2 Plug Wall Socket not working

[davekee]

Hi All,

I have a double plug wall socket, neither plug socket works. I unscrewed it, wiring seems connected OK to socket itself from two fat grey cables.

Started getting floorboards up to trace back, and have so far found that one of the fat grey cables is connected to socket OK, Red/Green/Earth, but on finding the other end it its not connected to anything, just a clean cut off end !!!.

Assume this is why the whole socket is not working, I have not traced the other cable back yet but hope that is connected somewhere.

Can you help on this please, is this not dangerous ?.

Ta................. Dave

[Graham.]

Sockets in the UK are most often wired in a ring, so cutting one cable will still leave the socket working. so on that basis you might find further damage. Rodents chewing through the cables? Can you see what the cut cable was originally connected to? Have you checked if anything has tripped or fused in the consumer unit?

[newshound]

You *said* socket not working which sort of implies power in but no power out. Is that what you meant, or do you mean there is nothing coming in on the wire that you havn't traced. Has it just stopped working, or has it never worked in your experience?

Maybe it has been deliberately isolated in the past.

[meow2222]

Did it work before? Or have you just moved in and found out its dead?

If it never worked, a disconnected socket's no danger. If it did, a bare cut live cable end is not ideal.

NT

[Bill]

In message , [e-mail] writes

And also if it did and it doesn't now and it happens that the neutral feed to it is open then it is very far from ideal. if it is the live that is open then not quite so bad. But still pretty worrying.

Any way it is certain that you need to get the proverbial "competent" person to look at it for you.

"one of the fat grey cables is connected to socket OK, Red/Green/Earth," is an interesting description. Do you assume that black is earth? Or is it something even more terrifying ?

There again I am surprised that no one has shouted diybanter troll yet.

[Brian Gaff]

No this is not not dangerous, ie it is dangerous.

Some silly person has been very silly.

Brian

[meow2222]

Broken neutral isn't dangerous, no-one uses neutral chassis radios with grub screws poking out these days

NT

[Steve Firth]

Double plus ungood.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's possible it was part of an earlier radial or even spur with multiple sockets which has been disconnected after a proper re-wire, and forgotten about. But you do need to test the wire you can't get to the end of to be sure.

[davekee]

Hi, Socket has never worked, Socket was damaged at the holes where you plug in, I thought that was the problem, so bought a new socket, then discovered it still did not work and the cable problem, I do not know if other cable is live, but niether socket hole works when plugged and switched on !.

Ta........ Dave

[Bill]

In message , [e-mail] writes

You can guarantee that?

[meow2222]

Its specialist kit these days, so rare its pretty well fallen off the radar. Better designed stuff can be bought, even pre-war if you're a dedicated collector, but the old universal sets are a legal nightmare for sellers.

NT

[Graham.]

screws poking out these days

In the TV repair industry we always called neutral chassis sets "live chassis", and it was surprising how many of the were! Then in the 70s/80s came the floating chassis sets that were at half mains irrespective of the plug polarisation.

[John Rumm]

Well if its connected to both of them, then its a pretty safe bet that is not supplying power either.

They are normally joined together inside the socket - so if one works then so does the other.