New prohibited item for cruises?

[markeb]

29 minutes ago, bjahil47 said:

I bring an adapter to plug this in outlet.  I charge my iPad, iPhone and kindle on it.  Mine only has 3 extensions so I can’t do phone and iPad at same time.  Separate charger for watch.  

 
If you were charging an iPhone and iPad at the same time you’d be much better off with a 2-port or more adapter (USB C, not USB A) and separate cables for each device. If you read the specs, you have a maximum 3.0 A for all devices when using USB C and 2.4 for lightning or micro USB. That’s total. With 2 cables and an appropriate source you’d have 3.0 A for each cable. 
 

But, to your question, this is not what they’re prohibiting. You’re just trading performance for convenience. 

[markeb]

Curiosity got the better of me today. I couldn’t find any stats, but surprisingly a number of universities have banned multi outlet adapters and power strips. It seems to be for at least potential fire risks. Those were just the first search hits. Also interestingly many adapters, including a couple posted in this thread as “cruise ship approved” lack either UL or ETL certification. Actually most of the “cruise ship approved” devices weren’t listed with either the US or European agency. The cheap orange rubber 3-way, at least some of them, are UL listed. 
 

I suspect the market is flooded with cheap splitters and power strips that may or may not perform without overheating. And the risk managers and insurance companies have decided to ban them all rather than try to differentiate. And there are probably counterfeit UL/ETL marked devices out there as well. No, those aren’t perfect certifications, but they’re something. 
 

A million items on Amazon. Some are going to be bad…

[Charles4515]

29 minutes ago, markeb said:

Curiosity got the better of me today. I couldn’t find any stats, but surprisingly a number of universities have banned multi outlet adapters and power strips. It seems to be for at least potential fire risks. Those were just the first search hits. Also interestingly many adapters, including a couple posted in this thread as “cruise ship approved” lack either UL or ETL certification. Actually most of the “cruise ship approved” devices weren’t listed with either the US or European agency. The cheap orange rubber 3-way, at least some of them, are UL listed. 
 

I suspect the market is flooded with cheap splitters and power strips that may or may not perform without overheating. And the risk managers and insurance companies have decided to ban them all rather than try to differentiate. And there are probably counterfeit UL/ETL marked devices out there as well. No, those aren’t perfect certifications, but they’re something. 
 

A million items on Amazon. Some are going to be bad…

Cheap ones can cause fires. A common problem is that people daisy chain them to extend them. They plug one power strip into another power strip and they overheat and cause a fire. They should never be daisy chained. I have several power strips at home but they have both a circuit breaker and surge protection built in.