Would be even funnier if both leads of the LED were also be connected to the same rail like the cap, but I guess they had to make the LED work, so that people think the device is doing something
I once worked for a company that imported CCTV cameras from China. We requested that they increase the camera resolution from 480 lines to 540 lines. We were amazed to see the new cameras turn up a week later. Amazing! All they had done was alter the specifications in the paperwork, not the actual camera. Can’t say I was that surprised actually!
@@Nicholas-f5 if you live in China you'll quickly learn to treat manufacturers' and sellers' claims as if a homeless guy just randomly ran up to you and told you the same thing
@monsieurtechnical it's not something that eBay can easily control - especially since many of these things are being sold from China where such things aren't necessarily illegal.
@monsieurtechnical Well if you report the seller to eBay their account will be removed pretty sharpish. But it’s easy enough to just make a new account and get straight back to it. Unfortunately, if we want it to be easy and convenient for genuine sellers to get set up, it’s inevitable that others will abuse it; the only real way to stop this is to put considerable barriers in place, like requiring proof of ID from all sellers. Similarly, if we insist on paying rock bottom prices, there are people that will be willing to skimp on safety/quality to meet that price point.
@@PJBonoVox only in industry, not in residential. A real unit built for industrial use will have a number of capacitors that can automatically be switched in or out to appropriately compensate for the inductive loads
@@PJBonoVox Just putting a capacitor across an inductive load can improve the power factor, which reduces the reactive component. BUT, most household electricity meters only measure real power so you won't reduce your power bill at all even with a 'correct' power 'save devicer'. (Look up POWER FACTOR). The only party that directly benefits from an improved power factor is the power company, coz they can use cheaper (smaller) distribution cables, transformers etc. Of course the consumer ends up paying for the infrastructure in the long term anyway.. .
My Dad just fell for this scam. The one he got he told me cost 170 canadian bucks. I tried to explain to him that he got scammed and it almost started an argument. This is were I think that I must have been adopted.
Don't get me goin on THAT! back in the day a set of door chimes had a REAL nice sound, now it is just a chunk of plastic with a circuit board an wussy-assed speaker, no magnet-wire wound solenoids with plungers and a nice set of pipes.
Both cap leads soldered to the same trace. LOL, I'm not surprised. This gadget reminds me of the "Green Plug" that was sold in the USA back in the 90's, they were great a burning up appliances.
Not sure as it's the same one as I have. My refrigerator is plugged into one and it's working fine. When I installed it, I did see a power savings. Not sure if I'm still getting that or not.
@@Tsiikki You might check your numbers. They seem way low. Besides, I was talking about a device from the 90's, long before Energy Star came to be. It worked then, but I doubt if it would work now as the new units have been optimized for savings.
These things keep getting weirder and weirder. I fully expect the next iteration to accidentally generate power out of nothing and put it into the mains, actually saving you money.
Ooh, that's a great idea! It should come with a hand crank attached to a wheel which makes a pleasant whirring noise. It needn't contain any other components at all.
@@carnbyarst670 i dunno. mine keeps my phone charged and pc running for a few hours each day. and its only little. (real con is theyve invented >95% efficiency panels at least 3x in the last 15years that ive noticed. that tech for some reason never reaches the public. (first i saw years ago a chinese guy grew nano trees out of crystals allowing it to capture all wavelengths at something like 97% efficiency.) could have saved the planet. wont see that in costco anytime soon. (also check nasa's innovation competition winners. one of em was a fisherman who wrapped solar film with a bioluminescent material and wrapped it up into a cylinder. it could run for 10years without running out. he was granted 50k as a prize by nasa but they got rights to the tech. gotta get on the science websites and download these things as they tend to disapear from the news fairly fast.
@@luminousfractal420 I had 12 solar panels installed on my roof at great expense. I saw little savings. Worked out it would take 50 years to get my money back...
That sounds like the hand cranked LED dynamo torch I bought years ago. Had three button cells concealed in the head of the torch. The feature list on the box included "Good for hand pressing brain function."
Clive you have the most whimsical way of describing a product that brings laughter, love and hate in the same breath. Don't ever change Brother. Don't ever change. And Happy Valentine's :)
Excellent presentation. These so called "power saving" devices have been around for Decades and every single one of them has been a huge scam. (In some cases those things have actually caught fire and caused property damage)
Not far off from having an FPE brand service entrance equipment, and if u do and use these scammish power savers and they go KaPUT, ur house will probably go with it as FPE is lonng known for bad stab-lock breakers, If they work once ur freakin lucky.
since it does absolutely nothing by being manufactured in an inert state, it is in practice, the _most_ efficient "power saving" device available since it results in less loss of power than one that is correctly assembled!!
So this mystery product saves power, repels rodents, and acts as a night light, depending on the sticker placed on the front? And acts as an air ionizer? “How rude!”
Nobody: Will it fit in my Honda? Hold my beer Am I a joke to you? Asking for a friend Everybody gangsta End this man’s whole career He protecc, he attacc … Sexual/genitalia innuendo Scatological/potty joke Question of quantity answered yes Plot twist Left/entered the chat Gaming reference Dislikes are from I’m a simple man Not gonna lie Last time I was this early Legend has it That’ll buff right out Fun fact (X) be like (X) intensifies (X) wants to know your location Ha ha (X) go brrrrr POV: (X) YT algorithm counting down years Who’s watching in current year? You Tube recommendations So you've chosen death? Understandable, have a great day Punch line below read more
Your investigative videos into fake products are so interesting with great circuit analysis. I actually learn a tremendous amount about circuit design and various component characteristics in a circuit. Although I am in the US, there is normally a 120V counterpart available, and your videos have helped me keep family members from making silly mistakes. This is a useful educational service.....GREAT JOB!
"It's a bit like adding salt to soup without tasting it..." Exactly! Why'd ya bother eating out (spending money) unless ya value your money (or your general health) so little that you'll add salt before assuming the money ya spent was well-spent?! It's really insane.
So pointless earth sleeving, pointless fuse, pointless capacitor, pointless LED light, pointless vents, pointless Earth pin (because its not long enough). Everything about it is pointless, no wonder the design is so sleek.
I don't think the earth pin was wide enough either--it's supposed to be bigger in all dimensions than the other two pins, but it looks like they just put a third regular pin on the package here.
I remember reading a friend's Japanese motorcycle owner's manual, in the days when electronic ignition was novel "This motorcycle has electronic ignition, so is completely pointless"
Well it's only using a fraction of a percent of the power it's going to _save_ them. People may also figure that you can light a LED up with a 1.5v battery, so that's tiny compared to the 230-240v supply.
@@mystcat3 People irrationally think the unit it's going to save them a significant amount of money off their electricity bill. The tiny amount of power used by the LED in providing them the confidence that it's working is a welcome trade-off in their mind (if they even think about that).
@@Thermalions Well, we need to appreciate the sellers, they were intelligent enough to make people believe them, they're marketing genious! (Or people is very very dumb)
Best quote, "Its seems a quality case.... It's just full of crap!" lol How these people get away with selling such blatant 'snake oil' is beyond me. Another great tear-down video.
That little green lightguide looks like it could do with a Knightrider-style scrolling LED array, would make it more useful as a decorative item, but probably would be too much effort for a small thing... :P
hmm, thats an idea, i made a little knight rider thingy when i was about 11(37 years ago 😱) still got it,, might be able to squeeze it in one of those cases, ....
Oh, good grief. Scammers so dumb they're putting in the most expensive component and not even hooking it up. There's something kind of hilarious about that.
The closest thing to a saving grace this thing could get would be if the caps were faulty/bad batch. Could be another reason to keep it out of circuit.
I have no problem with native medicine, a lot of it is just stuff scientists haven't studied yet. But when you're taking strange herbs to balance your qi, it's hookum xD
@@cheyannei5983 While I agree with your response, I've thought a little more about my original comment, and wanted to add that we have branches of health treatments in the west which are also a bit suspect to me. Some people swear by chiropractic yet the underlying principles are off the wall, as are those of homeopathy. So it's not like accupuncture has a monopoly on 'woo woo'.
@@cheyannei5983 if you need to balance your qi .. you probably bought that wiress charger on wish.com and Clive will be taking it apart for us very soon.
Cheyanne I I have no doubt that some herbs have beneficial properties. What I object to is the use of rhino horn, tiger bones, pangolin scales and the like when not only is there no evidence they do anything, there is endless evidence that they do absolutely nothing. Hundreds of species are at risk of extinction purely because idiots think they have magical properties.
@@spencerwilton5831 Yeah that makes sense. In fact, a lot of our western medicine has roots in folk remedies: for example chewing on beaver tail was a painkiller because the tail glands contained aspirin from the willow trees that the beavers ate. Also, the fact that people are poaching animals to extinction for their shitty health scams just reminds me of the fact that people hunted narwhals and sold the horns by saying they were magical unicorn horns. I'm not kidding, that was an actual thing iirc. Either way it's gross.
Quality engineering there! I particularly like the earth pin being identical to phase and neutral - along with the obviously "intended for many purposes" case, and that 5 microfarad cap - entirely ornamental! :-)
I love how the death-dapter has skidmarks on it also that case could be used with a wireless doorbell system given it has holes which could be used for a speaker.
So basically, it's a device that was designed specifically to not explode when you plug it into a mains outlet... And they marketed it as a "power saver"
Clive is now reading our minds. While he was talking about the case I thought, hey you could probably build a nice little ionizer in that. And then Clive says it.
Very well done for exposing yet another scam. Unfortunately they have upped their marketing and are now advertising with 112,500 likes and 9,800 customer ratings, with more than 90% 5 Stars. This sort of thing should be stopped, as the venerable who do not understand fall victim to this scam. The venerable will pay £49.00 for the device (Was £100 but a 50% discount was applied). You deserve a medal Big Clive. My respect to you.
Nice looking night light, and you get an extra capacitor too. I'd pay $1 for it. Unfortunately, I've seen similar ones advertised for $14, which is a little steep.
So that's why, interesting. I have an RC tank in my possession, and had always been wondering why there were a bunch of hitherto unidentified chips soldered across the leads of its motors. Thank you for the gift of insight, Bigclive!
I once, to amuse my fellow workers, made up a comment about something or other, used Bablefish to convert it into Chinese, and used Bablefish to convert it back again. The result was hilarious 😂 😊
The best way to correct power factor in an industrial setting is to have a synchronous induction motor in the line. The DC rotating field in the AC stator locks in the sine wave when the motor is synchronized. I've rebuilt quite a few older ones ranging from 100HP to 8000HP. It's also how you convert AC to DC on an industrial scale. Line up DC generators on either side of a synchronous motor. When the synchronous motor synchronizes, the RPMs remain constant without slipping under load; which is required for consistent generation.
Oh yes, thank you, Clive. I now had to order such a thing, just because I fell in love with that little light arrangement in that beautiful case! But I will modify it to use a 110nF dropper and get rid of all the fake parts. 😁
"Wang Wei, what you doing?!" "I am preparing this order sir" "What does address say?" "It says Isle of Man" "What did I tell you about Isle of Man?" "No more send items. Very bad man lives there" "Very bad man who is very bad for business" "I send note we no ship there" "Very good Wang Wei. Very good."
When you read the reviews of these on Amazon all of the positive reviews are something along the lines of "easy to use but too soon to tell if it makes a difference"
"nano farts" really tickled me 😂. It blows my mind they put in a real capacitor. If they're going to not connect properly then why not leave it out? The sort of people buying this (other than us and Clive) won't know what they're looking at anyway. I know it won't cost much to put it in, but the pennies it saves could be more dodgy profit.
Yours is the BEST review of the few I’ve been watching due to an interest in the product. Thank you so much for being straight by using words such as “fake” and “crap” it tells me definitely not to buy it. You lost me there though because you got very technical. Thank you though for exposing the fakeness of this product! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
For those short on time, jump to 7:38 where the product is summarised succinctly in five seconds with "it seems a quality case, it's just full of crap". Thank you for doing the review.
I used to run basic electrical safety courses, and one of the modules was to identify faulty equipment in our "naughty box". We had to fake a few of the fails and the short earth pin was one of them.
I have been watching these videos for years and I love them. No idea at all what they mean but I feel like sheen tapping the rocket schematics "never argue with the data"
Speaking of synchronization, if part of our town losses main power and we fire up one of our generators we have a dial that we can sync our generators to the mains sinusoidal wave. Very cool to see in action. Another fine video. Cheers from supposed to snow tomorrow kansas.
@@Mr.Unacceptable so it's funny you say that, our powerplant super came in to work today (which he never does it's Saturday 😁) so he came in to check fuel and figure how long we could run on what we have. All this because of a natural gas shortage. So we might just fire up our system. Our oldest Gen is 1947 our newest is 1992. So maybe I might just get to video it. Also our 2 oldest gens are 2 stroke 4 cylinder.
At last, a power saver that actually saves power. Because you can't plug it in, it can save up to £2.16 a year in electricity by not running. Brilliant!
So, let's say it cost a fiver to buy, so saving £2.16 per year it will take just over two years to pay for itself as long as you throw it directly in the bin when it arrives in the post. Perhaps Ebay could offer deals where you can save on the postage and they will throw it in the bin for you?
Almost the same as pay out £5000 on solar panels to save money . Try arguing with these companies that you won't save money until you get the £5000 back in saves energy costs.
@@doctorkdsify I was thinking calling it a "Cosmic Wellness Emitter" and asking for $400 but available at the special price for today only of $99.98 buy now to avoid disappointment. This device is taking the world by storm, remember Big Phama has tried to ban this remarkable new scientifically proven product. - Buy more than one and get a 0.5% discount .
@@John-ob7dh On average it takes 8 years to get your money back from solar panels and that's assuming you live in a reasonably sunny part of the world. You better hope the panels last at least 15 years (they become inefficient with age) or they could cost you money .
Hey Clive, maybe an idea if/when you have an oscilloscope and can show people. It'd be awesome to have a demonstration on what power factor and its correction is, maybe ditto a brief overview of an AC waveform for people who might be entirely new to sparky bits. You can explain complex things simply, which is a really good sign of someone who actually knows what they're talking about.
Got here after getting an ad pushed in my face, they said it can save you up to 90% of energy, but since I'm super smart I'm just gonna use a multiplug for one outlet, gonna put in maybe 10 of these magical devices for a start. I can then sell energy to my neighbors for cheap.. buy houses, buy more energy savers, at some point take over everything, give free power to anyone, everywhere and forever so we can finally live in harmony.
In industrial settings, I've usually seen the capacitors for power factor correction in a big bank outside of the factory, with the big scary looking ceramic insulators, etc.
IMO the capacitor is there for the weight just to make people think, wow we get some solid stuff for our money ;-) In case someone opens it, it looks better than a piece of rock hehehehe. But it lights up GREEN so it must be good for the environment (rolling eyes)
@@freedustin From what I've heard people still do it with external HDDs on occasion. If I go to Best Buy to buy a HDD I usually open it up near the customer service counter so they can see I'm not pulling my own scam. I haven't gone as far as bringing a laptop and plugging it in, but I haven't been burned yet. Be sure to use a credit card for extra protection, too.
Another You-Tuber disassembled an exact or very similar device. He cut the Black Block Thingy and underneath the black epoxy there was. . . . . Sand! Yes, pure white sand. Nothing more to it. Then because his video was posted on April 1st - He showed how to modify the scammy box to really save power. He twisted the incoming mains wires together, plugged it into an outlet. Instant power saving on that circuit!
As always I have gone straight to your channel, Clive, for your expert breakdown of advertised ‘marvels’! The one I saw was called the ElectraSavvy but I’m assuming it is yet another scam.
Well as a thought, they could just dump a bunch of junk e-waste electronic components they couldn't throw in a dumpster, put them in a case that lights up green and sell them for a profit... wait... 😲 That's a brilliant idea!
Ok, so here's an idea to optimize this device. Big brain time. (Copyright don't steal.) 1) make a fake 5 μF cap that's actually 220 nanofarts or so. 2) use this cap as the dropper cap for the LED. 3) ??? 4) PROFIT!!!
If it's to good to be true then that's exactly what it is. Only huge companies need them anyway the average home doesn't even use what it's trying to fix. You will be better off using static collected from the atmosphere by a huge copper ball in a tree 😜
It's weird, because it kinda applies in domestic too, at least here where I live... for example i have some old fans that run on 220v, one is mounted in the bathroom and one in the kitchen / balcony, they didn't have these x2 caps, so whenever I switched them off it would make inductance and close off my radios etc... after I put some x2 caps in the circuit everything is working smooth now :)
I have yet to learn how people think. What is the logic or argument that convinces them, that plugging something into their outlet will save them power?!?! As soon as you see vents, that means things get warm, warm=wasted energy...boggles my mind. This thing is definitely the weirdest of the magic snake oils.
@@janosnagyj.9540 If you look carefully at 9:40 you can just make out 5 uF written on the side of the capacitor. You've got to be really quick to catch it, and it seems to depend on the angle of the light falling on it.
Every household plug should come with a built-in 10 micro Farad cap, because almost ALL heavy loads in the house are inductive, like cloth washer/dryer, dishwasher, fridge, vacuum cleaner, central heat,A/C, fans, etc. A cap has no parasitic consumption and would do an adequate job of power factor correction.
Usually in residential settings the power company already does power factor correction for the whole neighborhood, at the substation level. Also this is becoming less necessary, because switching supplies (like in computers and most modern electronics) are capacitive and cancel out some of the inductance.
"So you don't get a zap off the pins" I can confirm it hurts when that happens. Our waste water pump gave me a good old belt from the pins when it stopped working last week. It had been unplugged for a few minutes but silly me failed to realise such a device has a capacitor in it. Grabbing the plug to check the fuse within successfully discharged it. Into me. Ouch.
Clive I have purchased one of the things in Australia. When I pulled it apart it only had a capacitor across the mains. It was called as you have Power Saver.
This could be huge if available in 3 phase models, just think of the power savings in industry! And for utilities, a 240KV 3 phase version on the HV lines could "save power" for the whole city. It might not need any more "magick pixie dust" than the household version, to achieve the same effects.... This reminds me of the only other one terminal device I have encountered in 50 years as a EE, the WOM (Write Only Memory.) They require no power, occupy no space, produce no heat or EMI, and offer infinite capacity. AKA a "bit bucket." Well done, Mattias!
@@fayewren5865 I bet you will be in the Fortune 500 before the end of the year, due to all the power you have saved. Rumor has it that one of these things has the same power output as the average nuclear power plant. ;-)
This case can be also used for radio doorbell. Those devices are usually connected directly to power socket without any cable. And those perforations are perfect for speaker. But if it was radio doorbell it should have cutout for pins allowing to set individual key at least it used to be like that before apps for every device became popular.
It’s a relief to see that the cap is not connected as it has no markings what so ever. You can use the box in the case you have double insulated device where you don’t need the PE.
I'm infinitely boggled at how much effort they put into faking this. They could probably stop with the metal pins on the back, fill it with sand (because heavy stuff works better!) and send them like that. Put a reflective dot decal where the LED goes...
It saves power by blocking an outlet that could otherwise be useful.
Man, that is the idea and practical use of a condom 👍
If you can get it in! 😆
@@luderickwong but a condom blocks billions of dirty worms, that's the only difference
Think that's what they all do lol
@@xB-fx2iuvs blocking billions of electrons
Everyone knows green light is all you need to be eco friendly. 💚
Blue*
@@HighestRank Red*
*yellow (I’m just joining in).
Would be even funnier if both leads of the LED were also be connected to the same rail like the cap, but I guess they had to make the LED work, so that people think the device is doing something
@@contrarian8870 What if they made the LED *blink*
I once worked for a company that imported CCTV cameras from China. We requested that they increase the camera resolution from 480 lines to 540 lines. We were amazed to see the new cameras turn up a week later. Amazing! All they had done was alter the specifications in the paperwork, not the actual camera. Can’t say I was that surprised actually!
Thir culture may reward corruption or they're that poor.
@Matt Quinn Yeh.. Because of Lockdown, we needed a webcam for a bank meeting... Hd it said on the ebay thing. Well. It does work, but HD it AIN'T!
@@Nicholas-f5 in China it's both
Crooks of note!
@@Nicholas-f5 if you live in China you'll quickly learn to treat manufacturers' and sellers' claims as if a homeless guy just randomly ran up to you and told you the same thing
Saddest part is the waste of resources, and it being a literal waste that's now just landfill material.
UK is too scared to ban sales of untested devices from china because it might start ww3
@@girlsdrinkfeck True.
They are already banned... it's just nigh on impossible to police it with the likes of eBay etc
@monsieurtechnical it's not something that eBay can easily control - especially since many of these things are being sold from China where such things aren't necessarily illegal.
@monsieurtechnical Well if you report the seller to eBay their account will be removed pretty sharpish. But it’s easy enough to just make a new account and get straight back to it. Unfortunately, if we want it to be easy and convenient for genuine sellers to get set up, it’s inevitable that others will abuse it; the only real way to stop this is to put considerable barriers in place, like requiring proof of ID from all sellers. Similarly, if we insist on paying rock bottom prices, there are people that will be willing to skimp on safety/quality to meet that price point.
"This one has... Issues..."
This is why I'm here, Clive.
Yes, but there are issues, and there are... Issues...
Same thing with relationships.
Anything with "issues" has a problem.
"Have they no scruples? No, none at all."
-Big Clive, while disassembling a fake version of a product that wouldn't actually work if it was real.
What's the actual purpose of this device if made correctly? Is there any?
@@PJBonoVox only in industry, not in residential.
A real unit built for industrial use will have a number of capacitors that can automatically be switched in or out to appropriately compensate for the inductive loads
@@PJBonoVox Just putting a capacitor across an inductive load can improve the power factor, which reduces the reactive component. BUT, most household electricity meters only measure real power so you won't reduce your power bill at all even with a 'correct' power 'save devicer'. (Look up POWER FACTOR).
The only party that directly benefits from an improved power factor is the power company, coz they can use cheaper (smaller) distribution cables, transformers etc. Of course the consumer ends up paying for the infrastructure in the long term anyway..
.
@@stmounts 💯%Right
Money changes everything!
My Dad just fell for this scam. The one he got he told me cost 170 canadian bucks. I tried to explain to him that he got scammed and it almost started an argument. This is were I think that I must have been adopted.
Old people are so stupid, they won't be able to survive without us yet they get mad when we try to protect them.
That looks suspiciously like a plug-in wireless doorbell case!
_Ding-dong!_
pretty sure i've seen one with an identical case somewhere!!
This is perfect example of buying leftover parts from other companies and putting junk inside but make sure the led works to complete the fake.
Don't get me goin on THAT! back in the day a set of door chimes had a REAL nice
sound, now it is just a chunk of plastic with a circuit board an wussy-assed speaker,
no magnet-wire wound solenoids with plungers and a nice set of pipes.
Both cap leads soldered to the same trace. LOL, I'm not surprised. This gadget reminds me of the "Green Plug" that was sold in the USA back in the 90's, they were great a burning up appliances.
They _were_ considerate enough to include it , though. Wouldn't want to short-change their paying customers.
Not sure as it's the same one as I have. My refrigerator is plugged into one and it's working fine. When I installed it, I did see a power savings. Not sure if I'm still getting that or not.
Get a refund on eBay. At least you get a free cap then :)
@@russellhltn1396 you wouldn't be able to "see" savings, as nowdays refrigerator takes under 100kWh per year, or older ones few hundred..
@@Tsiikki You might check your numbers. They seem way low. Besides, I was talking about a device from the 90's, long before Energy Star came to be. It worked then, but I doubt if it would work now as the new units have been optimized for savings.
Seems like maybe they designed the circuit so it will work just as well with fake capacitors. Now that's planning ahead.
These things keep getting weirder and weirder. I fully expect the next iteration to accidentally generate power out of nothing and put it into the mains, actually saving you money.
Ooh, that's a great idea! It should come with a hand crank attached to a wheel which makes a pleasant whirring noise. It needn't contain any other components at all.
They're called solar panels. Another big con...
oh you dont want to walk into that media bubble on youtube 🤣 (it knows your interested already as they buy your keyboard input data from google).
@@carnbyarst670 i dunno. mine keeps my phone charged and pc running for a few hours each day. and its only little. (real con is theyve invented >95% efficiency panels at least 3x in the last 15years that ive noticed. that tech for some reason never reaches the public. (first i saw years ago a chinese guy grew nano trees out of crystals allowing it to capture all wavelengths at something like 97% efficiency.) could have saved the planet. wont see that in costco anytime soon. (also check nasa's innovation competition winners. one of em was a fisherman who wrapped solar film with a bioluminescent material and wrapped it up into a cylinder. it could run for 10years without running out. he was granted 50k as a prize by nasa but they got rights to the tech. gotta get on the science websites and download these things as they tend to disapear from the news fairly fast.
@@luminousfractal420 I had 12 solar panels installed on my roof at great expense. I saw little savings. Worked out it would take 50 years to get my money back...
Next step up in fakeness: uses plug as mechanical holder/switch only and runs the LED on a factory-reject battery hidden inside.
Next: the LED is actually just a retroreflector that looks like it’s emitting light.
That sounds like the hand cranked LED dynamo torch I bought years ago. Had three button cells concealed in the head of the torch. The feature list on the box included "Good for hand pressing brain function."
Just have a pin on the back be pushed in to open a shutter covering a shiny green piece of foil with a reflector behind it and call it a low power led
Naw, just use a wire so low gauge it functions as an inline resistor for the LED.
Clive you have the most whimsical way of describing a product that brings laughter, love and hate in the same breath. Don't ever change Brother. Don't ever change. And Happy Valentine's :)
Excellent presentation. These so called "power saving" devices have been around for Decades and every single one of them has been a huge scam. (In some cases those things have actually caught fire and caused property damage)
Not far off from having an FPE brand service entrance equipment, and if u do and use these scammish power savers and they go KaPUT, ur house will probably go with it as
FPE is lonng known for bad stab-lock breakers, If they work once ur freakin lucky.
@@raymondgarafano8604 in german Kaputt means broken
@@012345678944107 I always knew kaputt meant broken, I just didn't know what language
it was broken in.
@@raymondgarafano8604 kaputt is also broken in swedish, a slang word of sorts. We also use "kass"
There is a huge advantage to soldering both leads of the capacitor to the same trace. It will last much longer than one that is in the circuit. :-)
since it does absolutely nothing by being manufactured in an inert state, it is in practice, the _most_ efficient "power saving" device available since it results in less loss of power than one that is correctly assembled!!
"It seems a quality case, it's just full of crap."
A good description for many politicians around the world.
So this mystery product saves power, repels rodents, and acts as a night light, depending on the sticker placed on the front?
And acts as an air ionizer?
“How rude!”
Pull the sticker off and you could sell it for twice the price as doing all four at once. Bargain.
@@Thermalions 😊
Plot twist: The capacitor wasn't connected properly because _then Big Clive would notice it on the Hopi_
Nobody:
Will it fit in my Honda?
Hold my beer
Am I a joke to you?
Asking for a friend
Everybody gangsta
End this man’s whole career
He protecc, he attacc …
Sexual/genitalia innuendo
Scatological/potty joke
Question of quantity answered yes
Plot twist
Left/entered the chat
Gaming reference
Dislikes are from
I’m a simple man
Not gonna lie
Last time I was this early
Legend has it
That’ll buff right out
Fun fact
(X) be like
(X) intensifies
(X) wants to know your location
Ha ha (X) go brrrrr
POV: (X)
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So you've chosen death?
Understandable, have a great day
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@@onemoremisfit That seems to have covered 99.8% of YT comments.
Your investigative videos into fake products are so interesting with great circuit analysis. I actually learn a tremendous amount about circuit design and various component characteristics in a circuit. Although I am in the US, there is normally a 120V counterpart available, and your videos have helped me keep family members from making silly mistakes. This is a useful educational service.....GREAT JOB!
"It's a bit like adding salt to soup without tasting it..." Exactly! Why'd ya bother eating out (spending money) unless ya value your money (or your general health) so little that you'll add salt before assuming the money ya spent was well-spent?! It's really insane.
Because there are people that are *that stupid* out there
I think everyone knows this , but Thomas Edison hired employees who taste tested soup from a bowl before adding salt to it.
Ummm, some people have OCD (it's not stupidity, it's a condition of reality) 🤪
"Don't be too rude."
This isn't a sexual issue, it's a safety one!
Rude would be a social issue not sexual.
Knowing Clive, why not both?
So pointless earth sleeving, pointless fuse, pointless capacitor, pointless LED light, pointless vents, pointless Earth pin (because its not long enough). Everything about it is pointless, no wonder the design is so sleek.
Not long enough, that's what she said. Hahaha
I don't think the earth pin was wide enough either--it's supposed to be bigger in all dimensions than the other two pins, but it looks like they just put a third regular pin on the package here.
I remember reading a friend's Japanese motorcycle owner's manual, in the days when electronic ignition was novel "This motorcycle has electronic ignition, so is completely pointless"
@@MarkUKInsects :D
The earth pin also was not connected to anything inside the case
I love how something that clearly consumes power (in the form of a LED) can still seem to fool people.
Well it's only using a fraction of a percent of the power it's going to _save_ them. People may also figure that you can light a LED up with a 1.5v battery, so that's tiny compared to the 230-240v supply.
But, that LED iz green, meow. I iz certain it works.
@@Thermalions Save them from what
@@mystcat3 People irrationally think the unit it's going to save them a significant amount of money off their electricity bill. The tiny amount of power used by the LED in providing them the confidence that it's working is a welcome trade-off in their mind (if they even think about that).
@@Thermalions Well, we need to appreciate the sellers, they were intelligent enough to make people believe them, they're marketing genious! (Or people is very very dumb)
Best quote, "Its seems a quality case.... It's just full of crap!" lol How these people get away with selling such blatant 'snake oil' is beyond me. Another great tear-down video.
That little green lightguide looks like it could do with a Knightrider-style scrolling LED array, would make it more useful as a decorative item, but probably would be too much effort for a small thing... :P
That's what she said.
I was very disappointed when it didn't start scrolling back and forth.
"This is the story of a man . . . who does not exist."
hmm, thats an idea, i made a little knight rider thingy when i was about 11(37 years ago 😱) still got it,, might be able to squeeze it in one of those cases, ....
can you imagine americas reaction to a chinese device that looks like it can do things like kit from nightrider 🤣
You should connect the capacitor the correct way, just to check that it won't explode (I hope it will).
Well the fuse would anyway as Clive mentioned.
@@stevetobias4890 but... for science? ;P
@@stevetobias4890 the fuse was bypassed though
@@stevetobias4890 fuse, who needs a fuse? Bypass it
@@g2g591 fuse protection circuitry. How clever.
Oh, good grief. Scammers so dumb they're putting in the most expensive component and not even hooking it up.
There's something kind of hilarious about that.
The developers attended prestigious overseas universities, but didn’t attend any classes so they could deliver pizzas in their mummy’s Mercedes.
@@laustinspeiss - That's a lot of mixed stereotypes there.
The closest thing to a saving grace this thing could get would be if the caps were faulty/bad batch. Could be another reason to keep it out of circuit.
@@RFC-3514 Yeah, I’m a Twitter & Bisted old fart !
@@laustinspeiss why would anyone have a car for their mummy
To my friends that venerate eastern medicine: consider the mindset that leads to this product being mass produced, shipped and sold internationally.
I have no problem with native medicine, a lot of it is just stuff scientists haven't studied yet.
But when you're taking strange herbs to balance your qi, it's hookum xD
@@cheyannei5983 While I agree with your response, I've thought a little more about my original comment, and wanted to add that we have branches of health treatments in the west which are also a bit suspect to me. Some people swear by chiropractic yet the underlying principles are off the wall, as are those of homeopathy. So it's not like accupuncture has a monopoly on 'woo woo'.
@@cheyannei5983 if you need to balance your qi .. you probably bought that wiress charger on wish.com and Clive will be taking it apart for us very soon.
Cheyanne I I have no doubt that some herbs have beneficial properties. What I object to is the use of rhino horn, tiger bones, pangolin scales and the like when not only is there no evidence they do anything, there is endless evidence that they do absolutely nothing. Hundreds of species are at risk of extinction purely because idiots think they have magical properties.
@@spencerwilton5831 Yeah that makes sense. In fact, a lot of our western medicine has roots in folk remedies: for example chewing on beaver tail was a painkiller because the tail glands contained aspirin from the willow trees that the beavers ate.
Also, the fact that people are poaching animals to extinction for their shitty health scams just reminds me of the fact that people hunted narwhals and sold the horns by saying they were magical unicorn horns. I'm not kidding, that was an actual thing iirc. Either way it's gross.
Quality engineering there! I particularly like the earth pin being identical to phase and neutral - along with the obviously "intended for many purposes" case, and that 5 microfarad cap - entirely ornamental! :-)
I love how the death-dapter has skidmarks on it
also that case could be used with a wireless doorbell system given it has holes which could be used for a speaker.
So basically, it's a device that was designed specifically to not explode when you plug it into a mains outlet... And they marketed it as a "power saver"
Doing nothing, but safely.
it's just indicating there's power on the outlet
Clive is now reading our minds. While he was talking about the case I thought, hey you could probably build a nice little ionizer in that.
And then Clive says it.
You've still got the earth pin issue though, and if I recall correctly it looked like it's rivetted, so not as straightforward to replace.
Ummm, I think that proves that your mind is infested with TH-camry...just sayin' 🤪
Very well done for exposing yet another scam. Unfortunately they have upped their marketing and are now advertising with 112,500 likes and 9,800 customer ratings, with more than 90% 5 Stars. This sort of thing should be stopped, as the venerable who do not understand fall victim to this scam. The venerable will pay £49.00 for the device (Was £100 but a 50% discount was applied). You deserve a medal Big Clive. My respect to you.
Nice looking night light, and you get an extra capacitor too. I'd pay $1 for it. Unfortunately, I've seen similar ones advertised for $14, which is a little steep.
So that's why, interesting.
I have an RC tank in my possession, and had always been wondering why there were a bunch of hitherto unidentified chips soldered across the leads of its motors.
Thank you for the gift of insight, Bigclive!
Chinglish is quite possibly one of my very favorite languages. It so tree good for your laugh with cloudy beach times, money not included.
I once, to amuse my fellow workers, made up a comment about something or other, used Bablefish to convert it into Chinese, and used Bablefish to convert it back again.
The result was hilarious 😂 😊
The best way to correct power factor in an industrial setting is to have a synchronous induction motor in the line. The DC rotating field in the AC stator locks in the sine wave when the motor is synchronized. I've rebuilt quite a few older ones ranging from 100HP to 8000HP. It's also how you convert AC to DC on an industrial scale. Line up DC generators on either side of a synchronous motor. When the synchronous motor synchronizes, the RPMs remain constant without slipping under load; which is required for consistent generation.
Please consider a story time video with the instructions, I loved the mosquito one
I have an addiction, I found you about a month ago Clive and I've been binge watching so much. I love your content buddy keep it up.
Oh yes, thank you, Clive. I now had to order such a thing, just because I fell in love with that little light arrangement in that beautiful case! But I will modify it to use a 110nF dropper and get rid of all the fake parts. 😁
Another TH-camr cut that black box in half and it's filled with what looks like sand to give it some weight, but there are zero electronics inside.
"220 nano farts". I love it. I'm using that from now on.
Thank you for doing a real review and exposing garbage fake devices that do nothing but waste your money.
"I could have read the instructions"
Famous last words.
If you do read the instructions you’ll be more confused !! so just don’t !!
Chinglish instruction manuals are for pure entertainment, not to tell you what to do.
bigclive saving dollars and lives everyday
"Wang Wei, what you doing?!"
"I am preparing this order sir"
"What does address say?"
"It says Isle of Man"
"What did I tell you about Isle of Man?"
"No more send items. Very bad man lives there"
"Very bad man who is very bad for business"
"I send note we no ship there"
"Very good Wang Wei. Very good."
Welly bad man. Welly, welly bad man.
We fill case with firework and radiation to kill bad man.
When you read the reviews of these on Amazon all of the positive reviews are something along the lines of "easy to use but too soon to tell if it makes a difference"
Is it kinda sad that I see Clive more than I see my own biological father??? 🤣😬
You could do worse...
I just saw a TH-cam pre-roll advert for this device and they were using clips from this video saying how good it was! Mind blown! 😮
Yeah, they do that a lot.
"nano farts" really tickled me 😂.
It blows my mind they put in a real capacitor. If they're going to not connect properly then why not leave it out? The sort of people buying this (other than us and Clive) won't know what they're looking at anyway. I know it won't cost much to put it in, but the pennies it saves could be more dodgy profit.
When the testing failed it was easier to short out the fuse & change a single lead on the capacitor than to cut it out.
I really expected that big "capacitor" to be full of sand, used to make the product seem hefty.
Yours is the BEST review of the few I’ve been watching due to an interest in the product. Thank you so much for being straight by using words such as “fake” and “crap” it tells me definitely not to buy it. You lost me there though because you got very technical. Thank you though for exposing the fakeness of this product! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
The way it saves power is by having the extra short earth pin, so that most people won't be able to plug it in anyway!
For those short on time, jump to 7:38 where the product is summarised succinctly in five seconds with "it seems a quality case, it's just full of crap". Thank you for doing the review.
The device clearly says "The result is the best", which sounds 100% legit to me
But they didn't clarify which result 😏
@@ursanotsomajor Maybe they mean "fleecing people of their money", in which case they're right
Love it!
It was the profit result.
There are two possible results when plugging something into the mains, and of those two results, "didn't kill you" is the very bestest.
I used to run basic electrical safety courses, and one of the modules was to identify faulty equipment in our "naughty box". We had to fake a few of the fails and the short earth pin was one of them.
Big Clive must have a huge naughty box by now(!)
Well sure, it saves plenty of power if you can't even plug anything in!
I have been watching these videos for years and I love them. No idea at all what they mean but I feel like sheen tapping the rocket schematics "never argue with the data"
‘Deathdapter Certification Appliance’
Speaking of synchronization, if part of our town losses main power and we fire up one of our generators we have a dial that we can sync our generators to the mains sinusoidal wave. Very cool to see in action. Another fine video. Cheers from supposed to snow tomorrow kansas.
Does it use the three lamp system, or is it automatic?
@@bigclivedotcom it has a dial that spins 360 degrees we can adjust it to match the power company it's very old setup.
@@raymondmucklow3793 I for one would love to see this in action. Mainly because of the age of such a system. Guest video?
@@Mr.Unacceptable so it's funny you say that, our powerplant super came in to work today (which he never does it's Saturday 😁) so he came in to check fuel and figure how long we could run on what we have. All this because of a natural gas shortage. So we might just fire up our system. Our oldest Gen is 1947 our newest is 1992. So maybe I might just get to video it. Also our 2 oldest gens are 2 stroke 4 cylinder.
At last, a power saver that actually saves power. Because you can't plug it in, it can save up to £2.16 a year in electricity by not running. Brilliant!
So, let's say it cost a fiver to buy, so saving £2.16 per year it will take just over two years to pay for itself as long as you throw it directly in the bin when it arrives in the post.
Perhaps Ebay could offer deals where you can save on the postage and they will throw it in the bin for you?
Almost the same as pay out £5000 on solar panels to save money .
Try arguing with these companies that you won't save money until you get the £5000 back in saves energy costs.
@@marklatimer7333 just remove the sticker & resell it as a rat chaser for 2x the price you paid for it.
@@doctorkdsify I was thinking calling it a "Cosmic Wellness Emitter" and asking for $400 but available at the special price for today only of $99.98 buy now to avoid disappointment.
This device is taking the world by storm, remember Big Phama has tried to ban this remarkable new scientifically proven product. - Buy more than one and get a 0.5% discount .
@@John-ob7dh On average it takes 8 years to get your money back from solar panels and that's assuming you live in a reasonably sunny part of the world.
You better hope the panels last at least 15 years (they become inefficient with age) or they could cost you money .
My son told me to check out your video, as he found that I had bought 3 of these evil things. Thank you for an informative video.
"Quality case full of crap". Perfect description of my first wife.
Judging by the plug, it isn't even a good case.
@@henke37 which one?
Hey Clive, maybe an idea if/when you have an oscilloscope and can show people. It'd be awesome to have a demonstration on what power factor and its correction is, maybe ditto a brief overview of an AC waveform for people who might be entirely new to sparky bits. You can explain complex things simply, which is a really good sign of someone who actually knows what they're talking about.
*Plugs it in* "What is it?"
"It's... it's um.... it's green"
STAR TREK - Scotty !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Got here after getting an ad pushed in my face, they said it can save you up to 90% of energy, but since I'm super smart I'm just gonna use a multiplug for one outlet, gonna put in maybe 10 of these magical devices for a start. I can then sell energy to my neighbors for cheap.. buy houses, buy more energy savers, at some point take over everything, give free power to anyone, everywhere and forever so we can finally live in harmony.
2:43 It's a universal money repellent
How come you posted this comment 6 days ago while the vid is out for 30 minutes? What kind of magic are you using
@@lillexus5589 the magic of patreon.
@@lillexus5589 i bought a universal time saving plug on Bigclive's patreon page
Works great in hillbilly areas of America... Spend money to lose money. They think that will "make America great again"....
I’ve been getting scams adds on TH-cam for this device from a Dutch scam website 😂 oh the irony
TH-cam auto-transcriber captions ”circuitry” for this marvelous piece of chingeneering as ”sucker tray”.
In industrial settings, I've usually seen the capacitors for power factor correction in a big bank outside of the factory, with the big scary looking ceramic insulators, etc.
IMO the capacitor is there for the weight just to make people think, wow we get some solid stuff for our money ;-)
In case someone opens it, it looks better than a piece of rock hehehehe.
But it lights up GREEN so it must be good for the environment (rolling eyes)
It's recycling at its best: this is where motor capacitors which may have already died go to avoid, for the moment, the landfill.
> it looks better than a piece of rock
Don't give them any ideas.
@@jaymzx0 can't cuz they already did that with bogus hard drives in the 2000's.
@@freedustin From what I've heard people still do it with external HDDs on occasion. If I go to Best Buy to buy a HDD I usually open it up near the customer service counter so they can see I'm not pulling my own scam. I haven't gone as far as bringing a laptop and plugging it in, but I haven't been burned yet.
Be sure to use a credit card for extra protection, too.
I should have that put on my tombstone! "...a quality case...just full of crap!" Thanks, Big Clive, you're the best! Cheers!
So it’s a faked fake product? Fakeception.
It's weaselectrical.
Another You-Tuber disassembled an exact or very similar device. He cut the Black Block Thingy and underneath the black epoxy there was. . . . . Sand! Yes, pure white sand. Nothing more to it. Then because his video was posted on April 1st - He showed how to modify the scammy box to really save power. He twisted the incoming mains wires together, plugged it into an outlet. Instant power saving on that circuit!
Long story short: it’s an overly complicated mains powered LED.
The LED which, to the determent of the severely mentally lacking people buying them, only consumes power, not saves it.
Big Clive, you rock!
Please continue.
Oh DIY BT speaker/LED night light would be cute in the case.
As always I have gone straight to your channel, Clive, for your expert breakdown of advertised ‘marvels’!
The one I saw was called the ElectraSavvy but I’m assuming it is yet another scam.
Ha! Instructions: “Don’t be too rude when plugging into the socket”. I thought that was the whole idea...! ;)
"Don't be too rude" is honestly the best instruction ever!
Ah, so before we had the microcontroler that did nothing (pulsing a pin that is ignored), now we have a capacitor that does nothing. What's next?
an empty housing, with the leads coming out of the socket just open inside the case?
My wife often complains she has a husband who does nothing...
Well as a thought, they could just dump a bunch of junk e-waste electronic components they couldn't throw in a dumpster, put them in a case that lights up green and sell them for a profit... wait... 😲 That's a brilliant idea!
@@raymitchell9736 Bonus points if they pot them so you can't see that the two wires going into the mass aren't connected to anything.
@@ConstantlyDamaged Yes, that's a very good idea... that would make it harder for Clive to "reverse engineer" but I wouldn't put it past him... LOL.
Ok, so here's an idea to optimize this device. Big brain time. (Copyright don't steal.)
1) make a fake 5 μF cap that's actually 220 nanofarts or so.
2) use this cap as the dropper cap for the LED.
3) ???
4) PROFIT!!!
If it's to good to be true then that's exactly what it is. Only huge companies need them anyway the average home doesn't even use what it's trying to fix. You will be better off using static collected from the atmosphere by a huge copper ball in a tree 😜
I love his voice.i could listen to him talk for hours.
A nanofart is when it doesn't make a sound but still smells
I’m loving the scorch marks on the well used death-adapter
Yeah. I was plugging a cheap charger in at the time.
How come I have managed to be early for one of your vids without even subscribing yet? I have just started being interested in your channel
I seem to be in TH-cam's good books at the moment. It makes a refreshing change.
@@bigclivedotcom How the hell did you manage that? We all know you Clive.
@@bigclivedotcom It's because I subbed to you about a month ago. You're welcome. 🤣🤣 Love your videos btw
I know - I'm usually in TH-cam's bad books and being hidden from sight for dirty talk and profanities.
It's weird, because it kinda applies in domestic too, at least here where I live... for example i have some old fans that run on 220v, one is mounted in the bathroom and one in the kitchen / balcony, they didn't have these x2 caps, so whenever I switched them off it would make inductance and close off my radios etc... after I put some x2 caps in the circuit everything is working smooth now :)
That device would have been perfect with these dry electrolytic capacitors you played with in another video.
I have yet to learn how people think. What is the logic or argument that convinces them, that plugging something into their outlet will save them power?!?! As soon as you see vents, that means things get warm, warm=wasted energy...boggles my mind. This thing is definitely the weirdest of the magic snake oils.
Was the capacitor actually real?
He says it's 5uF, and as there is nothing written on it, I suppose he did measure it...
No, it’s really actual.
@@janosnagyj.9540 If you look carefully at 9:40 you can just make out 5 uF written on the side of the capacitor. You've got to be really quick to catch it, and it seems to depend on the angle of the light falling on it.
@@mandolinic Yeah, hand-written, I suppose by Clive. Good catch! :)
Every household plug should come with a built-in 10 micro Farad cap, because almost ALL heavy loads in the house are inductive, like cloth washer/dryer, dishwasher, fridge, vacuum cleaner, central heat,A/C, fans, etc. A cap has no parasitic consumption and would do an adequate job of power factor correction.
Usually in residential settings the power company already does power factor correction for the whole neighborhood, at the substation level. Also this is becoming less necessary, because switching supplies (like in computers and most modern electronics) are capacitive and cancel out some of the inductance.
“Seems a quality case....just full of crap”. Sounds like some women I know
"So you don't get a zap off the pins"
I can confirm it hurts when that happens. Our waste water pump gave me a good old belt from the pins when it stopped working last week. It had been unplugged for a few minutes but silly me failed to realise such a device has a capacitor in it. Grabbing the plug to check the fuse within successfully discharged it. Into me. Ouch.
Clive I have purchased one of the things in Australia. When I pulled it apart it only had a capacitor across the mains. It was called as you have Power Saver.
This could be huge if available in 3 phase models, just think of the power savings in industry! And for utilities, a 240KV 3 phase version on the HV lines could "save power" for the whole city. It might not need any more "magick pixie dust" than the household version, to achieve the same effects....
This reminds me of the only other one terminal device I have encountered in 50 years as a EE, the WOM (Write Only Memory.) They require no power, occupy no space, produce no heat or EMI, and offer infinite capacity. AKA a "bit bucket."
Well done, Mattias!
They do industrial versions with equally useless functionality.
We have them installed and the power bill went down from $460 a quarter for two houses to $220. Inclusive.
As far as im concerned, they work!
I heard that if you plug in more, the power company will end up having to pay you money instead of billing you. ;-)
I bought one in August waiting to see what my bill going to be.
@@fayewren5865 I bet you will be in the Fortune 500 before the end of the year, due to all the power you have saved. Rumor has it that one of these things has the same power output as the average nuclear power plant. ;-)
This case can be also used for radio doorbell. Those devices are usually connected directly to power socket without any cable. And those perforations are perfect for speaker. But if it was radio doorbell it should have cutout for pins allowing to set individual key at least it used to be like that before apps for every device became popular.
What a perfect way of wasting a perfectly good capacitor.......nice video.
It’s a relief to see that the cap is not connected as it has no markings what so ever. You can use the box in the case you have double insulated device where you don’t need the PE.
I'm infinitely boggled at how much effort they put into faking this. They could probably stop with the metal pins on the back, fill it with sand (because heavy stuff works better!) and send them like that. Put a reflective dot decal where the LED goes...