because they aren't made to any particular tolerance. Often, to get the strength on a plastic 'pin' they are oversize and distort the socket into which they are plugged. When you fit a real plug it doesn't make good contact anymore, resulting in arcing. Certainlt that what I found in our Village Hall where the local playgroup fitted them.
Yup it is a bit busy...
While true it goes quite a bit deeper than that. The main thrust being if you plug something into a socket that does not match the tolerances specified in the spec, you risk damaging the socket. Not to mention the covers themselves frequently make it easier rather than harder to abuse a socket.
BS 1363 has been updated several times over the years. The most recent revision in 2016. The changes have reflected both improvements in the original spec (e.g. sleeved L & N pins), and also new developments / changes in use, like applications for electric vehicle charging.
Many of the socket covers are easy to insert upside down since their back plate is flimsy. You insert the earth pin and then push. The cover snaps in half leaving the earth pin driven home in the socket[1] and the L&N hole uncovered.
[1] Will not work on the better recent socket designs that need the presence of all three pins with the right relative lenghths, and to spec chamfers on the pin ends.If the socket meets the spec, the boarder area is too wide to allow a normal plug to be inserted upsize down.
(although note that many extension leads to not actually meet this spec)
True, but that is not an argument that supports use of socket covers.
If they were "harmless" you could make that argument. Since however they actually create new hazards, you can't IMHO.
If you use a socket cover and bend the contacts in the socket, its more likely to overheat and result in a fire later.
With some covers they even make it possible to slide a metal object into a socket, when it would not have been possible without the cover fitted.
Certainlt that what I found in our
Try telling "baby orientated" mothers that such stuff (that feeds a paranoia) is not needed! There is a feel good factor in spending cash on such things!
Because they seem to be the norm in public places. So spending your money.
You'd need two to do any damage, since all sockets are shuttered. Good luck finding a toddler with that death wish.
Ah - OK. I've never looked at one. So it can be made accurately enough to be inserted, but so badly it damages the contacts.
Quite.
yes. Basically too big.
Worse than that, Dave. Never underestimate the infenuity of children. A clever child can use the so-called safety cover to open the shutters and render the socket dangerous:
or
There should be a poster and leaflets at Customs Inbound, Schools, etc., whose _working_ title could be "BS1362/3 for the Naive" with something more tactful actually printed.
There is, downstairs from where I am, a fridge/freezer immigrated from Denmark. The owner's brother had plugged its European
2-pin+earth plug into two holes of a British socket, and her cherished PC was similarly powered. He had already been living in England for some while, and should have known better.The lecturer's bench of an Ancient University physics lecture theatre had been updated to modern 13A sockets, and nobody knew that the live and neutral wires were transposed. A lecturer's wife had, in routine use, a sewing machine, metal-bodied, which had its neutral and earth wires transposed. One day, he chose (I know not why) to demonstrate said machine on said bench ... . He did survive.
Give them the electricians bill for replacing all the sockets they damaged, and they will soon feel different! ;-)
Many have the wrong profile on the pins such that they can snag on entry and bend the terminals rather than pushing them aside as they pin is supposed to.
What do you mean by safety plug? I've seen those with a wider bit on the earth pin are those what you mean?
Those are meant for special uses. I still have adaptors without shrouded pins, and to be honest with no children here its impossible to touch them . Brian
I'm surprised they were not just sitting at home filing the bits down to fit. Brian
But why have them at all? Sockets are shuttered. I know if i want to bodge a europlug into the 13A socket I need just the right sized knitting needle to operate the shutter on the earth pin to let it in..... grin :-)
Brian
By definition it?s impossible to know that.
Not surprising given that injection moulding of plastic isn?t as accurate as with metal pins with thickness.
You might drop a knife or some metal foil or some wire, and might grab for it without realising that it was touching the live non-shrouded pin of an ancient and incompletely inserted plug.
Probably me.
A child was killed when he plugged 13A plug with a bare flex attached to it (from an oven swap) into a socket.
I have had several schools, nurseries etc remove the socket protectors.
However Fatally Flawed is still full of bollocks
Quote "To demonstrate this we show the hand of 15 week old Logan against the face plate of a socket. We removed the shutters from the face plate and asked Logan?s mother to push his smallest finger into the socket hole as far as she could. You can see from the centre photo (taken from behind the face plate) only the very tip of his finger appears through the hole, it would go no further. The standard requires that all sockets be tested to ensure that a pin has to be inserted a distance of 9.6mm into the socket before it makes contact with any live parts. We cut the plastic pin of a socket cover to be exactly that length, and then inserted into the socket hole. By comparing the right hand photo with the one of Logan?s finger you can easily see that there is no way that his finger could reach live parts, even without the shutters present! It was some weeks after this photo was taken that Logan started to crawl and explore things for himself, and by then his fingers were even bigger."
And you might get a shock, but the chances of that doing any harm is very small. You're 67.92% more at risk walking to the shop to buy a new adaptor. Probably.
Cheers
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