My house was made in 1967 and doesn't have GFCI circuit in the kitchen or a GFCI circuit breaker for the kitchen in the main panel. Having said that though, we use a toaster OVEN rather than a toaster for bread. It has three prongs.
If you have psychokinetic ability, never use it with the toaster :-)
I've used a bolt cutter to edit a few plugs (not a good idea to do this with a toaster), just with a few things that have polarized plugs for no good reason.
Or who are unforutnate enough that they can't afford a home and must rely on their slum^H^H^H^Hlandlord to provide a safe evironment?
It simply means there is an insulated assembly inside an insulated case. It has nothing to do with whether there is a hole big enough in the outer case to stick a conductive implement through.
To answer the actual question asked, I'd say that toasters don't have grounded plugs because historically before grounded receptacles went into effect, they did not and today manufacturers figure that they'd cut their sales by selling ones that did. There are still plenty of homes with two prong receptacles, even if it's only 5%, you;d cut your market. And new homes have GFCI so it's not an issue there. Caught in between are the kitchens with grounds that go unused, but no GFCI.
To be legal now, a piece of equipment with a non polarized plug needs a 2 pole operating switch because you still need to switch the ungrounded conductor. If there is no switch, like a wall wart, this is not an issue.
Neither current carrying conductor should be capable of contacting the case unless you have a fault, then it is the luck of the draw. What they do regulate is which conductor is switched so if you stick your fork in there with the tray popped up, the element should be connected to the grounded conductor, not the hot one.
Well, then you'd think that having a gaping hole with live conductors exposed would be something that would fail UL just on that basis. Protecting against a possible fault someday to make sure a hot can't touch the case seems less likely a hazard to worry about compare to having a device with a gaping hole in it where the live heating coil is accessible, What's more likely? That fault occurring someday or someone sticking a fork in to get the toast out? And I;m not sure that I buy that it's even really double insulated when a knife stuck in the gaping hole creates a direct short regardless of all the other insulation.
I had onwe from the late 40s with a polarized plug - so old it wasn't a "pop-up"
The fact that we don't have a pile of bodies tends to say "don't stick a fork in the toaster" seems to be a lesson people learned.
It is mostly just tradition that allows toasters in the first place. If someone invented it today it would never make it to market in it's present design I could say the same thing about the Edison lamp socket.
My house was built in the 1980's and does not have GFCI in the kitchen. We have a toster oven that only has a 2 prong plug. It was bought sometime in the last 10 years.
The Keurig coffee machine and electric mixer are the only small appliances in te kitchen that do have a 3 prong plug. The other coffee pot (Mr. Coffee type),and microwave only have 2 prongs.
Nothing prevented them from using the plug; was it the wide blade type like current? I'm not sure when the polarized receptacle actually was introduced but it wasn't until sometime in 60s it became required...
Fretwell can probably tell you when GFCI became required in kitchens, but I believe it was required in NEC at least by the latter part of the 80s and probably went into effect in the early part.
A microwave with a 2 prong plug? It is either so new it is double insulated or it was never listed. The 45 year old one I have uses a 3 prong plug. I also wonder what NEC cycle your AHJ was using if a 1980 house does not have GFCI protected small appliance circuits.
Actually I was wrong about kitchens. It was required in Bathrooms and outside in 75 but did not get picked up in kitchens until 87.
Interesting. I had a condo back then that I bought new in late 1987 and I know it had GFCI in the kitchen, baths, garage. That's how I knew it was in effect by then. I figured it probably started a few years earlier, but looks like that was among the first where it was required.
Good catch on the microwave, I missed that. I've never seen one that's not 3 prong. Let's see what Ralph has to say on that.
My house was built in 1990 and has GFCI on the outdoor receptacles and the bathroom receptacles - not on the kitchen. < Ontario Canada >
My google searches could only find the USA NEC history < not Canada > John T.
Although polarized outlets and plugs were introduced in the 1880s, they were not popular at first and did not become standard until the mid-20th century. The earliest National Electric Code (NEC) that we can find that references polarized receptacles is the 1962 edition, which required outlets to be both grounding (3-prong) and polarized.
1980 code in canada required 2 split 15 amp outlets in the kitchen (4 circuits) and GFCI outlets do NOT work on an edison circuit - must use double pole GFCI breakers. They were hellishly expensive so were not generally installed.
Current Canadian code requires minimum of 2 separate 20 amp circuits in the kitchen WITH GFCI protection - either at the outlet or the breaker panel. Both of which are available at reasonable cost.
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