UL Numbers From Underwriters Laboratories
"Underwriters Laboratories, an independent firm working with product safety certification, has been active in the field of product testing and preparation of safety standards for more than a century. UL evaluates more than 19 000 types of products, components, materials and systems annually. Every year more than 20 billion UL marks are placed on products from 66 000 different manufacturers. The UL Group and its network of service providers include 68 testing and certification labs worldwide, serving customers in 102 countries."--From the About UL page at ul.com
Essentially, this means that all PSUs sold on the North American market must be marked with a UL number. This number should identify the actual manufacturer of a product. However, not every PSU has such a number. UL number omission on a North American product might indicate poor quality.
Step 1: Reading the UL Number
To find the UL number, there's no need to open your PSU or de-solder anything. Simply open your PC and look at the power supply's label. The UL number usually begins with an "E" followed by a string of numbers. See the three examples below.



If your PSU has such a number, you can move onto the next step, finding out what it means.
Online UL Number Query

Now let's find out more about your PSU. Go to the UL Online Certifications Directory and enter the UL number in the UL File Number field. If the number exists in the database, you should immediately see the result. If not, the number is invalid, fake, or the manufacturer no longer exists.
Link: Online Certifications Directory
We want to stress two things in particular:
A PSU is not necessarily bad because it is cheap. But the lower the price, the more you'll likely have to skimp on safety and performance features. A high-quality PSU contains more expensive components. If you buy cheap, you might have to buy twice--or more.
A PSU is not automatically inferior because it was made by a contractor with which you aren't familiar. These companies make all kinds of products, from luxury brands to pure garbage. Again, it's a question of hitting different production targets. Is the product built for quality or aggressive cost reduction? The responsibility always lies with the buyer to recognize and reject products that are obviously unsuitable.
Some quality issues, such as those seen with Be Quiet's P6 series, present an additional aspect to consider, while we can also see that companies like Super Flower are often underestimated because they are not as seen and accepted as the large manufacturer, which in fact they are.
We thank our readers again for their help. We will continue to collect new results and regularly update the lists. They are, after all, a rough guide to what goes on behind the scenes in the power supply industry.
Thanks again!
With the caveots given about brands and quality - would it be unreasonable to suggest staying with a brand that manufactures it's own PSUs? I am refering to the FSPs, SeaSonics and Zippys on the list. I have had FSP and have heard very glowing praise about the other two brands.
Also does the quality of their products meet or exceed the brands that are subcontracted to them - OR do some of the designs from other brands that use these three companies exceed even those of the three mentioned brands? For example - is there a case where say 'Named Brand Company' design as manufactured by FSP exceeds the quality of any FSP branded PSU?
With the caveots given about brands and quality - would it be unreasonable to suggest staying with a brand that manufactures it's own PSUs? I am refering to the FSPs, SeaSonics and Zippys on the list. I have had FSP and have heard very glowing praise about the other two brands.
Also does the quality of their products meet or exceed the brands that are subcontracted to them - OR do some of the designs from other brands that use these three companies exceed even those of the three mentioned brands? For example - is there a case where say 'Named Brand Company' design as manufactured by FSP exceeds the quality of any FSP branded PSU?
I understand almost everything is made there, but Western companies understand Western standards of quality.
The whole Chinese business model is based on manufacturing crap and making it hard to return.
I almost put off my younger brother's build because I had to get a ThermalTake PSU, but he didn't have enough money to get a different one, so I figured I'd get the warranty and hope for the best.
Western is the only thing worth buying because Chinese means Chinese quality, and that's an oxymoron.
I understand almost everything is made there, but Western companies understand Western standards of quality.
The whole Chinese business model is based on manufacturing crap and making it hard to return.
I almost put off my younger brother's build because I had to get a ThermalTake PSU, but he didn't have enough money to get a different one, so I figured I'd get the warranty and hope for the best.
Western is the only thing worth buying because Chinese means Chinese quality, and that's an oxymoron.
What about the norm of a Western company selling Chinese made goods though? Surely, if the 'Western companies understand Western standards of quality', as you say, they wouldn't dream of selling something that doesn't live up to their Western standards, right?
While your rule may sound like a sensible one in theory, you really need to keep in mind that manufacturing in China these days (like most other places) is based around building to a cost. If that cost, specified by the buyer (the company who will sell the product to the consumer), is realistically too low for what they want, they're going to get a low quality product. On the other hand, if the buyer specifies certain quality factors they want, and costs the product realistically, the product manufactured for them can be of very high quality.
So while it's easy to write off everything manufactured in China as being junk, that's really not fair. Items manufactured there do vary massively in quality, and that quality is signed off on by the company (western or not) that then sells the product, so they're just as culpable for any quality issues as the manufacturer.
At its simplest, I guess you could say it all comes down to that oft said cliche: you get what you pay for.
Missing Superflower as the EVGA SUPERNOVA G2 OEM.
I understand almost everything is made there, but Western companies understand Western standards of quality.
The whole Chinese business model is based on manufacturing crap and making it hard to return.
I almost put off my younger brother's build because I had to get a ThermalTake PSU, but he didn't have enough money to get a different one, so I figured I'd get the warranty and hope for the best.
Western is the only thing worth buying because Chinese means Chinese quality, and that's an oxymoron.
What about the norm of a Western company selling Chinese made goods though? Surely, if the 'Western companies understand Western standards of quality', as you say, they wouldn't dream of selling something that doesn't live up to their Western standards, right?
While your rule may sound like a sensible one in theory, you really need to keep in mind that manufacturing in China these days (like most other places) is based around building to a cost. If that cost, specified by the buyer (the company who will sell the product to the consumer), is realistically too low for what they want, they're going to get a low quality product. On the other hand, if the buyer specifies certain quality factors they want, and costs the product realistically, the product manufactured for them can be of very high quality.
So while it's easy to write off everything manufactured in China as being junk, that's really not fair. Items manufactured there do vary massively in quality, and that quality is signed off on by the company (western or not) that then sells the product, so they're just as culpable for any quality issues as the manufacturer.
At its simplest, I guess you could say it all comes down to that oft said cliche: you get what you pay for.
The difference is that Western companies understand the end goal is something that's in good enough condition to run and not to ship broken crap that is cheap beyond a reasonable standard and make it hard to return. You won't catch them selling crap simply to make a quick buck like the Chinese do.
Western companies have a sense of honesty and duty to the customer; the Chinese companies not only understand, but they also happily exploit caveat emptor.
Western companies also have far better R&D and specs, so it makes sense the end product would be better than a Chinese-created and manufactured one. There's a very simple reason that Chinese made items are of such poor quality. It's a business strategy there.
Do you think a Western company could survive by being cheats?
the one I got saved is from 2010
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/psu-manufacturer-oem,2729-5.html