RANT alert....Outdoor Christmas decorations and outdoor sockets

[No Name]

Some years ago I installed some outdoor sockets of various types including the ones below:

and

all around the exterior walls.

There are 8 outdoor sockets in total all on a single RCBO. (kept outdoor circuits separate from internal stuff for better discrimination and integrity)

The sockets all get used for lawn mowers, jet washes, leaf blowers, vacuum cleaners, strimmers etc...... with no problems whatseoever.

Then Chrimbo comes knocking and we decided to splash out on some external decorations to try and make an effort for a half decent Christmas after a rather rubbish year due to COVID.

The Christmas decorations arrive via courier..... I set to work installing said Christmas decorations......

They all come with what I call a "wall wart" that is much bigger than a typical 13A wall plug and is a "PSU in a plug case"

Some of theem came with a "wall wart" that looked like this but in white:

You cannot get one of these physically into the outdoor socket due to the height of the "wall wart" and the external socket door.....

not only that even when you get a "wall wart" that will physically fit into the socket, you cannot close the socket door onto the "wall wart" to provide weather protection.

Due to the prevalence of "wall warts" for Christmas decorations, we appears we are being forced to buy these:

or this:

Its clear that other people have the same issue as both items are on back order so CPC are clearly out of stock!

Why cant a simple 13A plug be used to feed an IP66 rated transformer/PSU which in turn then feeds the Chrismas decorations?

Thank you for reading my rant and making me feel better for getting it off my chest!

S.

[Andy Burns]

I think Jordan says this type, which can accomodate wall-warts, is a british general

Cant see it on the BG website though ...

[Andy Burns]

looks like P/N WP23L

[F]

Check pond equipment suppliers.

[Tricky Dicky]

Some of these light sets have mode controls for different lighting effects and I suspect trying to make something like that IP66 rated would make the sets very expensive. I have one set of exterior lights that has a wall wart but the mode control is several metres away from it and just a few metres from the start of the lights. The manufacturer warns not to expose the control to the weather ideally it should be inside. It kinda makes all the extra wire between the control and wall wart redundant. My solution is to utilise an old exterior socket box from a failed socket as an interim housing for the control allowing me to utilise the long length of cable to get back to my power point which is the same as the second example attached to the garage wall underneath the eaves.

Richard

[Biggles]

No Name [e-mail]> Wrote in message:r

Have you tried garden centres? I got one a few years back from my local garden centre, about 20 quid as I recall. Holds a 4 socket extension with lots of room for wall warts.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I would suspect they do not do this due to selling them all over the world with different slid on plug bottoms. Unfortunately nobody bothered to check the local size restraints and so some do not fit the boxes. I'd not want an outdoor psu lying about either, most people bring them indoors and plug them in which of course then means they need to leave a window open.

Brian

[No Name]

The thing is, you'd think the Christmas light/decoration designers would consider the user case of a customer wishing to plug into an IP66 compliant outdoor socket?

Is it any wonder why people indulge in bodgineering which either results in dangerous electrics or the RCD/MCB/RCBO tripping due to ingress of water/moisture?

I know someone who thinks its acceptable to use a 4 way extension lead in the following manner:

Plug the 13A plug into a IP66 outdoor socket and is able to close the socket lid down.

Sets up all his Christmas lights and plugs the 4 wall warts into the four way.

Then gets a load of Tescos plastic carrier bags to wrap the 4 way board with the 4 wall warts and leaves it all wrapped up in the middle of the lawn!

I've told him supermarkets now use PLA for carrier bags as its environmentally biodegradeable but his attitude is that it will be good enough for a few weeks of Christmas!

S.

[charles]

I've seen the leads going throug a letter box.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Use a short extension lead wrapped in a plastic bag...

[David]

My solution back in the day (for pond lights and a pump) was to get a plastic storage box with a clip on lid.

I then bored holes in the bottom of approximately the same diameter as the cables and fed a long mains cables through (outdoor extension lead) by removing the sockets from the end then fixing the four way strip back on inside the box.

Similar for the leads to the local lights and stuff.

Stood on a couple of bricks this was weather proof and worked for years. It was also under a hedge, though. As others have said you can also get purpose made boxes with rims that seal over the cables.

These days I am fortunate enough to have outside waterproof sockets which are under cover and so can fit temporary Xmas lights with little risk of rain.

Cheers

Dave R

[Dave Plowman (News]

Cost? Most domestic decorations come with a long thin lead that allows you to have the wall wart indoors - and the cable going via a window.

Having the entire thing outside makes it more likely to be stolen.

[Dave Plowman (News]

They're usually thin enough to allow a window to be closed over them.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

And another thing. Why do so many wall warts and adaptors get designed in such a way that commonly available socket bars or the socket placements precludes they use without obscuring the adjacent sockets?Also why do so many have the low voltage cable coming out of the opposite side, or employ a really flimsy snap on adaptor for each countries plug, so new kick or glancing blow makes it fall to bits. And while I'm on this rant. Why to wall warts in general seem to have no internal protection for a fault, no fuse, no heat sensor, nothing, and even worse are held together by the shortest self tapping screws the makers could find and some apparently self destructing glue? Brian

[Jonathan]

My problem is that the cable caomes out of the top rather than the bottom making it much harder to use a three way adaptor as the wires get in the way and the wall wart cannot easily be put in the top of the adaptor.

Jonathan

[Chris Green]

... and also "cable out of the top" doesn't conform to electrical standards so shouldn't really be legal to sell.

[No Name]

and that reminds me... some IP66 outdoor sockets are appearing with circular push-out plugs AT THE TOP to allow 20mm conduit to be fitted via a suitable terminator.... water will seep in!

I always run cables to the bottom or side of the outdoor socket. Even if I dont use the top, the push out plugs are definately NOT water tight!

[Dave Liquorice]

The only ones I have that problem with are large real copper and iron bases transformer ones. Modern (ie anything up to 10+ years old) SMPU's are all small and fit within the footprint of a 13 A plug top.

This being the exception to the "fit within the footprint of a 13 A plug top". Agreed cable should come out of a wall wart in same place as the cable from a plug top.

Only have a couple of "international" wall warts. All the others are

13 A only.

Hum, of the few SMPSU wall warts I've disected they have all had small value internal fuse. Remember the smallest value (PAT acceptable) replaceable "plug top fuse" is 3 A. The wall warts electronics will have protected a 3 A fuse long before it has even noticed there is a problem let alone blew.

Only wall warts I have that use screws to hold the covers on are ancinet iron based things. Everything else is glued/friction welded and in my experience pretty difficult to open.

[ARW]

I agree