Not a good sign for consumers

Each month, I receive a magazine called "In Compliance," and one of the regular features is a listing of electronics product recalls--usually about five or six, and heretofore, I got a bit of amusement out of how many of them (virtually all) of the defective products originate in China.  As you might guess, when one moves a factory halfway around the world, there must be a powerful motivation in terms of cost, and who knows what shortcuts might have been taken?

Thankfully, the number of recalls, and their scope, is not as great as you might guess, thankfully.

This month, I tried something new; I took a different look at the list; how many of the recalls were due to components being underrated for their task?  Answer; just as all six were made in China, all six appear to be due to the use of components and assemblies that were not rated to the power, heat, and pressure levels required for a safe product. 

Again, it's thankfully not a big issue, but it's sobering to see a 100% correlation with not subtle design issues, but rather basic specification of components, among what we do see.  I also am going to guess that under-specifying components may also explain my current habit of keeping the box from consumer electronics so that I can take it back when it fails.  Sad to say, it pays off.