LED wash mover safety

[StuartS]

I recently PAT tested a 7 x 10Watt RGBY moving wash head purchased through Amazon from a supplier called ReaseJoy and found it failed earth continuity to its metal base plate in spite of being 'CE' marked. Removing the cover soon revealed why - there was nothing connected to the earth tag on the back of the IEC. Theoretically a fault could put live mains on the metal base plate and the whole truss if using the metal mounting bracket, assuming the truss wasn't earthed another way. It wasn't difficult to rectify, but I would recommend anyone with one of these or a lookalike from the likes of HappyBuy, Stagg or Docooler to check.

[Emmett45]

Hi,

 

An appliance stamped CE does not mean it is a Class I earthed piece of kit. However if you cannot see the symbol for a Class II double insulated appliance (a square within a square) or in the absence of additional information then one must assume the appliance is earthed. There are some pieces of kit that use standard IEC leads but are Class II in construction and similarly and appliance made out of metal does not necessarily mean it has to be Class I and earthed.

 

Hope this helps.

[StuartS]

1486467261[/url]' post='547337']

Hi,

 

An appliance stamped CE does not mean it is a Class I earthed piece of kit. However if you cannot see the symbol for a Class II double insulated appliance (a square within a square) or in the absence of additional information then one must assume the appliance is earthed. There are some pieces of kit that use standard IEC leads but are Class II in construction and similarly and appliance made out of metal does not necessarily mean it has to be Class I and earthed.

 

Hope this helps.

 

There being no double square mark, or anything other than CE, I assumed the base plate should be earthed and was therefore concerned no attempt had been made to earth it, and felt it my duty to share this concern.

[Cameroon]

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/051/769/e25.jpg

[timsabre]

Cameroon, this is not true. They often do just put any old CE mark on, you cannot tell whether it is real from the dimensions - the only way to tell is to ask for the test certification.

 

see http://icqc.co.uk/en/china-export.php/CE-mark.php

[adam2]

CE marking is of very doubtful usefulness in assessing the electrical safety of equipment, no matter what is the spacing between the two letters.

 

If an appliance has exposed metallic parts, then in general these should be earthed. This is NOT an absolute rule, there are exceptions for appliances in which live parts have double or reinforced insulation protecting against contact with the metallic case.

 

If in doubt as to the safety of an unearthed appliance then it is usually simpler and cheaper to add an earth connection than to make any detailed enquiry about the appliance.

 

 

 

[paulears]

That picture and others like it is common, but there really isn't a Chinese CE mark - I suspect the story put about to explain the habit of simply printing whatever the customers want on the products. genuine CE marking is difficult with these units because they are modular in absolute terms - with cases, pcbs, programming, optics, power supplies and mechanics all provided by different suppliers and then combined to make similar but different products. These could never have been put through a CE procedure because manufacture could be a mere handful of finished identical units. Unless you are buying an awful lot of the fixtures - treat any approval as suspect.