Stopping a socket switch being turned off

[john james]

That she doesn't normally do that.

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

The problem with elderly mothers is there comes a point where what's normal no longer applies.

[john james]

True, but they usually do just keep doing what they had been doing with stuff like turning off things that don't appear to need to be on anymore, and don't usually start going a lot further and unplugging everything that is plugged in regardless.

If she does start unplugging things, then is the time to do something about that, not make it impossible to unplug anything on the off chance she might start unplugging anything that is plugged in because its very unlikely that she will start doing that.

[Bob Eager]

No, if she can't turn it off then she'll leave it alone. That's the way she is.

[Brian Gaff]

Lakeland used to do them as well, I've not seen them lately. I wonder what the issue is? Brian

[Huge]

[28 lines snipped]

They're 'aving a laugh.

[Adam Funk]

Ha! "Nicht für fingerpoken" indeed.

[Adam Funk]

I'll bite --- what's dangerous about them? The only thing I can think of offhand is that the contact areas might be "shortchanged" because of the thickness of the plastic between the plug & socket (but you could argue that British sockets are overengineered enough to handle that missing 1 mm).

[Mike Barnes]

A bit OTT, but...

Seriously, though, I'd start by covering the surfaces of the switches concerned with brightly-coloured self-adhesive labels, cut to size, and see whether a simple reminder does the trick.

[Peter Andrews]

I had a similar problem at our village hall, the switch for the fridge/freezer is about 6" above the worktop and people would push stuff backwards and knock the switch off. Simple solution - drill a 2mm hole in the top edge of the switch and drop a modified paper clip in the shape of a P in the hole, easily removed if you need to turn off but stops it being accidently turned off.

Peter

[Nightjar]

but...but...but...it's for the chiiildren.

[Mike Clarke]

Some people are obsessed with switching off before removing the plug and not switching on until after inserting it. That would not be possible with those attachments.

[John Rumm]

An unswitched socket would seem like a reasonable solution in that case...

[Bob Eager]

It's an existing double socket.

I'm amazed these things don't seem to be around. They worked well for the casual 'remember NOT to turn this off'...

[Chris French]

In message , Bob Eager writes

I wonder if a toggle switch cover would fit/could be modified? Something like this:

[Bob Eager]

Yes, I may try that. I saw them when searching for the original product - which is quite similar but just a bent strip of polypropylene or similar.

[John Rumm]

Yup I realise yours is, I was commenting on Peter's case.

or fit:

[Scott M]

Bloody hell. While I have no time for people with clipboards crowing about H&S, drilling a hole in an electrical outlet and having a bit of metal poked into it is possibly the most stupid thing I've heard this year.

I'm all for a bit of lateral thinking and inspired bodging but I wouldn't do that at home let alone in a kitchen used by the "public".

[charles]

[Snip] the hole is not in the outlet. As I read it it's in the switch. Obviously he would have checked that the paper clip wasn't going anywhere it shouldn't.

[Adam Funk]

Sure, but that doesn't explain why those gadgets were "withdrawn for safety reasons". (It's also not possible with unswitched sockets, which are allowed.)