It seems incredible, but there are some power supplies in the market carrying fake 80 Plus badges. Because we review lots of power supplies, we were already able to spot a few power supplies with fake 80 Plus claims.

So now you should not only check whether a power supply has an 80 Plus certification, but also verify if it is legit! You can check whether an 80 Plus certification is legit by seeing if a power supply is listed at the 80 Plus website.

Here is a list of power supplies with fake 80 Plus claims that we found so far:

• Aerocool E85M-550: Aerocool removed the fake 80 Plus badge from their website after we talked to Ecos Consulting (the company behind the 80 Plus certification), but the product box and label continue to carry the fake badge (see next page).
• Aerocool V12XT-600: Aerocool removed the fake 80 Plus badge from their website after we talked to Ecos Consulting (the company behind the 80 Plus certification), but the product box and label continue to carry the fake badge.
• Spire Jewel Black 650 W and 750 W: Spire added the phrase, “80 PLUS Bronze compliant”, on their website, a very smooth way to deceive users, since the manufacturer is not saying that the power supply “has” certification but that the power supply is “compliant”. The joke is that we tested this 650 W power supply and it could only deliver up to 550 W. Spire removed the offending phrase after they read this article.
• Spire BlackMoon 750 W, Spire BlackMoon XP 600 W, and Spire BlackMoon XP 700 W: The Spire website says “80 Plus Bronze efficiency”. If that is true or not we can’t tell and it is irrelevant. One cannot say that a power supply has “80 Plus efficiency” without getting the respective certification. Spire removed the offending phrase and logo after they read this article.
• Spire RockIT II: This one carries a fake 80 Plus Bronze badge and the phrase, “80 PLUS Bronze Certified”, on its product page. To this date Spire hasn’t obtained a single 80 Plus certification! Spire has removed this phrase and badge after reading this article.

There are three reasons a company ends up giving a fake 80 Plus certification to their products.

As you may already know, most brands do not manufacture their own power supplies. They buy from a different company (called an OEM, Original Equipment Manufacturer). The agreement between the two companies can be done in several different ways. The most expensive way is to hire the OEM to manufacture an exclusive product, a power supply model that no other brand will have access to. The most inexpensive way is to get a stock power supply from the OEM and simply add a different label and box, and this power supply may be sold to other companies as well (and we end up with two or more identical power supplies being sold by different companies). Companies can also hire an OEM to make a power supply to be exclusive only for a certain period of time, say six months. So in the first six months, only that company will have access to the power supply model being negotiated, and after this period expires, the OEM can start offering it to other companies as well.

Usually, the OEM gets the 80 Plus certification for their power supplies, and the company that will market the product using their own brand wrongly assumes that they can use the 80 Plus certification that the power supply already has. However, this cannot be done. Once a power supply is rebranded, it must go thru the 80 Plus certification process to ensure that the rebranded unit can also pass the 80 Plus tests.

The second most common way for a manufacturer to end up with a fake 80 Plus badge is by adding the 80 Plus badge on its power supply box, label, and webpage before sending it to be tested. The company does internal tests, sees that the power supply will pass a given 80 Plus certification, and adds the 80 Plus badge on the power supply and on their website. The power supply eventually gets the certification, but there is a period of time when the product carries an unauthorized 80 Plus badge.

And the third most common reason a power supply carries a fake 80 Plus badge is by straight-faced lying.

In the following pages we will show you the false 80 Plus claims listed above.