The Usual Warnings
Turning the unit over reveals the usual indoors-only, dry location, 10m of in-wall wiring from the breaker box and daisy-chaining warnings. French-speakers again appear exempt from everything except dry locations. Surprisingly enough, the unit is only rated for 12A instead of the usual 15A; this is not mentioned in the packaging's specifications area.
The second warning blob mentions that the isobar might not be suitable for use under certain circumstances. I do not remember seeing this on any of the products we've dismantled in the past (or their documentation).
The Other End
Aside from a cable entry point, there is not much to see here other than a fifth oddly placed screw. More curiously, that extra screw happens to be one of those non-reversible flat-heads. What does it actually do? Time to start digging in.
Short-Lived Mystery
Four screws later, the mystery is solved. That extra screw is merely a ground connection. Looks like Tripp-Lite did not want anyone loosening the ground screw without meaning to. This may seem redundant next to the quadruple grounding through the outlets' center screws, but safety rules require a non-structural ground attachment since outlet screws may loosen over time from normal use.
Slip-Sliding Along
With either end cap removed, the rear cover effortlessly slides out of its housing track.
Cover Up
A thin piece of what appears to be heat-shielding material is stuck on the rear cover over the PCB's area, further reducing the amount of thermal exposure for whatever lies behind in case of a contained fire.
Surprise!
When I first received the retail box and saw the PCB image on the back, I thought it might spoil the tear-down surprise if they happened to match. So, I secretly hoped they wouldn't.
With the rear cover out of the way, we have a glimpse of the internals. If you remember back to the packaging's PCB image, you may notice that the PCB shape and layout are completely different.
House Of Spades
All except one connection between the PCB, the power cord and breaker switch use spade terminals. The ground wire gets crimped to another piece of wire, which is in turn soldered to the PCB.
Crimped Space
When you thread wires using crimp connections, you want all of the strands inside for best performance and also to ensure the tightest possible crimp. From the looks of it, the wires got rammed straight inside and a handful of their strands crumpled during insertion. This isn't ideal, but it's good enough to earn a “QC pass” sticker from automated testing.
Diagnostic
The Protection Present, Fault and Line OK Diagnostic functions announced on the housing's silk-screen are provided by this small PCB made from the main PCB's cut-out, which is a great way of reducing waste and manufacturing costs.
Hot Snot
What do you do when your snap-in panel mount breaker is rattling slightly? You gunk it up. While duct tape often gets credit for holding the universe together, I believe hot glue deserves an honorable mention.
In case you were wondering, this is an Approach SS-001 12A/125V snap-in breaker. The oddly shaped plastic piece on the left is the LED holder for the status indicator PCB.
