Phoney Rolex watches may be fun holiday items but a ripped-off electrical fitting could wipe out an entire household. Bob Harper outlines the dangers.

Electrical fittings sold in Australia, whether locally made or imported, must be certified as complying with national Standards.

If the fittings meet the criteria maintained by the Standards Associations of Australia and New Zealand, the manufacturer and/or distributor will be issued with a compliance certificate allowing the items to be marked with the issued compliance number.

Certificates are issued by Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. For example, a Queensland number would be in the form of Q12345. Most states use the first letter of their name followed by five numbers, but NSW also uses the form NSW12345 now. There are still some items with N12345 numbers.

The number allows people to look up the details of an item or enquire at their state electrical safety office to see if any recalls have been issued. Electricians should know whether the brands they use are subject to a recall by the manufacturer or government.

Compliance testing

Almost every electrical fitting or appliance will have its own Standard. Otherwise, fittings will be tested against a Standard such as AS/NZS60335 Safety of household and similar electrical appliances.

There are many other mandatory requirements for plugs, sockets, cable, etc, but this Standard has more than a hundred parts just for the various appliances.

In essence, the first test is to look for obvious issues such as layout, markings, safety features, and even down to how an item is packed and labelled. For example, electrical packaging must carry certain warnings that the item must be fitted by an electrician. Even plastic bags may require a suffocation warning.

A series of non-destructive tests then ensures that the item complies with materials and measurement requirements, such as insulation and distances from live parts to the outside world. Some cheap (not Category III or IV) multimeters have such thin cases the electrician might be holding his life in his hand.

The item is then performance tested to measure strength and insulation properties, and component failure often occurs.

Screws, for example, are tensioned using a torque wrench or torque screwdriver. Plug pin dimensions are tested in a ‘go-no-go’ jig and pulled from a socket to ensure the socket applies just enough retaining tension to the pins, and not too much.

Finally, several destructive tests are performed, such as high-voltage insulation testing, which hits the appliance with perhaps 1,500V, or even up to 4,500V.

The mouldings are tested for flammability and fire retardation by setting a sample alight with a standard flame and measuring whether it burns, and how, and the time it takes to go out.

Some items are tested for impact resistance by hitting them with a steel ball of a certain diameter and weight falling from a measured height.

Failure to comply

When items fail to comply, their design is usually changed and a second or third or check carried out – or as many as it takes to pass or be forgotten.

Unfortunately, not everyone knows about compliance testing. One florist imported a thousand sets of Christmas tree lights and began selling them for $12.95.

She was eventually made aware of testing by a customer, then sought compliance after more than a third had been sold. The potential fine at the time was about $600 per item sold, so they had to be recalled at the florist’s cost.

An accident involving such an item is a serious event, and civil litigation is highly likely.

Direct importation

There’s a great temptation for larger contractors to import container loads of products or cable.

I have measured cables down to the strand diameter, the number of strands in flexible cable and the insulation thickness at multiple points in a sample. Cables are not all the same, and the reported cross-sectional area of some imported appliance leads is sometimes less than the Standard requires (therefore they fail the test and are rejected).

If compliance testing has not been done by a trusted and reputable authority, you might be buying a container load of legal trouble.

An even greater risk is causing a fire, electric shock or electrocution, resulting in state litigation and civil action.

At best, and if you are very lucky, the item will comply and you will have to pay only for the test, which may come to several thousand dollars. One hopes you accounted for that when sizing up the bargain.

At worst, there will be many unforeseen extra costs in the importation, testing, possible failure and retesting, and returning items to the factory (if it is still in business). Perhaps you will use the whole container load before there is an issue, then have to replace the whole lot with a better quality product, at retail, plus installation costs.

Then you will be charged by the relevant safety office with using non-compliant electrical goods.

I don’t mean to moralise but just want to ensure that you are fully aware of the pitfalls in ‘saving on costs’.

Identifying dodgy branding

Dodgy fittings will often have an intentionally misspelled brand name, or a totally unknown brand marking. They may however be marked as if they are the real deal, i.e. ‘Counterfeit’.

In some instances, moulding is done in bicycle sheds built on the side of a house.

The owner buys a cheap injection moulder that might have been rescued from the tip and sets it up to do ‘jobbing’, perhaps moulding toys one week and kitchenware or electrical appliance parts the next.

The plastics all look the same. In one case, the plastic was mixed by tipping a cup of fire retardant into a bunker of plastic resin, with no mixing at all. When we tested a sample, it went up in smoke before we were ready to time it.

Typically, the manufacturer is given a set of moulding dies – just like being given the plates to print money – and starts making parts by the thousand, perhaps using up leftover plastic resin from toys and kitchenware made the previous week.

The clones will look like the real deal, but they will probably be highly inappropriate for use in an electrical context.

Sample testing

The manufacturer sends samples, in some cases a box of them, to be tested for compliance.

When they pass, the manufacturer is expected to make all future items to exactly the same specification.

The reference samples are held by the testing authority. For every batch made, samples are sent for comparison with the reference samples and the current Standards.

Items are occasionally changed due to a change in design or supply of components, and the samples must be checked to ensure they still comply. Standards also change, and the design may have to be changed to reflect this.

Design creep

Some manufacturers begin a process of intentional creep, in which the item specification is gradually changed during manufacture to reduce costs.

One manufacturer stopped masking the metalwork of a light fitting before the unit was painted. As a result, the earth tag and screw was applied to a painted surface, resulting in poor earthing. Plastic parts have at times replaced metal parts without consideration of the earthing.

Creep often occurs from the day the reference sample is approved. One occurrence is in the make-up of brass alloy. The percentage of copper tends to be reduced so that more zinc is used. Copper prices thereby influence the amount of zinc in the brass, which then becomes weaker.

Compliance testers catch almost all of the faulty items, but there will be pressure to accept the thousands that are already packaged and in containers on the dock. Foreign merchants generally will use every tactic to move their goods.

Cloned powerpoints

I recently read of powerpoints made to resemble HPM units. Note that HPM was not at fault – just being ripped off by forgers.

The term ‘clone’ is a slightly inaccurate one, as a clone is exactly the same as the original. However it suits the purpose for describing forged products, which are dangerously lacking in crucial respects, including:

They are not tested for compliance with Standards.

Mouldings may be thinner, weaker and have poor insulating properties.

Plastics may melt at too low a temperature and catch fire easily due to little or no fire retardant.

Inappropriate plastics may distort or crack, voiding the protection against touching live terminals. (Imagine your child or grandchild playing around dodgy fittings.)

They may have low clasping strength, thereby reducing conductivity and causing overheating under current.

They may screw into plastic rather than metal threads, allowing earths to fail.

Forgeries may use weakened alloys, resulting in poor conductivity, wear resistance, tensile strength, elasticity and resistance to thread stripping.

Screws are often high in zinc and low in copper, making them brittle and easily stripped.

Forgeries will not be guaranteed by the labelled manufacturer or anyone else.

If the item fails – and causes a fire that destroys lives, a home, possessions and memories – you will legally be on your own.

Beware

Clones are on the rise, and you are likely to be offered a deal that’s too good to be true – and such deals usually are. You will end up paying much more than you bargained for.

Contractors should regularly look at the list of recalls and warnings through their local electrical safety office, contractors associations, etc, and read the email alerts they send.

Report any dodgy items immediately so none of us get caught with our pants down. If you come across dodgy fittings on a job, inform the owner and explain why you must report your findings, then report the matter and also warn all your mates and colleagues.

Compliance is good for all

Electrical compliance testers may look like ‘policemen’, but they are there to make the industry as safe as possible and improve our collective reputation. Stamping out dodgy suppliers and equipment helps us all in the end.