Ever need an extension cord at home and all you can find are the two- prong type? (My wife seems to buy them in bulk). Why do they even make a 2-prong type when all outlets are supposed to have a ground anyway?
I've told the wife to never buy a 2-prong extension cord.
On 4/11/2011 12:55 PM so spake thus:
Short answer: because there are lots of things you can plug in that have
2-prong plugs. (I ASS-ume you're talking about US/North America?). Most of them are perfectly safe and don't need a ground (double insulated, etc.)The code (NEC) doesn't have total control over each and every device that gets plugged into an outlet. And 2-prong cord sets may still be UL/CSA approved.
I wouldn't sweat it, unless you have a lot of stuff with grounded plugs and have to use lots of 2-to-3-prong adapters (which does get really annoying).
Grounding is a Good Thing, but its benefits are still often wildly overstated. I've worked on plenty of houses around here with old wiring (no separate ground conductor), and for 99% of devices they're perfectly OK. Even computers and other "delicate electronic equipment".
I have just blown 2 soundcards, by connecting those two while on 2-prong outlets.......
I replaced the cards, and about 8 2-prong outlets. :)
On 4/11/2011 1:48 PM Sjouke Burry spake thus:
I'm surious: just how did that happen? Did you plug 2 things into two different outlets? Otherwise, hard to see how you could blow a soundcard just by plugging a computer into a 2-prong outlet.
And I'm ASS-u-ming that your new outlets are actually grounded? Of course, installing grounded outlets won't help you in an old house which has 2-wire circuits.
Both computers were on 2-prong. In which case (I should have known at the time), there is about half the net voltage on the case, because of the netfilters build into the computer.(duuu...) I connected the line input of one computer to the line out of the other computer, with a 2-male small connector cord. Well, the tip of that connector touches ground on the computerside first, when inserting, inputting ~100 volt into the other computer, and that was definitely that. Now why both cards were gone, is harder to explain, unless the other card had a floating ground, in which case you can kill both cards..... But I have no schematics for those two cards, one of which was build into mother board card. Luckily the bios allowed to disable the malfunctioning chip.
7 euros for one soundcard and an old soundblaster for for the other (old)computer, restored things.
Bigger question:
Why does wife keep buying extension cords?
Excellent advice. When you've got a 3-prong appliance and only a 2-prong extension, you're possibly at some risk. Better to have any one you grab have the ground IF needed.
why would you waste a three wire cord on a two wire device? Most household devices are just two pronged anyway.
The irritation can be removed by the surgical use of a Dremel equipped with a cut-off blade.
Ah! Good idea!
I've been perplexed on how to saw off the ground plug on the Dremel itself !
It takes too long to get the machine up to speed and rapidly yank the plug to feed it to the cut-off wheel.
Natural selection will end your genetic code on earth.
If the device you plug in that extension cord has a hot to chassis accidental connection you can get a lethal shock.
gronds are really key to safe operations
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