The reason that you see that sort of thing is because you live in the real world and not some sort of parallel universe where people are trying to connect 10kW of power to a single socket using socket adaptors, nails and counterfeit fuses whilst spouting bollocks on a newsgroup just to try and make a point that is not relevant.
FFS Most houses have enough sockets so that it is easier to just use a spare socket than nip to the shops to buy a couple of double adaptors to connect up three electric heaters to one socket. Only dennise and Homer Simpson would do that.
And guess what? Radial circuits can also suffer from poor terminations as anyone living on plant earth who has worked on electrics can confirm.
I've just had to replace a switched FCU protecting a spur. The spur consists of one socket into which a dishwasher is plugged. The dishwasher is rated at
2300W max.
The switched FCU was left permanently switched on (and was in a very inaccessible place at the back of a kitchen cupboard).
The symptoms were that the socket became "dead" ie, a socket tester plugged into it showed no sign of life.
Upon turning off the main power and removing the FCU, it looks like over time, the tension in the spring contacts in the switch had lessened, causing the contacts to separate slowly. Eventually this had caused arcing, which caused heating, which caused the plastic holding the spring contacts to soften. Once the plastic softened enough, the remaining tension made spring contact eat its way into the plastic, far enough to disconnect the power altogether.
Crap design, IMO. Brand was Ashley. God knows how long it had been arcing.
Ended up replacing the FCU with a socket itself, and disconnecting and removing the downstream socket (which was in a totally inaccessible place behind the built-in dishwasher)
Rubbish, they are there for people that don't understand or have access to more sophisticated testers.
Rubbish, a socket tester will find breaks in a radial that it can't in a ring.
Which is also true for electricians with better test equipment.
However a test that finds faults is far better than no test.
I hope everyone realises that you need to test stuff and you can't test a ring with a £2.99 socket tester but you can test a radial and find the majority of faults too.
I don't, I just like arguing and I happen to be correct. The real obsessives are the idiots that keep posting childish insults even when they are being ignored.
As for EICR, where are the records for faults kept so we can know how many faults are found? It would be nice to know just how many faults occur and how long it takes for them to be found.
There's no way of knowing, however there are at least two people reading this thread where it has happened and there aren't many reading it. If that's two in two hundred people that would equate to more than 20,000 faulty rings in the UK. I expect its actually more as many still wont have found the faults.
Although part P is doing its bit to see that trailing socket adapters proliferate where there should be fixed sockets. Some householders would rather have trailing trip hazards everywhere than pay an electrician to add sockets.
I use extension leads for exactly that reason, but I run them along the skirting board in stick-on trunking. The trunking also holds the TV aerial leads, the ethernet cable, the phone extension cable and, in one case, a *long* SCART lead.
Doing half a test is IMHO worse than non at all - because it will give a false sense of security. You can get rather more expensive plug in testers which do a rather better earth test - but not in the pound shop where you seem to buy near everything.
Ages ago, my dentist bought a brand new house close to here. And then had installed all the '60s fitted furniture from his previous house. Which covered up just about every single socket in the living room. I was asked to re-assemble his Hi-Fi after the move, and he asked me what to do about these. I gave him a price for moving them. Which wasn't cheap, given the work involved. He got someone else in who removed the sockets, mounted them in plastic surface mount boxes, ran a flex from them to the original back boxes and covered those with blank plates - which of course didn't fit properly due to the flex. And the sockets were now just lying on the floor.
More like electricians charge too much for them to have it done. Having a new double socket fitted next to an existing one is a lot more than buying a £1.99 adapter.
The real shame is that they don't know they can buy socket converter that are somewhat better than trailing sockets and still a lot cheaper than an electrician.
Rubbish, half a test is better than no test, or at least it is on radials. You already have a false sense of security because you have a ring, tested it 50 years ago and still think its perfect.
Moot point, since generally only skilled people have socket testers. Jo Public certainly does not.
Nope, I expect it will be tested by a professional on installation, and then possibly check on the sale of the property.
Yes, its not a difficult thing to do, and bread and butter work for most electricians.
A couple of reports of errors by installers is not statistically significant as I am sure you would insist if it suited your argument.
That is nonsensical. The populous at large does not by electricians multifunction testers or any other sort of test gear. Most don't even have a multimeter of a clue how to use it.
Easy enough to demonstrate the fallacy of that argument, and I will do so in another post. However it remains a moot point.
No, at least not for domestic properties. There already is some routine inspection for rented accommodation.
Not only that, the supplier has probably assessed and sized their supply infrastructure on the assumption that his property will draw 2kW, and yet its probably fused at nearer 20!
Rubbish. They won't have a socket tester, know of their existence, where to buy one, how to use and interpret the results.
Those are column headings, and the proper term is radial circuit...
Not true - most low power appliances will not be dramatically affected. SMPUSs certainly won't. Even 10 ohms of resistance would only drop an insignificant 10V on 230W of load.
Joe public won't have one or use it, so we need to assess based on what is visible without test gear. Unless its something that stops working or is detectable with the Mk I eyeball or nose, its not happening.
It will, but so what? I doubt even you will claim they are commonly owned and used.
Yes there is. With a ring there is a parallel connection path to each socket, so the chances of localised heating do to load on the rest of the circuit is reduced.
Absolute poppycock. A high resistance CPC on a radial will at best render one socket unsafe, and at worst all of the downstream circuit. It is highly likely to disable fault protection, which is far more significant and dangerous than overload protection. On a ring circuit it is unlikely to have any significant effect on fault protection due to the parallel connection.
Again, arrant nonsense.
In fact if you don't understand the significance of your claim here, then it really demonstrates a failure of understanding of the basic principles that is worrying to say the least.
A broken CPC on a radial will leave potentially a large section of the circuit without fault protection. It may leave many class I appliances with their exposed metalwork connected to half mains driven by a potentially significant earth leakage. This is a significant and real danger on a radial, and of little significance on a ring (or or that matter on a radial with a high integrity protective conductor).
A CPC that is not broken but is disconnected from a single socket, is of roughly equal danger on both circuits - for that one socket.
This is powerfully dumb stuff!
The risk of a transposed L&N obviously place functional switching and fuses into the neutral, potentially leaving appliances live when not expected. Now this is a risk the rest of the world is prepared to live with, however it loses a safety advantage that we would otherwise have - so I will concede that in absolute terms the risk is moderate, although the change is high.
There is no risk from a single L&N reversal on a ring for obvious reasons. Even number of reversals however would pose the same risk on both circuits.
No, the implications have nothing to do with finding and fixing. Implications are what will bite you in the arse when left unfixed.
There is a more detailed version, that includes some guidance on using basic test equipment including socket testers, with guidance on how to interpret the results:
A B20 MCB will carry a sustained overload of around 29A
In the case of 2.5mm^2 T&E using installation method A, it exceeds it by
9A or just under 50%
A circuit with a 32A breaker will in general have 5mm^2 of copper connecting each socket to the MCB, the 20A one will have half that.
You do realise that the risks from sustained overload are fairly trivial compared to those from fault currents?
Make your mind up, now you are saying a tree is not a radial again?
A 32A radial is harder to install due to the use of heavier cable. A 20A radial is more work to provide adequate socket coverage in some locations due to needing so many of things to achieve the same job. Two
20A radials are far less use in a kitchen than a single 32A circuit (ring or otherwise).
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