Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

do the alienbees have either a UL or CSA Certification?

Sorry . . . no . . . .not required for normal use.

CSA approval is available through the canadian warranty service company. CSA or CUL isn't the responsibility of the manufacturer.

What happens is entella or hydro one will inspect and label each unit. It is pricey but it is available.

Elinchrom and bowens as sold by vistek and henry's are not CSA or CUL and are stickered in a inspection procedure as i have mentioned. It adds about $75 to $100 a unit if done in large lots.
Some of the safety inspection guidlines are misguided. if you were to wire up an extension cord using CSA or CUL components , your cord would still be not certified until inspected by CSA, entella or a company lIke them.. Retailers like Henrys like to promote fear and are motivated by anger and greed. For this reason i will not deal with them. I looked at some Bowens at henrys and one of the first things out of their mouth was that alein bees couldn't be CSA'd, this is untrue.
These are the same people that will tell you your canon USA warranty is no good in Canada and for the record i'll never by anything from them because they lack honor. Vistek has more class than that, they compete rather than badmouth. (canon Can/US warranty is valid in both countries)

Some of the offshore crap that some of the chains carry is pretty shaky and there are no made in canada products. For Paul to submit his product for testing would be cost prohibitive. The burocracy would choke him. Almost all of incoming specialty equipment winds up going through special inspection if at all. I was a manufacturers field engineer and some pretty big installations have slipped through sans inspection stickers.