here is an example of a USB charger (and light) that can kill you if used as above

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

Anything plugged in to mains should never be near a bath.

Don't blame China.

Blame the idiotic people.

If you want to prevent this example of Darwinian Awards, use a safety switch in the fuse box.

Protection for the idiots amongst us.

P

It just reminds me of the old tag on Blow Dryers.
"DO not use while sleeping".

This kind of stuff is user error..

Just wouldn't you thought people couldn't get any dumber....

I had a couple of protoboards blow up on me because of the 12VDC rated AC adapter from China blasted my components with 30+V DC.

Building a full bridge rectifier for an AC adapter circuit is basic as hell and they can't even do that right. I don't buy anything from China unless I can't find it anywhere else.

a reply to: pheonix358

Lol that's silly. What do you think GFCI are for? Why would they exist if people can't have things near a bath?

Oh right, so that you can safely use mains power near a bath.

You can plug a hair dryer in to a GFCI and stand in the bath and drop it in and the gfci will go click faster than you can take damage.

a reply to: projectvxn

You'd think you'd know better, to test your equipments output before connecting it to anything. Especially China. I do and I save a ton

originally posted by: pheonix358
a reply to: DigginFoTroof

Anything plugged in to mains should never be near a bath.

Don't blame China.

Blame the idiotic people.

If you want to prevent this example of Darwinian Awards, use a safety switch in the fuse box.

Protection for the idiots amongst us.

P

Well there are thousands of devices that are plugged into mains that would be in the sink next to the bath tub. Many devices (like electric razors, clippers, etc) are USB charged, and I've seen power "extenders" (gives 6 outlets when plugged into a 2 connection outlet) - it's like a power strip that mounts on the wall. Many of these have USB charger ports on them and I've even seen some with GFI on them. The problem is that the USB bypasses the GFI on some of these cheap ones and if the 2 outlet plug doesn't have the GFI (because it's old wiring - and a good reason to buy the 6 connection outlet with GFI).

So to say that it's dumb people, that is a ridiculous assumption. there are billions of people who would make this mistake and many "geniuses" who are just too young to know any better, or people who don't know about "grey market" products that haven't been UL tested (What is the EU version of UL??)

There are thousands of "wet razors" that use a USB connection to charge them and they supposedly can be used in the shower. Now if you replace the standard charger with a cheap replacement (or one at a travel location) you might end up dead.

Why do people think ignorance is stupidity. It's not like they are using a hair dryer, they are using what is supposed to be a 4-5v, low amperage, isolated charger. Stupidity doesn't come into play. Naivete yes. Ignorance, yes. Stupidity and being "dumb" I don't think that's quite fair.


Take a look at this page that will show you other companies that do testing like UL, at the bottom of the page - UK/EU has Sira, Germany TUV, UK also has Baseefa and Canada CSA - among many other international companies.

en.wikipedia.org...(safety_organization)

originally posted by: hombero
a reply to: pheonix358

Lol that's silly. What do you think GFCI are for? Why would they exist if people can't have things near a bath?

Oh right, so that you can safely use mains power near a bath.

You can plug a hair dryer in to a GFCI and stand in the bath and drop it in and the gfci will go click faster than you can take damage.

You should have probably read the OP.

GFCI outlets are not a "thing" in Russia and I never saw a GFCI outlet ever when I lived in Europe.

/facepalm

a reply to: hombero

Well, I was learning at the time and what we had in the classroom.

You know the responses from most people here (surprisingly/ironically not from my buddy Hombero - he seems to get it!) are sad and callous and many seem to expect others to be as educated as they are and no one even said "thanks" for a heads up on the fact a USB could deliver mains power through it. I dont' care about getting "thanks" but this is basically a PSA b/c I didn't think this was really possible let alone probable. Maybe if I post some edgy politics in this saying Trump supported these or that it's b/c of Dem's trying to save carbon by reducing parts, then people would have thought it was a valuable post.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

There are thousands of "wet razors" that use a USB connection to charge them and they supposedly can be used in the shower.

Yes they can! They are cordless. They have batteries in them.

You don't use them in the shower while still plugged in to the mains.

You are just asking for trouble.

When all else fails ... before you sadly die ... read the bloody instructions mate.

It is not rocket science.

Mains power and water do not mix well.

P

If people are using items plugged into outlets in the bathtub, we shouldn't be having hissy fits over dangers, but encouraging the stupid people along. The gene pool periodically needs a good shock (no pun intended, pool maintenance lingo)

This is why you should only buy USB chargers at reputable gas stations, liquor stores and flea markets.

originally posted by: pheonix358
a reply to: DigginFoTroof

Anything plugged in to mains should never be near a bath.

Don't blame China.

Blame the idiotic people.

If you want to prevent this example of Darwinian Awards, use a safety switch in the fuse box.

Protection for the idiots amongst us.

P

I believe that is fair common sense but given that these products actually fall very far short of most western standards such as our BS (British Standard) over here in the UK or indeed most likely US standards it is a product which really should not be retailed into our country's via the internet - so it is really a case of Buyer Beware.

The fact is while many users will be adult's there is fair chance that in the case of the camping lamp for example a parent could mistakenly purchase it for there child, the child may then do what children do and with fatal consequences, the video guy in the first video was reading reports from some other country's such as Russia and they sounded to be young girl's whom had died in accident's involving there mobile phone's in the bath.

The fact is Girl's will be Girl's and these day's young lady's seem to have there mobile phone's with them at all time's as they have become an integral part of there social lives.

So the product's are most certainly absolutely at fault, they have a number of fault's and are not built to the safety standard's we would expect of our own company's.

Everything from phone chargers and cheap phone battery's that explode and can burn down your house or cause you serious harm, counterfeit product's, poisonous toy's, fake cosmetic's with toxic chemical's and food that contain's toxic chemical's and worse are produced and sold every year from China.

It varies widely not everything made there is bad but quality control, safety regulation's and almost every other standard lag's far behind or is actually absent entirely when compared with the rules our manufacturer's have to comply with.

Usually regulators do a pretty good job of trying to prevent import of dangerous products into our nation's such as TRADING STANDARDS over here in the UK but some product's still slip in and worse the internet bypasses that safety barrier entirely.

While I would stop short of accusing the Chinese let's just say they could implement far more stringent rules and regulations in there home nation on both product's intended for there own domestic use and product's intended for export to other nation's - it would also be good PR for them if they did and indeed they may have but if so the regulations they have brought in seem pretty toothless given the amount of crap that they export every year and the number of injury's and fatality's that crap has played a part in.

Yes you don't take a live electrical item into a bath - but kid's will be kid's and they do stupid thing's no matter how many time's you tell them, in one ear and out the other as we say over here.

a reply to: LABTECH767

Agreed ... but ... if you took your phone into the bath, connected to power in Australia, nothing bad would happen.

The entire power to the house would be cut via the safety systems we have and the young girls would be getting a telling off by their parents for being stupid.

I hate seeing China always blamed when in fact, it is the Western Nation's companies that order the cheapest crap possible to make the highest profits. But yeah, it's China's fault.

The fault lies with the West's large companies like Woolworths, Target and whatever the big ones are in the USA.

You order crap ... you get crap. But yellow peril and all that. Designed obsolescence is a western culture creation.

The whole world needs a shake up.

Who the hell do you think makes all of the good phone charges anyway?

Blame someone else, never look at your own backyard.

P

a reply to: pheonix358

Supply and demand.
Good point, I still believe though that internationally agreed safety standards are not being met by China in many of these cases.
It is however as you rightly point out not CHINA's fault the fault though does fall at the feet very much of unscrupulous manufacturers and importers - as you also rightly point out.
And in the case of the Russian teenager he was reading about that is also down to failures in Russian safety law's and regulation's.

Hey got to add this, remember it was our technology, our expertise and our corrupt greedy grubbing corporations that put our workers out of there job's and took up China's offer to let them use there people as cheap labor that started all of this in the first place, when company's started to take there job's to Asia (mostly to China) there were expert's warning that we would lose technical skill's as without job's the kid's in our education system would have no real world use for those skill's,. The Expert's were ignored, the Government's sat on there hand's and let it happen.

In one way it was good as it spread wealth and reduced global poverty but at the expense of western economic dominance - which I really don't mind so long as living standards stay high and kids still have a future which sadly they have not and they do not - but once again that's not the Chinese but rather our own corrupt government's, international economic's with no regulation's and unscrupulous (At first and later they had no choice if they wanted to stay afloat) employers.

Who do you think still design's and invent's most of the technology behind those item's, not the Chinese though they have plenty of inventors and boffin's themselves these day's but most inventions of those types are still originating from the mind's of western scientists and inventor's.

Which is not to say that the old Stereotype of east Asian's being better at taking and improving other people's inventions and westerners being better at inventing is true, it was for a time but was probably more down to culture than brain chemistry or anything as daft as that.

Historically China had blast furnaces in the 600's - 700's powered by huge bellow's that were in turn powered by water wheel's, we did not RE-invent them until the industrial revolution and there are claim's that complex mechanical clockwork devices also appeared in china than were forgotten and lost to them only to later be reinvented in the west - though the Antikythera mechanism may push the old Mediterranean world back even further on that one.

(other inventions, transverse bulkheads in there junk's - the idea did not save the titanic but it was first used as far as we can tell in Asia were it was probably inspired by the chambers in a stalk of cane - Ship to Ship missiles, basically huge fire work's, so gunpowder as well, that had four down angled rockets and would skim across the water exploding over enemy ship's and setting them ablaze - the list goes on, as for flame throwers you can thank the Byzanteum empire of the classical western world for that they had huge pump powered ship mounted flame throwers which would throw a kind of napalm called greek fire, for which we have lost the recipe, and set both ship's and enemy soldiers ablaze - the screw another Mediterranean invention often attributed to archimedes of syracus whom also ancient writing's tell us used large mirrors to focus the sun onto roman galleon's apparently setting them ablaze though it was more likely they dazzled the crew while men in boat's throw flaming items' at them).


But I stand by that most of those inventions are created by Western Scientists and inventor's not by Chinese, they are only made there because it is cheaper even today with wages rising in China and now even Chinese business men starting to look to other country's to exploit there cheap labor and resources.

It may be that in years to come economy's will plateau out, they will reach a point of equilibrium and this may mean the end of corporate economic's that rely on a yearly growth as such model's will have become completely unsustainable, this in turn will lead to a reduction in share trading as share prices will become stable and dividend will then not be as much of a selling factor, this in turn may lead to a new age of corporate downsizing and break up's as business becomes more personal and family owned ventures take over again but this in turn will then drive a pendulum swing that will then reignite corporate model's but shall they then ever reach again the runaway and insane resource devouring level they have reached in our current economic age?.

And that IS what it is really all about, GREED and corporate politics, remember the corporations more or less outright own most governments in the world either openly or illicitly (usually illicitly) and they are the biggest factors behind politics currently in China and the US as well as to an extreme degree in the EU.

originally posted by: hombero
a reply to: pheonix358

Lol that's silly. What do you think GFCI are for? Why would they exist if people can't have things near a bath?

Oh right, so that you can safely use mains power near a bath.

You can plug a hair dryer in to a GFCI and stand in the bath and drop it in and the gfci will go click faster than you can take damage.

GFCI’s fail like anything else. I would like to bet my life on $12 dollar gadget.

a reply to: madmac5150

Lol...


I have paid 40$ for 2 chargers hoping they would be construed better, but they broke in the same 2-3 weeks..

So now I am 5$ Arab gas station chargers all the way