AmazonBasics products are dangerous!

CarlBar · September 12, 2020

4 hours ago, Jet_ski said:

Lets compare this to how another company, Target, handled a similar situation:

Target recalls 90,000 USB cables that caused consumer finger burns

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/05/29/target-recall-90000-usb-charging-cables-can-shock-catch-fire/1277867001/

14 faults in 90k units may pass the mark where they decide the design isn't ok, or they're concerned somthing went badly wrong at QC or whatever. Amazon basics allmost certainly sells a lot more cables, so the failures reported could be a vastly lower rate that that.

1 hour ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

That is so weird and unexpected. I expected the fuse to be in the socket, not in the plug itself.

That's why I thought smaller breakers would make more sense.

Not every device draws the same normal load. Thus have the fuse vary with the device is an important safety feature, (though modern installations do require GFI's built into the socket AFAIK), as it ensures the device will pop it's fuse even if the draw is less than the allowed per socket value. A one size fits all fuse or breaker in the socket wouldn't do that.

As an aside Plastic ground pins exist for two reasons. First on any device that isn't grounded the ground is still required to let you plug the Live and Neutral in, those have shutters on them that inserting the Ground pin opens. The second is that some devices, (chargers for electric toothbrushes and shavers for example), are allowed to not be grounded, (i think it's got somthing to do with the nature of them, i forget it's been a while since i read about it), but because of point 1 a Pin in that location is still required and a plastic one is simply cheaper. It's got nothing to do with converting a 2 pin to a 3 pin plug, many devices are required to be grounded, you can;t just stick a 3 pin with a plastic ground on it and call it a day, it won;t pass certification for UK use if you do.

1 hour ago, Mihle said:

I wad not taking any fault, I was talking faults that can cause someone to die, or serious hurt. Also faults that can be blamed on company doing something wrong.

Sorry, some of the commentary seems to be going "somthing bad happened, amazon is awful *raise pitchforks*"". In reality from both a laws of reality and a legal perspective it's not that simple.