Listing Requirement for Cord and Plug Connected Equipment or Appliances?

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al

Senior Member
Location
Minnesota
Question: Is there any State, Federal, or NEC requirements that cord and plug connected equipment or appliances sold in the US are required to have a NRTL listing?
 

Dennis Alwon

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Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
In most cases the equipment must be listed but the authority having jurisdiction has the authority to accept a piece of equipment that he/she deems safe etc. 110.3
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
Question: Is there any State, Federal, or NEC requirements that cord and plug connected equipment or appliances sold in the US are required to have a NRTL listing?
generally not, and since they are not usually part of an installation, they are not usually covered by the NEC. however, there are at least a few appliances that the NEC requires be listed. the NEC only requires things to be listed that it specifically requires to be listed.

OSHA has some often violated requirements that equipment available as listed has to be listed, but it only applies to OSHA situations.

In any case, none of these restrictions prohibit the sale of unlisted anything. There are some cases where an unlisted appliance can't be used, but AFAIK, there are no cases where they are prohibited from being sold solely on the basis of lacking a listing.
 

Dennis Alwon

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Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
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Retired Electrical Contractor
generally not, and since they are not usually part of an installation, they are not usually covered by the NEC. however, there are at least a few appliances that the NEC requires be listed. the NEC only requires things to be listed that it specifically requires to be listed.

OSHA has some often violated requirements that equipment available as listed has to be listed, but it only applies to OSHA situations.

In any case, none of these restrictions prohibit the sale of unlisted anything. There are some cases where an unlisted appliance can't be used, but AFAIK, there are no cases where they are prohibited from being sold solely on the basis of lacking a listing.


Yes this is true. I ignored the cord and plug part somehow. I don't believe the NEC would cover that piece of equipment.
 

GoldDigger

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Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
The grid tie inverters made in China for plug connection to ordinary branch circuits are a good example of the lack of either such a law or enforcement.
The units are not only not NRTL listed, they simply cannot be installed in an NEC compliant way. Yet you can buy them online from a wide range of suppliers.
I guess that CPSC has not gotten around to them yet.
PS: In addition to not being legal, the units do not meet their own specs and tend to catch fire all too often.
 

mgookin

Senior Member
Location
Fort Myers, FL
Question: Is there any State, Federal, or NEC requirements that cord and plug connected equipment or appliances sold in the US are required to have a NRTL listing?

If your question were slightly reworded to ask

"Is there any State, Federal, or NEC requirements that all cord and plug connected equipment and appliances sold in the US are required to have a NRTL listing?"

The answer would be no.

There are some cases where some equipment and/or appliances are required to be NRTL Listed.

If you tell us why you ask, we may be able to provide a more suitable answer.
 

al

Senior Member
Location
Minnesota
Listing

Listing

If your question were slightly reworded to ask

"Is there any State, Federal, or NEC requirements that all cord and plug connected equipment and appliances sold in the US are required to have a NRTL listing?"

The answer would be no.

There are some cases where some equipment and/or appliances are required to be NRTL Listed.

If you tell us why you ask, we may be able to provide a more suitable answer.

"There are some cases where some equipment and/or appliances are required to be NRTL Listed."

What would these cases be and who is specifying the requirement?
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
is there any requirement anywhere that says you can't SELL something just because it is not NRTL listed?

you may not be able to use it in a code compliant way, but that does not mean it cannot be sold.
 

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
is there any requirement anywhere that says you can't SELL something just because it is not NRTL listed?

you may not be able to use it in a code compliant way, but that does not mean it cannot be sold.
The closest thing I can think of, in terms of regulatory authority, would be CPSC. If they chose to set a standard for a particular product they could choose to adopt an applicable UL standard.
The CPSC has the power to ban import or sale of non compliant products.
 
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