Earlier quoted context omitted.
From my experience appliances tolerate a wide range of voltages. The outlets in my house routinely deviate from the standard 230V, with the lowest I have seen at 170V and highest at about 260V. I have not had any appliance malfunction. Edit: I am not advising anyone to deliberately do stupid things, simply mentioning that from my experience the builtin margin is fairly large.
You (or your landlord) should probably hire an electrician to get that checked out – especially the higher voltage might be indicative of some scarier failure modes. A voltage drop of 25% could also mean you have semi-broken wiring somewhere, which can cause fires or shock hazards on faulty appliances.
My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter
71–80 of 308 posts
Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter
#72Isn't this just a lesson to always read the output values on adapters?
Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, that's incredibly close. I assumed there would be a public database of CE (European) approved devices or manufacturers, but I can't find one from a quick search.
The CE marking is a self certification program, and there isn't an approval process. All the can happen is that you can get fined after the fact for applying the mark to products which don't fulfil the necessary requirements.
Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter
#74Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter
#75This is the sort of thing that almost (but not quite) pushes me to support mandatory certification (enforced by patents/other IP protections) for consumer devices that use a familiar connector like USB. Consumers shouldn’t need to worry about the specific output voltage; the presence of a USB-A connector should indicate that it abides by the specification. The hacker in me hates the idea of enforcing something like t…
Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter
#769v or 12v over USB-A is reasonably common here in Asia... You always need to check the voltage rating before randomly plugging stuff in if it isn't from a big manufacturer. For example, the handwarmers I'm using right now are USB-A at 12 volts, but have a dial to adjust the voltage up and down between 0 volts and 12 volts to adjust the temperature (I think it's actually PWM on the 12v power lines, but haven't actuall…
That’s terrible . Why don’t they just use a barrel plug?
The only thing that is truly standard is the polarity of power on a USB-A plug.
Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter
#77I sent Lidl a courteous and long mail about this and they didn't really care other than "please open a service ticket with your local Lidl", which I didn't care to do since what would they do?
Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter
#789v or 12v over USB-A is reasonably common here in Asia... You always need to check the voltage rating before randomly plugging stuff in if it isn't from a big manufacturer. For example, the handwarmers I'm using right now are USB-A at 12 volts, but have a dial to adjust the voltage up and down between 0 volts and 12 volts to adjust the temperature (I think it's actually PWM on the 12v power lines, but haven't actuall…
Where in Asia? I lived in China from 2010 to 2019 and the only voltages I've seen on USB A ports is ~5V and ~4.2V. The latter on the charger for some rechargable bicycle lights.
Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter
#79My recent work experience leads me to believe CE approval is a rubber stamp. I don't have any clue what that certification is worth to anyone.
Firstly, CE is not a certification, it just means that the product is in compliance with legislation. It's something the companies need to verify themselves. That leads to the problem child which is China and its lacking morals. Chinese companies will just slap the CE on anything, because the EU say that must and Europeans seems to enjoy seeing it. Sometimes, they will slap on a different CE marking, meaning "China E…
Re: My cat water fountain comes with a spicy USB power adapter
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
From my experience appliances tolerate a wide range of voltages. The outlets in my house routinely deviate from the standard 230V, with the lowest I have seen at 170V and highest at about 260V. I have not had any appliance malfunction. Edit: I am not advising anyone to deliberately do stupid things, simply mentioning that from my experience the builtin margin is fairly large.
Are you measuring RMS voltage or just the instantaneous voltage? An RMS voltage of 230V corresponds with a peak voltage of ~325V so reading of 260V could theoretically happen.