Just seen in another place; I don't think it's been mentioned here:
Owain
Completely justified. In our Village Hall I had to change 2 power sockets since they didn't make proper contact with plugs - having had the terminals forced apart by "Safety plugs".
What's a 'socket cover'? TW
Mumsnet comforting device :-|
I've seen the things you get from Mothercare to stop babies sticking teaspoons in sockets. I've see the sockets with flaps in front like you get when they are set into the floor. I don't see why anyone should campaign to have them banned, either of them. Is it maybe something else? TW
I met David (Socketman) once. Three of us got into an extended debate on one of the Which magazine forums about the merits or otherwise of Europlugs. I decided we should meet for a pint. Geography prevented this but I met David in Edinburgh one afternoon (for a coffee). Very nice chap.
His argument was that 13A sockets/plugs were *designed* safe and don't need such covers.
Some of them make it possible to insert metal objects into the live pins, which is impossible without the 'safety' covers
Others of them damage the socket contacts, making poor contact and overheating more likely when the 'safety' covers have been remnved
I do seem to remember his argument had some detractors here, but I can't remember on what grounds?
Socket covers are like 13A plugs with a very flat body. You can often insert them 'upside-down' so only the earth pin is inserted and thus the shutters are open.
Millions of lives are lost every day because of this flaw. Well, probably not, but they are a bit pointless. Just don't let the kids see the exposed pins on a bayonet socket, they'll be straight in there.
[I have a six way unswitched socket strip in my office which is mainly used for chargers. When not in use I plug the chargers in upside-down earth-pin-only to keep things tidy. Am I a monster? Will my electricity leak out?]Cheers
On 12/02/2019 10:47, Clive Arthur wrote: [...]
It sounds like a handy place to store knitting needles in the spare holes of the power strip. TW
PS I once worked on a refurb site where someone had decided to join up two lengths of cable to make a long extension lead by fitting a socket on one tail and a plug on the other. But he had done them the wrong way round, the plug on the mains end. I still shudder at the thought.
TW
I had to point that error out to B&Q as their product demonstration board was wired up incorrectly.
Owain
Just curious. Why would one of those safety plugs be any worse for that than an ordinary plug?
It wasn't the covers- it was the 3 pin devices that plugged into the sockets he was tryingb to ban.
Whatever happened to technical education?
Love to see some figures on how many lives or injuries have been saved by fitting those dummy plugs.
Horrible website, layout/fonts and verbose content before getting to the point.
Looks like the main objection is that the covers are unnecessary as the
13A socket is so safe: but what about the sleeving that modern plugs have on the line and neutral pins? That wasn't is the original spec - does he even mention this? Or maybe they aren't really needed and are an excess of safety - each generation wanting to be "safer" than the one before.Putting the socket cover in upside down isn't possible in most cases, especially with flush sockets, and would be possible with a plug.
There may be a lot of dodgy socket covers around, but the same could apply to plugs and wall warts - and the plastic earth pins of the latter can break off exposing the live pins.
If it makes people feel safer, why stop people spending their money?
Wrong width, length, position, shape of pins e.g.
Why should any have been saved? Have you tried inserting a teaspoon in a 13A socket as someone suggested above?
When I borrowed my grandpa's electric mower many years ago I found the same thing. There was a plug with three pins in a line (*), and a corresponding socket. The plug was on the long length of cable that plugged into the wall, and the socket was on the short lead of the mower. I'm not sure whether it was a manufacturing fault or a mistake made by my grandpa, so after disconnecting from the wall, I rewired the plug and socket the opposite way round and kept quiet about it. With the plug and socket connected together, it would have taken very close scrutiny to determine which was the plug and which was the socket - which is why I only noticed it when I came to disconnect the mower from the ext cable to disentangle it.
When I was sorting out a client's broadband problems a few years ago, I found that he had connected several lengths of BT plug extension cable the wrong way round, using BT multi-way adaptors as a gender-changers (I forget the exact details). No real shock risk, but highly unconventional. Full marks for ingenuity in achieving it...
(*)
I'm not sure exactly when it stopped, but I guess sometime in the 1970s (along with a lot of British industry on strike) or early 1980s (manufacturing recession)
Owain
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