Shelly devices. UL vs Non UL

How does Shelly ship the same device, one UL certified and the other not? Does that mean that exact device I am getting was physically tested?


Perhaps not all countries require UL certification. Personally I would choose the certified ones. You know they should be electrically safe.

Take it from a person who has had a house fire, buy the UL listed one.

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UL is an American thing. It doesn’t apply in other countries, which have different certifications. There can be technical differences too, 230V countries usually require stricter insulation and larger gaps on the PCB than 120V countries. Certification also costs money. Why would a European customer pay for US certification or vice versa.

Get the one with the certification that corresponds to your country.

I believe Canada requires either UL or CSA certification, so it is not just the US.

You don’t believe any single item is certified, do you?
what I know about it is (from Shelly’d CEO) shelly devices got certification but quality wise they are all the same since they come from the same production line.
Shelly sells it as 2 versions but physically they don’t differ

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What do you think they do with items that do not pass the certification test? I spent some time in Canada repairing devices that failed their CSA high voltage test on the production line. They were then tested after the repair & sold. Shelly could easily just sell then as functional but uncertified and save some money.

So if I purchase a device that is UL certified. That specific device, the one that shows up to my house, has been tested?

And if it failed, it got sent to you?

I know in Canada we did a CSA high voltage test on every device so I would say, yes.

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You insisting each item is tested separatelly. I say it’s not. selected batches are. Since then all items could be sold as certified, but Shelly don’t do that to make them even more affordable .

I am not insisting they do. I am asking a question. Thats how I learn, is by asking questions.

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OK then I’m sorry I understood your question wrong way. just to make it clear: there is single production line and technically speaking all devices are UL certified. but only some of them are sold with UL label just for those of us who really need it. this is what the CEO said.

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Of course not. They may end up on Aliexpress instead :yum:

Typically certification is not per device (with some specific exceptions), but for a design. And UL isn’t the only certification on the planet. Shelly is a Bulgarian company. In order to sell their stuff in EU (which Bulgaria is a part of), they need EU certification. Which all their products have. Shelly then decided to expand into the US market, so they had to legally apply for UL certification. They might have had to adapt the design (or maybe not, someone needs to make a comparative teardown) to be in line with local code. But that doesn’t mean that non-UL devices from Shelly are less safe. It’s an administrative / legal thing. But it’s still important, especially for insurance claims.

None of that above applies to Chinese manufacturers though, like Sonoff. Their non-certified devices are downright dangerous. And their ‘certified’ too, because more often than not their certifications are fake.

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