UL vs ETL or any other NRTL

lesmar96

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Does any one have experience dealing with Intertek and their ETL labeling? How does it compare to UL? Also is there any legal implications where UL would be allowed but ETL or any of the other NRTLs would not be satisfactory? Is ETL easier to deal with than UL?

There surely is someone who has checked this out before!
 
I have only dealt with UL but I would think that it will be up to what the local inspectors where the installation is that will determine what is acceptable.

My feeling is that UL will be more generally accepted but I don't have any real data to back that up.
 
I've never heard of ETL.

I think a lot of requirements tie back to insurance and inspectors. They are used to seeing one thing (UL), and so if you do something different from expectations that's more likely to be a hassle.
 
I've never heard of ETL.

I think a lot of requirements tie back to insurance and inspectors. They are used to seeing one thing (UL), and so if you do something different from expectations that's more likely to be a hassle.


Edison Testing Laboratories, their symbol is pretty recognizable to me on cheaper items. I've heard that their standards are a little less strict and they work faster than Underwriters Laboratories, so apparently they're a bit cheaper. I heard this online, so take that with a grain of salt.
 
I've heard that their standards are a little less strict.

Unless the rules have changed recently.
per nec 70, all items used for the electrical industry must be ul approved for sale.

james.

Of course, I am here to learn, but did you read the link I posted above?

They test to the exact same UL508A standard that Underwriters Laboratories does. Also it states they are in conformance with all NEC codes and there is no way an AHJ can refuse the ETL mark.

I was at a seminar the other day where they were explaining this program and I think it makes a lot of sense.
 
The NEC does not specify UL specifically. It mentions things being “listed” and then defines what that means elsewhere but without naming names other than in “reference notes”. Individual states then adopt the NEC and many of them add amendments as to what is an acceptable listing agency. Most now use a list maintained by OSHA for what are collectively called “NRTLs” for Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories. UL is just the most well known and respected of the NRTLs and are the ones who actually develop the standards to which the others just test to. So out of convenience, everyone refers to the UL standard numbers since that is where it all originated, regardless of who actually applies the label. Here is a link to that list.
https://www.osha.gov/dts/otpca/nrtl/nrtllist.html

ETL (originally called Electrical Testing Labs) had a bad reputation for a while about being “lax” on the UL standards, especially their equivalent to UL508A for panel builders, and suffered for it in the market as many large companies started refusing to accept it despite State rules saying it was allowable. I was at Boeing at the time and after some spectacular issues with local panel shops using ETL instead of UL, we banned it. As I heard it years later Intertek was a competing but lesser known lab that bought ETL for their more well known ETL label, but declared when they did that the label no longer means Electrical Testing Labs. Since the takeover by Intertek I have not heard anything negative about them.
 
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ETL (originally called Electrical Testing Labs) had a bad reputation for a while about being “lax” on the UL standards, especially their equivalent to UL508A for panel builders, and suffered for it in the market as many large companies started refusing to accept it despite State rules saying it was allowable. I was at Boeing at the time and after some spectacular issues with local panel shops using ETL instead of UL, we banned it. As I heard it years later Intertek was a competing but lesser known lab that bought ETL for their more well known ETL label, but declared when they did that the label no longer means Electrical Testing Labs. Since the takeover by Intertek I have not heard anything negative about them.


This is along the lines of what I'd heard/read online, I was under the impression that Intertek was separate, but this makes more sense.
 

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