Wall warts, least here in USA must be fused internally
or have a thermal
interupter (usually the blow open). I've forcably opened a number of
warts to replace protective devices.
I've opened up many wall warts over here and found the the transformer
primary winge goes straigh to the tags on the transformer (no obvious
connections to a fuse or thermal fuse) and those tags are wired straight
to the mains plug pins. And yes, said wall wards have various approvals
written on them.
I was told that the transfromer primary is supposed to fuse safely in the
event of a fault. My experience is that it doesn't (I've had shorts on
the output side cause the plastic case to deform and much magic smoke to
come out, but the transformer primary was still continuos after I turned
the power off. I did not feel like seeing if it would ever fail).
For many projects I use a standard 12V regulated DC wart and if higher
voltages are required a simple multivibrator or switching regulator driving
a suitable hunk of ferrite does nicely. It allows me to work inside
without scary high potentials floating around and also solves the problem
of "the right transformer". If warrented I bury the HV system in a
I'd much rathere make my own supply starting with a suitable transformer.
Then I know it's correctly fused, It also means I can fit a real on/off
switch (in the mains circuit).
Of course for experimental stuff, I just run it off the adjustable bench
supply.
-tony