What the Travel Adaptor Safety Failures Mean for Power Supply Testing and Certification
An investigation by the consumer safety charity Electrical Safety First has found that every travel adaptor it tested from major online marketplaces failed basic safety requirements. All 15 units bought from TikTok Shop, Amazon Marketplace, eBay and AliExpress failed when assessed against UK safety standards.
In brief
- All 15 travel adaptors tested by Electrical Safety First failed UK safety requirements.
- Faults included exposed live pins, missing fuses, no safety shutters, oversized pin holes and failed fire resistance tests.
- Electrical Safety First estimates over 10,000 unsafe units have already reached UK consumers.
- The same sourcing risk (unverified suppliers, untested components, certification that doesn’t match the product) applies to power supplies used inside manufactured products, not just consumer accessories.
- Every product supplied by Ideal Power is backed by relevant testing and certification.
What the investigation found
The faults were not minor. Several adaptors exposed more than one live pin at once, creating a real risk of electric shock at up to 240 volts. Others had no safety shutters over live internal parts, no fuses to reduce fire risk, oversized pin holes that allowed contact with live components, and missing earth connections on three-pin models. Some failed fire resistance testing outright. One product marketed as “electric shock proof” had no shutters fitted at all. Another carried a surge protection claim with no surge protector inside it.
One design alone had reportedly sold more than 50,000 units worldwide before testing began. Electrical Safety First estimates over 10,000 unsafe units have already reached UK consumers. Product safety engineer Giuseppe Capanna described some of the adaptors as “not just illegal” but “potentially lethal”, adding that exposed live pins mean “it only takes one accidental touch to cause electric shock, or even death.”
At first glance, this looks like a consumer safety issue. In reality, it highlights a wider sourcing risk for manufacturers. The same issue affects businesses specifying power supplies for their own products.
The same sourcing risks affect power supplies
Cost pressure, short lead times and the ease of sourcing online do not stop at consumer goods. The same forces sit behind decisions engineering and procurement teams make about the power supplies, converters and custom power solutions built into their own products. An unverified supplier, an untested unit, or a certificate that was never actually issued for the exact product on the shelf can lead to field failures, product recalls, warranty claims and, in the worst cases, injury or fire.
A business specifying a power supply for a medical device, an industrial control panel or a piece of test equipment cannot afford that same gap between what a supplier claims and what a product can actually do. A non-compliant power supply built into a finished product becomes the manufacturer’s problem, not the component supplier, once it reaches a customer.
What proper power supply testing and certification looks like in practice
At Ideal Power, every product we supply is backed by testing and certification relevant to its application. We can provide the product-specific test reports and certification for the product supplied, including UKCA, CE, IEC/EN 62368-1 and EMC compliance relevant to its application.
This applies whether the product is an AC/DC power supply, DC/DC converter or a custom-built solution designed around a specific requirement. We can provide the relevant test reports and certification for the specific model supplied, matched to the specific model and revision, not just a claim on a datasheet.
For custom and application-specific power supplies, we work through compliance requirements at the design stage rather than treating them as a final check before shipment. That includes safety standards relevant to the target market, EMC requirements, and any sector-specific rules for medical, rail, industrial or other regulated applications. Getting this right early avoids the redesign, delay and cost of discovering a compliance problem after a product has gone into production.
A question worth asking your PSU supplier
The travel adaptor investigation is a useful prompt to ask a plain question of any power supply source: can they show you the test reports and certification for the specific product you are buying, not a general claim about the range. If the answer is vague, or the certification does not match the exact model and revision in front of you, treat that as a risk rather than a technicality.
Three questions to ask before specifying a power supply:
Use these as a quick check before any power supply goes into a bill of materials:
- Has this exact model been tested and certified?
- Can the supplier provide the test reports?
- Do the approvals match my application?
Need help specifying a power supply?
Ideal Power has supported engineers across a wide range of projects, helping them source tested, certified and compliant power supply units that meet their technical requirements.
Andy Fallon from EMC testing facility KBO Dynamics International Ltd shared his experience of working with Ideal Power:
“As part of our work, we test power supply products on a weekly basis. We regularly recommend Ideal Power to our customers due to the quality of its products, supporting safety certification and compliance with relevant standards.”
Andy Fallon, KBO Dynamics International Ltd
We can review your application and specification, recommend suitable power supply solutions, and provide the relevant test reports and certification for the products we supply. If you’re planning a current or future design, get in touch to discuss your requirements with our team.
Source: Electrical Safety First, Holidays from hell: thousands of dangerous travel adaptors sold online, July 2026.
