A neighbour just came back from the local pet shop with a new aquarium heater to replace the one which failed yesterday, and asked if I had an adaptor for it, or would change the plug for her. It came with a two pin plug. Appears to be of Italian manufacture, and the box and instructions are multi-lingual, including English.
Is it legal to sell such a device here without a UK plug?
No.
It can be sold with an adaptor though, and that's becoming more common than it once was. Special (cheap) ones which wrap around an EU 2-pin plug are available.
If the house doesn't have RCD protection on the ring circuit, I would make sure the fish tank has its own. (Actually, it's quite a good idea to not have a fish tank sharing RCD protection with anything else, as it increases the chances of it being left unpowered through no fault of its own.)
Yes - I've seen those and assumed they conform. Nothing like that supplied with this one.
The wiring in her house is lethal already. The lighting stuff is still lead covered, and the ring which her deceased hubby installed many years ago in 7/0.29 rubber TW&E with no backing boxes. The few non surface mount sockets are simply screwed into a hole in the skirting board. The only earth appears to go to the lead incoming main water pipe. I did mention it ;-) but got the reply that she couldn't afford to have it re-done.
Went to the pet shop today on behalf of my neighbour and they produced one of those clip on adaptors from beneath the counter. Seems they like to wait until asked...
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