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What's your list of banned brands? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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What brands do you avoid at all cost? I don't keep up with the news all that much, and many of the reasons to avoid something don't make it there anyway. So I'm asking here to make a big list of things to avoid. It could be anything from bad security practices to really frustrating packaging. Working as a cashier myself, I definitely know there are plenty of brands I avoid purely on the basis that their product is a pain to stock.

On the flip side, what's the alternative? If you avoid Pepsi, for example, what do you turn to instead?

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Any brands that make devices that plug into mains power that aren't UL or ETL certified. I've seen way too many cases where people buy generic smart switches with no certification and they trip the circuit breaker or catch fire due to poor quality construction. Certification isn't perfect, but it's way better than products not being certified.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I don't think I've ever checked, but I can get behind that. I'd rather not die because a company decided to cut corners.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The awesome thing is that those marks can be counterfeit and you only know by looking up the number.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Oh yeah, that's the other thing I forgot to mention. Make sure the mark is legit.

In general, branded products that are an actual brand (not some Amazon special) and have good reviews should be okay.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

As a Britbong, I'm always proud of not only BS1363 and the safety it has brung us over the years but the fact that I know that number off the top of my head.

I usually have a goldfish memory for things like that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I assume you mean the fused plugs thing?
In Aus we dont have those but we do have mandated all lighting & GPO circuits to be on RCD/RCBOs so thats reassuring. (Unless you have an old house that is grandfathered in and no works have been done requiring the replacement or upgrade of your switchboard since the laws came in)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Yeah, we've got something I recall being called the P-laws or something brought in, meaning all new sockets need to be a certain height above floor level.

I've seen many rented houses here that still have them on the floor since older builds ain't required to rectify them. Scary if you see all the recent flooding we've been having in some parts of the country :/

But those three pin / fused BS 1363 whilst been one of the safest sockets you can get, I can confirm they're an absolute bastard if you stand on one.