They should be very waterproof as the mains is just a coil and its potted in resin.
The only difference between indoor and outdoor is the type of flex used as PVC flex is very ridged in the cold unlike the "rubber" stuff they use on outdoor stuff.
Yes, I've said that in another reply.
Yes. As is very obvious if I take an extension lead out of the garage mid-winter.
SteveW
MK sockets work(ed?) like that, but it has the disadvantage that people can plug an unfused, 2-pin shaver lead into a 13A socket.
SteveW
Fair enough.
SteveW
Of course it does.
To ensure that the earth pin makes contact well before the live and neutral (and breaks contact last on unplugging), the earth contact within the socket is as far forward as possible, while the live and neutral are a little further back. For the same reasons, the earth pin is longer than the live and neutral pins. If an earth pin is partly sleeved, the metal part can have slid right through the contact and the contacts be only resting on the plastic sleeve - hence no earth connection. To prevent this, sleeved earth pins are specifically banned.
Non-earthed appliances don't need the earth pin at all, so it is acceptable for them to have a fully plastic earth pin, purely to open the shutters on the socket.
SteveW
I used to have some two way 13A adapters that didn't work with the newfangled sleeved line and neutral pin plugs as the (cast brass) contacts attempted to contact the insulated parts of the pins.
IOW they don't care if Citizens Advice waste their time as they are a charity.
It just goes to show that it's bloody hard to make something foolproof.
I have a house full of those MK sockets, and you can't plug a UK shaver plug into one. You can however easily plug a Europlug into them. I believe MK tweaked the design in later production sockets so that a Europlug does not open the shutter.
It dosn't explain why a s
Many shavers seem to come with European pins - which makes sense. Why produce a special UK version when shaver sockets usually cater for both types. My shaver lead will definitely fit a 13A socket.
SteveW
Ok that's good. I obviously did not read it properly.
quite so. NT
It's indescribably vulgar.
Bill
Citizens Advice gets money from government to provide a public service and is accountable to government for what it delivers*; TS teams can stick to their knitting rather than having staff available all the time to deal with phone calls complaining about - say - the fact furniture from Ikea comes flat packed; and citizens get a more efficient service with a single point of contact.
Have you ever tried phoning a CAB?
I don't know where the 0345 helpline is answered, but if you try phoning a local CAB it's probably got one line answered by a sweet old dear who drops her stitches every time the phone rings.
I know they have a difficult and worthwhile job helping the terminally clueless, but I don't see how a CAB helpline somewhere can be a single point of contact for a local council department.
Owain
Generally speaking I, too, am a snob when it comes to ornyments; but I think that thing has a certain je ne sais quoi about it. And I like watery things.
The importer/brand owner has a very basic website, but appears to be easily contactable in the UK.
Or you could contact their local trading standards office direct. :-)
Owain
Consumers have been directed away from individual LAs' TS teams to a national call centre since Consumer Direct was set up in 2004. CA took over that work when Consumer Direct wound up. Its a national service operated by CA under (in effect) a multi-million pound contract from BEIS, bringing economies of scale plus the CA's experience in dealing with consumers of all kinds and brand recognition. It fits in with the way National Trading Standards (NTS) was set up to deal with the problem that local TS teams didn't see the bigger picture or share data. The CA work with NTS as well as local TS so they can feed in to their national intelligence. AFAIK none of that involves sweet old dears knitting.
Local TS teams could take over the provision of a full-time service fielding questions and complaints (many of which won't be within their remit[1]). Or they could pass the work to the LA's generalist call centre (where it'd be dealt with along withy complaints about bins, litter, noise, etc etc). But then either the national database would disappear or some new body need to be set up to run it.
[1] Even if the problem is square within the remit of TS there's the issue of geography - eg a consumer P who lives in Accrington buys a dangerous pump from a trader in Barnsley which was imported by a company in Colchester. Which is the "local council department" that P should contact?
What about these people?
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