Dumb question ? - fridges / extension leads

[Jules]

TBH, i've never seen an issue with higher-powered 115V devices (e.g. things like carpet cleaners), nor with fixed wiring at 240V (the fixed wiring for our cooker, drier, well pump, water heater etc. don't seem any beefier than UK equivalents).

The problem seems to be with the cables sold for "240V consumer use" in the US - e.g. the last few feet of 'flex'* for the cooker, drier etc. - as these seem to be massively over-specced for the job (I assume someone had a H+S wibble about it once, and now everyone's stuck with a crap standard).

• yeah, right.

US plugs/sockets for 240V use are similarly ridiculous, and like something out of the ark. OTOH US folk find the massive fused UK 13A plugs hilarious, so it works both ways :-)

cheers

Jules

[pcb1962]

I've always been amused by the warning on this item in the RS catalogue:

"WarningThe free end of these cable assemblies must be terminated prior to inserting the mains plug into a live socket"

[Theo Markettos]

We have three fridges chained on two 4-way adaptors and haven't had any starting problems. (There's only two sockets on that side of the room and the other one is used by the toaster so no other way to plug them). I hadn't thought about the inrush current when there's a power cut and they all startup together... but the inrush /was/ a problem when I put one on a plugin power meter and it tripped the 1KW software-set overcurrent. Set the overcurrent to 3KW [1] and it was fine).

Presumably there are big problems after a power cut when everyone's appliances pull their inrush at the same time, which is when I might expect voltage drops and starting problems.

Theo

[1] I'm not sure 'overpower' is the right word, but on this meter you set the maximum power draw rather than current.

[Ron Lowe]

"Warning

I was reaching round behind some equipment in a 19" rack a few years ago ( a bad idea! ) and got a 240v whack.

Inspection revealed the cause. The panel had a standard IEC mains inlet. However, the equipment panel was too deep for the rack, and with the mains lead plugged in the back, the panel wouldn't shove fully in to the rack.

Some well-meaning individual had gotten a bare mains lead, and threaded it in through a hole in the back panel, thus providing a low profile mains input solution.

However, rather than disconnecting the IEC inlet, they soldered the new mains lead directly onto the inside of the IEC connector, leaving the external IEC pins live.

I was less than impressed.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Modern fridges and freezers have a bit of a delay before starting. Older ones don't.

I remember an incident when I was living in London in the early

1980s. Power tripped out to a large supermarket (Safeway in Brunswick shopping centre). They couldn't turn it back on, until they'd gone round and switched off a good number of the fridge/ freezer cabinets.