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Re: UL/CSA approval



I used to be in the electronics manufacturing business.  We made electronic 
items, manufactured in many countries, to be marketed all over the world.  
Although UL or CSA approval was not MANDATORY, if you didn't have both, it 
could cause some of your markets to be closed to you, such as schools or 
government agencies, for example.  Although both testing agencies 
should/could combine their ratings so that qualifying for one set of 
standards should/could qualify you for the other's, they don't.  
Unfortunately, they are both in business to garner high fees for testing 
whatever it is you were making, and neither entity was about to allow you to 
bypass making a deposit in their cash register.  So, we had to take our 
products and submit them to both agencies at considerable cost.  Did it make 
a difference to the end user?  Sometimes yes, sometimes no.  It all depends 
on the individual insurance company.  Some are liberal and require no such 
test, while others use it as a loophole to avoid paying insurance claims.  If 
you have the choice of products, one UL/CSA approved and one not, it would 
probably be best to choose the one with both the UL and CSA ratings.  Of 
course, some items coming from Asia pass neither tests, and they don't care 
if they do or not.  You then have to decide whether or not this item might 
present a danger of some sort that might create problems between you and your 
insurance company down the road.  It probably won't, but there is always the 
chance that it could.  Read your policy and consult with your agent to be 
certain.
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In a message dated 7/16/2000 00:53:21 Pacific Daylight Time, 
Aquatic-Plants-Owner at actwin_com writes:

>      So my question is this; if you live in Canada and
>  you buy something that only has ULC approval or the
>  other way around, if you live in the US and it only
>  has CSA approvals and something goes wrong and your
>  house burns down would you be covered? Or is this guy
>  just a nid and he wants me to buy his stuff at twice
>  the price?
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