Why Tom Scott Is WRONG About The British Plug
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🕐 TIME STAMPS
00:00 - Intro
01:06 - The Great Plug Off
01:32 - Shutters
02:57 - Insulation
03:53 - Fuse
09:14 - Earth
10:53 - Orientation
11:26 - Outro
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@thinklist 11 ай бұрын
👕Check out the "UK Plug, Watch Your Step" T-Shirt 👉 thinklist.co/products/uk-plug-watch-your-step
@proudofyourroots9575 10 ай бұрын
Oh look, Aussie trying to make money off a British thing. And no one ever was shocked.
@spookyghost7524 10 ай бұрын
9 years is a bit of a stretch for a gotcha vid
@djsarahjones 10 ай бұрын
Here in the UK we only have 3 pin plugs. Not 2 Pin. I don't know where you found those deadly things that go in the Earth pin to expose the Live and Neutral of a socket. I've never seen them and can't think what they could be for. I do think our plug is over designed. I kinda like the European myself. Mainly for the fact. Most of the plug goes in to the wall outlet. Instead of hanging out. They are the easiest to plug in without looking too. 👍
@seamusbyrne7820 10 ай бұрын
Seems like another subjective comparison between two things which are both involved in design evolutions if safety issues are identified. Lost interest rapidly at the presentation style.
@PF-gi9vv 10 ай бұрын
Almost everything you said in this video is incorrect, it was like watching the MSM news to brainwash you with all of its lies.
@dc4851 11 ай бұрын
I would say the shutters are more to stop metal being stuck in the holes rather than fingers
@killuazoldyck1352 11 ай бұрын
with RCD or RCBO protected circuits there is little danger from sticking metal objects into a socket.
@Gizmos10 11 ай бұрын
The point of the shutter is to prevent someone from being put in that situation in the first place
@dc4851 11 ай бұрын
@@killuazoldyck1352 redundancy is always good
@fredriksjoblom5161 11 ай бұрын
@@killuazoldyck1352That is simply not true. If you stick a metal object in the neutral as well as the live hole you can pass around 100 amps through your body before triggering any protective devices what so ever. And in case you are human, there is literally NO possibility of cramming one of your fingers in there. Clearly the purpose of the shutters is to stop the ingress of something that would actually be capable of entering the hole in the first place.
@killuazoldyck1352 11 ай бұрын
@@fredriksjoblom5161 i you managed to get metal objects in both live and nuetral at exactly the same time then maybe, but if you touched either the live or nuetral more than 5ms before the other then the RCD or RCBO would trip. i agree that the shutters are not for finger protection, also where would the 100A come from in a 16A or 32A protected circuit?
@phillane4125 11 ай бұрын
The shutter is more there to stop objects getting shoved in the holes, i.e. a knife, toys etc rather than fingers
@bcfuerst 11 ай бұрын
A function that can be added to any Schuko receptacle for like 50 Cents if needed.
@Bunny99s 10 ай бұрын
@@bcfuerst Right. We also have Schuko extension cords with 3 or more sockets which have "shutters" built in. They are not "rotate" shutters like those you mentioned that can be inserted but simply require a roughly equal force on both shutters to open. If you apply force to one it would jam up and don't move. I like our Schuko plugs :) Though as a trained electromechanic I do see the advantage of having an actual polarized plug / socket. That's one of the main issues with Schukos that you can swap them around. So most devices need a switch that cuts both wires.
@charlesbridgford254 10 ай бұрын
That's true. The sizing and offset of the holes/terminals prevents fingers touching live parts.
@TricksterRad 10 ай бұрын
@@Bunny99s to be fair, devices having a switch that cuts both L and N is gonna be a thing even on polarized plugs, because you never know if someone happens to have their plug wired the other way around because no one bothered to check and it works most of the time anyway
@whatusernameis5295 10 ай бұрын
I've seen american plugs like that too. I dont know if they have an actual name
@garrymca8336 11 ай бұрын
I think you've misunderstood the point in the protective shutters. They're not really to stop toddlers fingers (they're not THAT big) but more to stop anything being inserted like a metal coat hanger (which were very popular in the UK pre-2000's), pins, knitting needles or even a bent fork or similar type of object.
@MisterEE100 10 ай бұрын
But that's how you light cigarettes in prison
@jsnsk101 10 ай бұрын
i think they are to stop aussies putting their pee-pee in the hole
@ASBO_LUTELY 10 ай бұрын
@@MisterEE100 nah mate, AA battery and foil gum wrapper to short it out is how you make a prison lighter.
@hoodagooboy5981 9 ай бұрын
@@ASBO_LUTELY And you know this....how?
@meinnase 9 ай бұрын
And who do you think would try to shove metal into outlets while being unable to circumvent the shutter? Thats right, toddlers.
@AsahelFrost 11 ай бұрын
The fuse in the plug protects the cable from the plug to the appliance, not the cable in the wall. This means you can use thin flexible cables for (say) a table lamp with a 3A fuse in the plug to prevent the thin cable melting should a fault occur in the lamp.
@thinklist 11 ай бұрын
Oh that’s what it’s for…
@furTron 10 ай бұрын
And I wish we had fuses in schuko plug. Think about all those fires cuased by overload extension cords. An extra fuse costs nothing but is a hugeeee fire hazard protection
@nufgorf 10 ай бұрын
@@furTron Huh?? the fuse allows 20 Amps through a 13 amp socket without tripping - and somewhow protects against fire hazard???? While there are a few situations where it may help, the fact UK houses still have electrical fires from overloaded cables shows its very over-rated protection of under-rated wiring.
@grahvis 10 ай бұрын
@@thinklist . I had a small compressor, the plug had a 13 amp fuse rather than the 3 amp one it should have had. When something got caught in the belt, the motor overloaded and that was an end to it. Had the fuse been 3 amp, that would have blown, and the motor would have been unharmed.
@MisterEE100 10 ай бұрын
@@nufgorf The fuse can be of any rating for the cable. If you understand fuses, then all fuses will blow over their rated. MCBs especially don't trip at their rated. Normally a correctly gauged fuse will blow before an MCB trips. So if the cable is rated for 5 amp then the fuse would be 5 amp, if the cable is 3 amp, then the fuse would be 3 amp. Maybe you think there is only 1 fuse that does anything... I assure you, it is not the case. So as a scenario, your 3amp cable on your table lamp shorts through to earth but not enough to dead short, lets say it draws 10amps. What is going to happen to your 16/20amp MCB fused circuit? nothing. What will happen to the 3amp rated cable, it melts and causes a fire. Fuses should be in all plugs no matter what country. Also, RCBO's or whatever you call it in your country should really be standard by now.
@ikitclaw7146 11 ай бұрын
Stepping on a UK plug during the night is a right of passage, the pain is exquisite! not even lego can compare to it lol.
@thinklist 11 ай бұрын
😆
@paulhancock3844 11 ай бұрын
I don't know anyone who has stepped on a plug. The sockets are switched, you don't need to unplug your device and get to leave the plug on the floor
@ikitclaw7146 11 ай бұрын
@@paulhancock3844 Obviously someone whos not been or had a kid with alot of electronics.
@MarkoVukovic0 10 ай бұрын
@@ikitclaw7146 my Alot of electronics never leaves his toys lying around. Your Alot needs some discipline. :P
@lztx 10 ай бұрын
@@paulhancock3844sockets are switched in Australia too! And we can get bottom or side entry plugs to have the same problem if we really wanted it.
@johncook1845 10 ай бұрын
I've used both types for decades - Best thing about the UK plug is that you need to pull it out by the plug sides (helpfully moulded to aid grip) & you can't pull it out by the cable. the Aussie ones forces you to pull on the cable\top screw... and can easily be pulled out unintentionally. Finally the UK plug when stepped on allows you to invent new swear words.
@talideon 9 ай бұрын
That's a matter of moulding, not anything inherent to the plug. Aussie ones could lie flat and have grips. You'll find plenty of Schuko plugs that allow you to do so.
@parapunter 9 ай бұрын
@@talideon Some AU/NZ plugs lie flat, but generally you buy an appliance with a moulded on plug. You don't have any say in whether it lies flat. All UK plugs lie flat.
@Ramog1000 9 ай бұрын
@@parapunter well you can always cut the cable at the plug and put on a new plug, you always have the choice of plug even its molded on.
@johnburns4017 9 ай бұрын
I have never stood on one, or know anyone who has stood on one. If you are stupid enough to leave one hanging around you deserve what you get. Most leave the plugs in the socket then switch off the the socket which is Double Pole switched.
@johncook1845 9 ай бұрын
@@johnburns4017 You don't know anyone??? You are in a conversation with one right now. Twas on a Christmas morning with many a plug and extension strewn across the ground, a careless tree adjustment while The Great Escape played in the background, Donald Pleasance just picked up a pin and Boomshanka - Festive swearing and hopping ruins the touching moment just as Sir Richard Attenborough trips Donald up.... I came to the realisation that if the Germans had of surrounded the camp with upturned UK plugs they would never had escaped...
@lindybeige 9 ай бұрын
What kills toddlers is when they stick something electrically conductive into a socket, like a piece of cutlery or steel knitting needle, not a finger. The thicker pins are great because they never bend and they grip the socket well, and don't rattle or fall out. Copper today is very expensive. The fuses are adjustable (you can put a 3 amp in instead of the 13). I have never in my life trodden on the pins of a plug. I benefit constantly from the fact that British plugs go in sideways, because they are neater and grip better, and very seldom get pulled out accidentally.
@TalesOfWar 9 ай бұрын
It takes a hell of a lot of time and/or use to loosen a UK plug. I only ever see them in hotels or b&b's and stuff where they're heavily used, but it's still far more difficult to accidentally pull them out compared to other plugs.
@mattymerr701 5 ай бұрын
This video is not a good representation of the utility of that Aussie/Chinese (in some places) style plug. Aussie plugs can be 90 or 180 degrees so that is not an issue. Aussie pins don't bend unless you put an obscene amount of effort in so that is no worries. They don't rattle or fallout like even the US plugs because they elastic force on them is more than high enough. the copper doesn't matter because aussie and UK circuits are designed the same now, and australian plugs are wired with low gauge wire good enough for the breaker, or they are fused extension boards.
@RazvanMaioru 5 ай бұрын
The European plugs are even better because they don't rely on the pins to stay in the socket at all, they use the side of the plug. The fuses are also unnecessary because there's fuses behind the wall (in whatever circuit it's plugged into), and most (except type C) plugs are also sideways, and reversable to boot! They don't have issues with coming out accidentally, but are also less likely to pull the socket out of the wall with them, which I've seen some UK plugs trying to do
@longiusaescius2537 4 ай бұрын
@lindybeige do they take up more space or not?
@longiusaescius2537 4 ай бұрын
@RazvanMaioru what's they exact name of them?
@GerinoMorn 11 ай бұрын
I grew up with euro plugs, but have been living with the uk ones for a while now (and I've made numerous plugs, extensions, alterations etc) - each plug comes with a diagram of wiring and lengths to cut your cables to. It's super convenient and to wire it "wrong" you have to do it fully intentionally, disregarding any instructions, and basically making life harder for yourself in the process...
@Drew-Dastardly 10 ай бұрын
Let's not forget that it is actually illegal in Australia to wire your own plug! LOL! You couldn't make it up!
@tyrand 10 ай бұрын
@@Drew-Dastardly wtf
@Drew-Dastardly 10 ай бұрын
@@tyrand It's a fact and even when you illegally wire your plug they can't send you on a prison ship because you are already there!!! 🤣
@timwatson682 10 ай бұрын
@@Drew-Dastardly So in the UK, it's no longer permitted to sell an item that does not have a ready fitted plug. If one excludes the chineseum variants, this is actually an excellent idea. Saves the hard of thinking getting their colours mixed up. But you're not going to jail for fitting one. You might, of course, find yourself in discussion with your friendly insurance fire investigator if the worst happened though ;-)
@RFC3514 9 ай бұрын
Er... how hard do you think it is to wire a europlug? It literally has two wires and it doesn't even matter which one goes where. And all europlugs (or schukos, etc.) from relevant manufacturers come with wiring diagrams as well. They're just not the size of a house and don't contain a useless fuse.
@video99couk 10 ай бұрын
Very few UK plugs have a 13A fuse installed. It's more usually 3A. This fuse protects the cable, which now only needs to be heavy enough to blow the 3A fuse should it be shorted out. A non-fused design has to carry enough current to blow a fuse box fuse if it gets shorted out, but generally it would catch fire first. So, win to the UK fused plug.
@ferrumignis 10 ай бұрын
Exactly, the guy is arguing from a position of ignorance on this point.
@andygozzo72 10 ай бұрын
@@ferrumignis actually if you buy a 'loose' plug to wire yourself, it is usually fitted with 13amp fuse, less common to find ones ready fitted with 3, or any of the other fuse ratings available
@ferrumignis 10 ай бұрын
@@andygozzo72 Yes, a loose plug will most always come with a 13A fuse, a competent person will then install the appropriate rated fuse for the appliance. Of course we cannot prevent the incompetent from installing plugs...
@neiliewheeliebin 10 ай бұрын
Why on earth would you think only having a 3A wire is a good thing?
@ferrumignis 10 ай бұрын
@@neiliewheeliebin Why on earth would you think having a heavy 13A cord on a device like e.g. a table light consuming 20W is a good thing? How do you think a 13A cord would help when the socket is capable of delivering 32A?
@garysoap7925 11 ай бұрын
I think the covers on the uk plug are actually there to stop a small Kid from shoving small things in the socket like a fin piece of wire, which removing the shutters and making the openings narrower will not really help with.
@danielch6662 10 ай бұрын
China uses a similar type I plug as Australia, and their sockets have the shutters. The most crazy part is Argentina use the same pin pattern, but with the polarity reversed!
@Monaleenian 10 ай бұрын
A "fin" piece of wire?? You is from London innit?!
@oliver.gilbert 10 ай бұрын
I have never heard of anyone that has broken the pins on a UK plug. But there is many stories of broken pins elsewhere
@pedtrog6443 11 ай бұрын
The pins on the NZ and Aussie plugs are pretty fragile these days and tend to get bent pretty easily.
@Samqdf 11 ай бұрын
That's the biggest problem I have with them.
@stephenbell9257 10 ай бұрын
And if a plug with slightly bent pins is plugged back into an Aussie or NZ socket current proper contact isn't made to to pin, which begins to overheat even at less than the rated 10A current. The overheating further worsens the contact resistance and eventually the contact and surrounding insulation is burnt up. This is a very common failure mode with these sockets and their greatest weakness.
@ethanlamoureux5306 10 ай бұрын
Here in the US with our similar thin blade-type plugs, even without using the weaker sleeved prongs, we still have problems with bent prongs that either won’t go in or won’t stay in or make poor contact. It’s also easy to damage the socket by pulling sideways on the plug, and then no plug will work right. Also, because we don’t use insulating sleeves on our plugs, it is really easy to get a shock off a partially inserted plug which will have exposed energized conductors. My opinion about UK plugs and sockets is that they seem to be quite well engineered and the complaints about them are minor.
@Samqdf 10 ай бұрын
@@ethanlamoureux5306 That makes sense as having one less prong alone would make it worse let alone having two in parallel which would make it a lot easier to work its way loose. At least with angled prongs it wouldn't have any vertical movement.
@mikeselectricstuff 11 ай бұрын
The bottom entry and sturdy pins also means that they don't pull out when the cord is yanked
@BedsitBob 11 ай бұрын
Bottom entry? Ooh Matron. 😁
@bcfuerst 11 ай бұрын
Is that supposed to be a good or a bad thing? Because something will give and if it isn't the connection to the wall it's going to be the cable itself or the appliance.
@ferrumignis 10 ай бұрын
@@bcfuerst They will pull out given enough force (had this happen plenty of times using power tools etc), but it's not like US plugs that will fall out of the socket if you so much as think about moving the cable.
@MisterEE100 10 ай бұрын
Uniformed plugs are great. All plus orient the same and come out the bottom side of the plug. Aussie Style, America, EU etc, the cable can come out any side and any way which is a bit insane. Just stick some cable in this plug from the front/back/top/bottom/side - I am sure it won't interfere with anything else.
@jsnsk101 10 ай бұрын
yeah, lived in the US a couple of years, you actually had to tie a knot with the extension cord and the thing you were using to stop that
@richardsherburn4816 10 ай бұрын
The fuse in the UK standard plug top is to protect the appliance cable. Imagine relying on 30 amp breaker, in the power distribution box, to protect against a short circuit within, say, a table lamp which is supplied via a small current capacity cable. In that situation the appliance cable would get very hot before the main breaker would clear the fault.
@Axel_Andersen 10 ай бұрын
Hmmm ... over here in Scandinavia typical table lamp is protected by the house 16 Amp fuse and from the looks of it that lamp cable is not going to be able to handle 16 amps ... but if you short circuit the cable, the fuse is gona blow before the cable realises what is happening ... I think the same applies to the 30 Amp fuse ie the fuse in the plug is pretty much useless expense.
@timmy7201 10 ай бұрын
@@Axel_Andersen Depends on the type and severity of the short... For example: Let's say the table lamp draws 2 Amps during normal operation, yet it's wire can handle up to 3 Amps. - _If the lamp is faulty and causes a zero ohm short, the current will spike shortly above 16A, tripping the breaker within milliseconds._ - _If the users replaces the light bulb with a stronger one, that draws 4 Amps, the 16 A breaker wont trip at all and the table lamps wire will slowly heat up._
@Axel_Andersen 10 ай бұрын
@@timmy7201 That is correct. However, how many times has this been a cause of fire? Serious fire? Much of the world thinks it (UK wiring) is not worth it. Re ring wiring (i'm no expert, mind you) how do you ensure that the ring is intact? How do you notice it? If the ring is broken then you have the potential of having twice the current rating going in *house* wires which I think is more serious than and lamp cord heating up?
@timmy7201 10 ай бұрын
@@Axel_Andersen Probably not a lot. Besides, there is just as much chance that someone replaces the UK plugs fuse with a to large value one....
@nickwinn7812 10 ай бұрын
@@Axel_Andersen If you have a partial short rather than a dead short, or a simple overload of an appliance Like a stalled motor for instance) your appliance cable will get very hot, causing the insulation to melt (rather dangerous) or possibly even a fire (also rather dangerous). It makes absolutely no sense to protect the cable in the wall against such scenarios but then to neglect to protect any cable form the wall to an appliance if that cable happens to be a smaller section than the wall cable.The majority of appliances are wired with smaller section cable than the fixed wiring of the house.
@carlschmidt8134 10 ай бұрын
I think in the frst round this mechanism still makes sense because children may not only try to stick their fingers in the holes, but maybe also other small metal objects.
@nickwinn7812 10 ай бұрын
When I was a kid and lived in an older house with pre-war wiring and round pin un-shielded sockets and plug pins, we were known to have simply wrapped the bared wires of an appliance arond the pins of the plug of another and then plugged it in so that we could get two things plugged in on the same socket. Has been known to make a bit of a bang when the wires get tugged and short together, rapidly followed by dark decending on the whole house! My brother also got a shock one time when plugging the radio with this arrangement. it was funny at the time but could of course have killed him.
@johndododoe1411 9 ай бұрын
Living in Denmark, we have made 2-prong shutters mandatory on all types of wall sockets, our own, the German and the French . These shutters are really simple and move out of the way when 2 pins are inserted at the exact same time, but block if some kid tries to insert one knitting needle at a time . There are 2 internal shutter designs used by factories, but the result and parts count is the same . For the ground pin, we simply moved the pin gripping clamp closer to the surface instead of that long pin, thus fitting the grounded plug top in the same shallow cutout as the ungrounded one (until ca. 2015 when Schneider changed the shape for no reason).
@noelcollins1960 11 ай бұрын
The Australian pins are too susceptible to bending when withdrawing at an angle or being stepped on, because non-electricians just don't give a sh1t. With the reduced metal cross section due to the insulated sleeve I see quite a few cases where the active or neutral pin has snapped off and stays in the socket.
@brefasdra 10 ай бұрын
I have bent many a plug pin, in fact when i was a kid i have been super dodgy with a US 2 prong plug if it supported 240v 50hz but didn't have a deathdadapter handy, just grabbed the pliers, and bent the bastards worked fine (most of the time anyway, occasionally i knocked it and it came lose and you could hear the arcing, have to scramble to stop that).
@ryanclarke2161 10 ай бұрын
Lol I can tell you right now as a sparky that we don't give a shit either, pull as hard as you want, it'll hold.
@simonneep8413 9 ай бұрын
Never in the history of the universe has a UK plug lost against a bending force, If that's not engineered for greatness then I don't know what is! Don't get me started on the US plugs that fall out the wall if you just look at them wrong, and pins that don't resist the slightest of bending force.
@carlgoldsmith6225 9 ай бұрын
@@simonneep8413 oh i dont know lots of slightly fucked plugs in my workshop normally from my brother running them over pins are metal plugs are plastic....
@miscbits6399 9 ай бұрын
it doesn't help that the stamped pins tend to work-harden over time with the microflexing they get plus any heating effects - and become more brittle The design was chosen back in 1926 BECAUSE australian makers could produce stamped pins cheaply and easily, whilst most didn't have the tooling for round ones
@AdamsCarWashVids 11 ай бұрын
8:42 The Aussie plug that is currently in use today actually was originally first produced in the USA, specifically from Hubble, as there was a time when Australians used US plugs and nobody seem to actually check the voltage so Electrical things kept blowing up, this standard is also was once known as Nema 10-20 which was rated for 10 A at 250 V, and 15 A at 125 V, But that rating has now been upgraded to 20 A
@dougbrowning82 10 ай бұрын
More interesting facts about Hubbel plugs. Hubbel's first plug was the NEMA 2-15 tandem plug, originally designed to fit in an adapter that screwed into a standard Edison light socket (receptacle outlets didn't exist yet) in 1908. In 1912, he improved on the design with the parallel pronged NEMA 1-15 (IEC type A), and the first outlets were designed to accept both types. The 1920s saw the introduction of the grounded (earthed) NEMA 5-15 (IEC type B), NEMA 6-15, and NEMA 10-20 (IEC type I). Although the plugs existed earlier, the NEMA standards didn't come into effect until the 1940s.
@jamesslick4790 10 ай бұрын
@@dougbrowning82 'Hubbel's first plug was the NEMA 2-15 tandem plug, originally designed to fit in an adapter that screwed into a standard Edison light socket' You can STILL find these adapters today! I own a VERY OLD (1870s) house (Pittsburgh, PA USA) and I actually have baseboard mounted EDISION socket outlets with these adapters inserted to this day! (Knob and tube wiring, and all!). These are in the one remaining circuit of the original (1910s?) wiring, since their only use is for nothing higher powered than a clock radio or a lamp (they are in two "spare bedrooms") they were left in place.
@dougbrowning82 10 ай бұрын
@@jamesslick4790 The only problem with knob and tube wiring is it's not grounded and old. They stooped doing it in the early 1960s, because it was so labor intensive, and romex was easier and cheaper. By the time they stopped doing it, they were already running it into metal junction and outlet boxes. But it could no longer compete with metal conduit, armored cable, and romex.
@jamesslick4790 10 ай бұрын
@@dougbrowning82 Yes, each conductor is strung by itself, so even with it being "ungrounded" requires twice the holes! But if one still has it, AND it hasn't been "fucked with" and the load is inconsequential (lights use LESS current now) and it's been in a dry condition it's "OK". The "problem with K&T is NOT that it's K&T...The problem IS CLOTH insulation. We old house owners KNOW this. The BIGGER problem is that early Non metallic (NM or even BRANDED "Romex") cables were likewise CLOTH insulated! IMHO that a BIGGER concern than "Knob and Tube"! Since because it's "cable" and NOT Knob and Tube It MUST be BETTER...Um NO.
@rogerphelps9939 10 ай бұрын
Cyprus is a British Commonwealth country that wisely continued with the British plug after independence.
@Lumibear. 10 ай бұрын
The thing I like about the British plug system is how solid and safe it all feels, and bar cheap Chinese knock-offs it rarely wears out under normal household use. By comparison ones that I’ve come across in some other countries (not Oz) are thinner, more fragile, and loose in the socket, with no wall switch so you can’t disconnect it without gripping it. For another plus if you step on a standard British plug, sure it hurts you, but it’s fine.
@redmercury77 9 ай бұрын
Yeah, some European schuko plugs sometimes work lose and become susceptible to arcing which never happens with UK plugs.
@Ramog1000 9 ай бұрын
@@redmercury77 more a socket problem than a plug one. But also usually a socket problem all over the world, since you have to have springy contacts in there and they can and will get looser over time (This also includes the UK ones btw. Usually takes a long time but ofc if you buy cheap sockets that don't really follow regulations this can happen far quicker). But atleast with the schuko you have the beefy ground springs that hold it in.
@bazwillis9758 10 ай бұрын
I noticed that you failed to mention how British plugs have the wire coming out at the bottom so the cable runs down the wall, out of the way instead of sticking straight out in the way even though you showed one of the latter examples in your video. It also prevents the plug getting pulled straight out of the socket via the cable. Also the thicker pins are a heck of a lot less likely to get bent out of shape. On a side note, stepping on plugs left on the floor doesn't happen as we aren't stupid enough to leave them there.
@Brian3989 10 ай бұрын
Also, most times you do not need to unplug an appliance, as the switch on socket will isolate the equipment.
@lachlanhunt 10 ай бұрын
There are variations of the Australian plug where the cord comes out downwards and to the right at a 45 degree angle, rather than sticking straight out from the wall.
@frederikjacobs552 10 ай бұрын
@@lachlanhunt I have some UK cables here where the cable comes out straight too. Trade? 😅
@katrinabryce 10 ай бұрын
And also, because we have switches on the sockets, you can just leave the plug in there and switch it off. In other countries, you would have to pull it out to switch it off.
@bazwillis9758 10 ай бұрын
@@frederikjacobs552 if you have they won't be for domestic use.
@usefulrandom1855 10 ай бұрын
Nearly all UK plugs are "moulded" now meaning they CANNOT be opened. There is a little door to change the fuse, but it does at least mean the neutral can not be left too long! Personally, I think the cable exit is the best thing about the plug, simply because furniture or whatever can be moved a little bit further back, in a small country space counts haha.
@dennisphoenix1 10 ай бұрын
Leaving the neutral long isn't a problem if the live is short .
@andygozzo72 10 ай бұрын
@@dennisphoenix1 the neutral SHOULD be left long, longer than the live, earth if used, the longest
@Thurgosh_OG 10 ай бұрын
@@andygozzo72 Yes, we used to get taught this stuff in school but for me that was back in the 80s.
@alanthorpe2022 9 ай бұрын
Ahem - first sentence should contain “…meaning they CANNOT be opened.” Now, carry on…
@usefulrandom1855 9 ай бұрын
@@alanthorpe2022 Not sure what you mean?
@RonLaws 11 ай бұрын
Electrically inclined Pom here! Must clarify, as a toddler i was unable to fit my little fingers inside the hole of an outlet. ridged plastic screwdriver toy on the other hand, uh, never seen my dad move so fast :D flat head screws on the faceplate ftw. if the toy was metal those shutters would have stopped me poking something metal in there though, until i figured out jamming something in the top one opened them up of course.
@PhillipParr 10 ай бұрын
One of the pros of the UK plug design is that the cable comes out of it at 90 degrees. This doesn't only make it easier to put furniture in front of it, but it acts like a natural strain relief for the cable as nobody tries to unplug it just by grabbing the wire.
@laurencefraser 9 ай бұрын
That's not actually an advantage of the UK style plugs, exactly, because the thing about the Australian style plugs is... there are variants that are pretty common that have the wire coming out diagonally down and to the right. The REALLY annoying ones are the devices with 'wall wart' transformers. most of them have the cable come out straight down... which is a bit inconvenient, actually. But sure, fine, we can deal with that... then the 'power strips' (we generally call them 'multiboxes' in my part of New Zealand, or did when I was growing up at least) have been designed to account for that... and then some bright spark makes a wall wart with the wire coming out the TOP... which, naturally, blocks the opposing sockets on a multibox that's been Explicitly Designed so that that Doesn't happen when the cables come out the bottom! And that's ignoring the tendancy of these things to stick out far enough to impinge upon adjacent sockets in Multiple directions. But yeah, while the 'wire straight out from the plug' style is pretty common, 'flat with the wire coming out at an angle' is hardly rare... and while a basic extension cable will tend to be the former, the plug on a cable leading to a multibox will usually be the latter, which is Very convenient... ... unless you need to put the multibox to the Left of the socket...
@PhillipParr 9 ай бұрын
@@laurencefraser wall warts are the worst. I have a vertical double sided single rank 45 degree sockets angle strip to power lots of "smart" stuff like that!
@klausstock8020 9 ай бұрын
One of the pros of Schuko plugs is that you can chose between "straight" and "90 degree" variants.
@SianaGearz 9 ай бұрын
@@klausstock8020 But you don't often get to choose, unless you're connecting a C14 device, appliance manufacturer has chosen for you, and what are you gonna do, ruin a perfectly good cord growing out of a device?
@chilleddriving1455 9 ай бұрын
No, that's a negative.
@cheeseburgerbeefcake 11 ай бұрын
An interesting aside - in my workplace (a UK education provider), we are not allowed to rewire plugs unless we hold a electrical certificate of competence, because of the issue you identified with the cavity for the neutral pin allowing an excessive length of cable.
@Bunny99s 10 ай бұрын
Not only that. The UK plug is a polarized plug and as such NEEDs to be wired correctly. Even though here in Germany and most of the EU we have euro plugs or Schuko plugs which are not polarized, pretty much the same rules apply that such installations should only be made by trained professionals. Of course inside a company for security and insurance / liability reasons no "average" employee is allowed to work on electrical installations of any kind.
@dennisphoenix1 10 ай бұрын
When I wire a 13a plug I intentionally leave the neutral and earth as long as possible so that in the event of the strain relief failing the live would be pulled out first leaving the neutral and earth connections intact.
@andygozzo72 10 ай бұрын
@@Bunny99s in many cases it makes no difference if the poles are reversed, depends on the appliance, such as a plug on a 2 core 'figure of 8' mains lead, it can be inserted into the device both ways, so wiring polarity in the plug is irrelevant
@robertbritton656 10 ай бұрын
@@andygozzo72It will make no difference to the operation of the circuit, but if polarity is reversed the switching devices would open the neutral conductor rather than the line conductor.
@andygozzo72 10 ай бұрын
@@robertbritton656 nope, i mean AFTER the switch, from plug and socket to device, many things dont have a mains switch in them these days, they use 'soft' switching, at low voltage, with the mains circuitry constantly powered , even those that do use mains switch, the polarity can still be irrelevant , devices such as portable radios that use the fig.8 lead have the mains go straight to the primary of a transformer, no switch in between, , devices such as digiboxes usually have a switch mode psu in, mains going almost direct to a bridge rectifier, rarely have a switch fitted before it, but do have a fuse, polarity wont matter also, although you could get the fuse in the neutral line if reversed, it'll still break the live to neutral circuit path , ... of items that do have mains switch, in some cases the switch is double pole, so polarity is usually irrelevant in those cases, ...in any electrical device, it shouldnt be possible for the user to come into contact with any part of the mains circuit under normal use circumstances, so polarity and whether switched in live or neutral or both wont make much difference ,
@MightyElemental 11 ай бұрын
So long as the plug/socket has the following, I'm happy: 1. Three (or more) pins (helps with orientation and secures it in the socket) 2. The cable is perpendicular to the pins (like with UK plugs) (I can't stand it when the cable sticks out of the wall like at 11:17) 3. The socket grips onto the plug (I especially hate US sockets because half the time, the plug can just fall out) 4. Switches on the sockets
@martinconnelly1473 11 ай бұрын
Switches on the sockets means you don't need to unplug the appliance when it is not in use. That way you don't have plugs falling pins up to be stood on. And who (apart from sadists) would leave it in the middle of a room anyway, all my outlets are on a wall, and a loose plug would be against the wall where it is unlikely I would ever be walking. That feature is a non-event as far as I am concerned. The fused plug also allows the appliance cable to be made with a wire matched to normal operating current. The fuse protects the appliance cable on the basis that if you have a 30 amp breaker on the circuit you do not want a 30 amp current cable for a 0.5 amp load appliance. If the current goes above the plug's fuse capacity it means there is already a fault in the appliance or it's cable. You don't want to be pulling 29 amps and having something overheating and starting a fire because the main 30A breaker has not tripped. It also means that the only thing that stops working is the faulty appliance, there is low risk of tripping off other things. Then there is the need for masses of supply cables and breakers for a modern house with a lot of power outlets that would be needed if using a radial circuit system. I am currently in a room with 9 outlets, the kitchen has 8, each bedroom has at least 3. All of them can be used for anything that can be plugged in and draws anything up to 13 amps. Need more outlets? Plug in an adaptor with a 13A fuse and have extra switched outlets for all those 5V 2A USB chargers you need these days. This video is guilty of doing exactly what the Tom Scott video is being accused of, being too patriotic by looking at Australian plugs through rose tinted glasses. Using less copper also has a benefit concerning the environmental impact of mining, refining and shipping all that copper.
@MightyElemental 11 ай бұрын
@@martinconnelly1473 did you mean to reply to my comment? It seems unrelated.
@martinconnelly1473 11 ай бұрын
@@MightyElemental It started off as a reply to the bit about switches but just grew into a more general comment.
@saudade7842 9 ай бұрын
Honestly, Idk if I've just always just used decent sockets, but I've never had a U.S. plug just fall out unless I tried to make it fall out, or just barely pushed it in. Also, they do make U.S. plugs with perpendicular cords, it's just that most of us prefer them to be parallel for convenience sake
@heyitsjay22 9 ай бұрын
Totally agree with your statement. Our US system is definitely inferior. UK plugs are great for older people as well since they are easier to grab with hand rather than fingers. Fuses and switches and cord at right angles, what is not to like.
@Kombivar 11 ай бұрын
That's easy for you to say... I was growing up in rural Poland in the house build pre WW2, in early 1990's right after wall collapsed the refurbishment in the ground floor fit some european earthed sockets, while on the first floor I still had the unearthed ones. For most of people, being zapped by mains voltage seems scary - for me, it was tuesday. Worse than that, the CH radiator is always grounded, so once I was drying some clothing on the electric one in my room when my mum entered, asking me why has the CH isn't running. With disbelieve I wanted to touch the CH radiator, however forgot to lift my other hand from the electric one with the wet clothes on - can you guess what happened next? So YES it is better than european standards even nowadays, if the fuse pops, you aren't in the darkness to find the ceramic fuse on the main panel (s**t, the polish installations was truly soviet invention) if you compare the two sides of once british empire, then you are right, some of the features are overengineered, H&S is at its peak absurdum, but at the end of the day - here in UK where I'm happily living now, I can fix my plug having the minimum knowledge and it speeds up a lot. I was electrocuted countless times in Poland, Here in UK in last 8 years - not a single one. So is it really so bad?
@nufgorf 10 ай бұрын
In modern countries, we go and flick a switch in the mains board rather than replacing a fuse. If a kid sticks a small metal object (since we can't fit a knife or spoon in them like giant UK plugs ) the "Safety switch" triggers and protects them. Seriously, I laugh and shake my head at every "UK plug Great" video that appears on my "reccomended by KZfaq " lists.
@ferrumignis 10 ай бұрын
You received many electric shocks many times, clearly you were not electrocuted unless you are posting from the afterlife 😁
@PF-gi9vv 10 ай бұрын
@@nufgorf He's talking about what happened years ago, all UK fuse boards has this facility now. What you don't seem to realise is, if the device goes into a sort circuit fault, the breaker may not trip as a short may only be say 8 amps, which can cause a fire but not trip the box, but a 3 amp fuse will blow to protect from fires.
@richiehoyt8487 9 ай бұрын
@@ferrumignis Perhaps you are right; certainly _I_ was told as a child that 'electrocuted' meant 'killed by electricity'. I would surmise that the term comes from the invention of the electric chair, as in 'to be executed by means of electric current', but I may just be engaging in folk etymology. I will say this though, even if it _is_ one of those words like 'decimate' that people insist on using incorrectly, and I don't necessarily say that it is, like with 'decimate', the practice has become so common that, de facto, it has all but become a correct use of the word, even if it is technically not correct. I know that I default to the term 'elecrocute', whether or not the event is survived, because it feels slightly pedantic (not to mention, awkward) to say 'electrically shocked' ('electric - shocked'? 'shocked with electricity', etc.) Sometimes, yes, you can say 'I _got_ an electric shock', but that doesn't always quite fit either. I don't know what the OED has to say on the subject, or whether Webster concurs... I rather suspect there are two schools of thought on this one, both of whom I expect strenuously defend their case; and then again, maybe not!
@klausstock8020 9 ай бұрын
You can buy self-resetting RCBOs and RCDs (like the Gewiss GW90902B). After tripping, they continue to monitor the circuit and reset automatically when the fault condition is removed. Downside is that they are much more expensive that regular RCBOs/RCDs. The Gewiss GW90902N goes for 400-500€ a piece -- and it's not suitable for home use. The GW90902B (suitable for home use) is probably even more expensive.
@randomcow505 10 ай бұрын
with how often you see fuses in stores in the UK I always thought that replacing them would be a big part of my life never had a single appliance blow a fuse
@Thurgosh_OG 10 ай бұрын
I'm in my 50s and have changed a few over the years (not always mine).
@miscbits6399 9 ай бұрын
Most of the time it's because when you bought a loose plug it only had a 13A fuse installed and until the 1980s, most UK appliances came with no plug due to many houses still having the old-style sockets
@TheEulerID 7 ай бұрын
It is extremely rare to replace a fuse in a plug, and if it does blow then it will be invariable because of a fault. I've had it happen with garden equipment, like running over a cable with a lawn mower. However, it's still nice to know it's there just in case.
@fanshaw 10 ай бұрын
Australian plugs frequently end up with bent pins, they are a complete nightmare to assemble with stupidly-tough friction covers, trying to hide them behind furniture leads to the cables being bent at right-angles, the urge to just yank on the cable to unplug them from the wall is immense, when you don't want them to fall out of the wall, they do, and its very difficult to locate and differentiate the socket holes by touch to align a plug when you can't see it directly.
@laurencefraser 9 ай бұрын
Oddly, despite using the same plugs, these are not, to my knowledge as a random who has lived here all my life, common complaints in New Zealand. Of course, at least when I was a kid, we were taught not to yank on the cables (pull the Plug instead. You'll get a better grip and not break the wires). People generally just... Don't hide the plugs that stick straight out behind furniture. The sockets get possitioned such that it's generally easy enough to arrange the furniture around them, or you use furniture that has gaps in the appropriate places (shelves with no backs, tables or beds with legs, that sort of thing), or you use the plugs where the cable comes out down and to the right rather than straight out the back (most powerstrips/multiboxes use this kind of plug on their cable.) Of course, for an awful lot of modern devices the argument about which direction the cable comes out is kind of moot, because there's a bloody great transformer box built into the plug, which brings its own issues. Cables falling out of the wall socket is a thing that just... Doesn't happen. I have no idea how or why this is an issue you encounter. I'll grant I know nothing about assembling the plugs/sockets, and will admit that trying to align the things blind, while technically Possible (you can get one pin the wrong socket, but if you do no other pin is going in Any socket), is a nightmare. I've never had a problem with bent pins, nor seen or heard of anyone else having such an issue on a plug that wasn't subject to fairly heavy abuse... but I have lived in a house where someone had managed to do SOMETHING to near on every socket that would have meant that you could never actually plug anything into them if not for the pins being able to bend Very Slightly without any actual problem (and bend right back to how they shoudl be upon being pluged into a normal socket). Still worked just fine without any actual issue at all other than being a bit harder to plug things in the first time.
@richardbaron7106 9 ай бұрын
@@laurencefraser - I've never had a problem with bent pins either, so must be an Aussie thing. I rewire a cable with side-entry plugs if they're going to be too close to furniture etc - it's much tidier than having to allow space for the standard plug. I lived in the UK for 9 years and while I see the benefits with the chunky UK plug, prefer the Aussie / Kiwi plugs because they're smaller. I found the Poms were good at over-complicating things unnecessarily 😂
@neontime 10 ай бұрын
Double insulated appliances in the UK still use the 13A plug albeit with a plastic earth pin (sometimes). The only two pin plug we have (not the same as the European one) is for shavers and sometimes rechargeable toothbrushes. It needs a "real" adaptor with the same 13A pins and a comparable socket on the back. The plastic thing shown in the video is not compliant. I've only ever seen them for sale in Asian type G countries.
@benedictearlson9044 9 ай бұрын
True, have never seen one in the UK and the compliant adapters are very solid, functioning just like standard 13A plugs.
@TalesOfWar 9 ай бұрын
You also can't (well, shouldn't be able to) plug the shaver plugs into a type C plug socket and type C plugs into the shaver sockets. The spacing allows it, but you need to give it a bit more force lol.
@matthewjenkins1161 10 ай бұрын
We don't use 2 pin plugs for double insulated appliances and I've never seen such an adapter. Your history lesson basically confirmed what Tom said, ie saving 25% scarce copper over usual methods of time, when everything was in short supply following WW2. We had rationing on many things until at least 1955. How do Aussie's protect the thin cable of say a table lamp, if it is plugged in to a socket that can also power an electric kettle? Surely the circuit breaker in the consumer unit can supply far more than the lamp flex is capable of?
@okaro6595 9 ай бұрын
Yes even double insulated devices need the ground prong to open the socket. It just is not connected to anything, sometimes it even is plastic.
@klausstock8020 9 ай бұрын
Aussies (and about everyone in Europe as well) protects "thin cables" by having a fuse in the device, or by designing the device in a way that no dangerous current can pass through the cable (self-limiting transformers, or lamp sockets which can only accept bulbs up to a certain wattage). Still, these "thin cables" are capable of transporting enough current to reliably trip the breaker in case of a short-circuit. PVC cables are rated for a maximum temperature of 60°C during normal use, but are safe for up to 150°C for 5 seconds in case of a short-circuit. Circuit breakers trip much faster in case of a short-circuit.
@edwardemberton8069 8 ай бұрын
Most countries use smaller breakers to allow for small appliance cables, which leads to much more nuisance tripping. Having a fuse in each plug means we can use much larger breakers.
@totherarf 10 ай бұрын
Just to let you know, the big selling point when round pin plugs were being replaced by "modern" square pin was the price! (I don't judge) The old 15A round pins were available with a fuse ...... it was actually screwed in and became a leg of the plug! We still use 15 and 5A round pin sockets. They are used for specific appliances like plug in lamps in a pub where you don't want the cleaner to plug the hoover in. Or a commercial stage lighting rig ...... again you don't want anything other than stage lighting to be plugged in to those eather! If I were being picky I would say having a plug that is both flat and does not encourage you to unplug by simply pulling the lead is also a good idea!
@YTANDY100 10 ай бұрын
@totherarf there were also round pin plugs with fuses inside like the modern ones and some times had both live and neutral fused 🙂
@CMDR_Hal_Melamby 10 ай бұрын
@@YTANDY100 now that's bloody dangerous
@YTANDY100 10 ай бұрын
@@CMDR_Hal_Melamby i know but they were made , maybe back in the early days neutral wasnt grounded 🙂
@okaro6595 9 ай бұрын
@@YTANDY100 That would be in the 19th century.
@YTANDY100 9 ай бұрын
@@okaro6595 maybe , but the plugs were still around in the mid 60s and early 70s and the house i lived in did have earth connected so yes it would have been dangerous in certain conditions 🙂
@MarkusSchaber 9 ай бұрын
German Schuko plugs come in both straight and 90° angled versions. The first just cannot have the pins standing upwards, the second one usually drops down with the pins pointing sideways, and is the ideal solution for the cupboard at the wall-problem.
@alexanderkupke920 9 ай бұрын
but to be fair, electrically it is inferior. Saying this being a German and an engineer.
@seneca983 9 ай бұрын
@@alexanderkupke920 In what way is it inferior?
@alexanderkupke920 9 ай бұрын
@@seneca983 first of all, the round pins of a schuko plug do not make a really good contact over a large area, if the socket is not build to a certain quality. That is way easier and more reliably to achieve with flat contacts. Second thing, nothing ensures that a ground connection is made properly, or that the ground connection is made first. especially if the ground in the socket might get bend out of the way by someone trying to insert a plug with brute force (It should not be possible, but I have seen too many weird things that had happened to sockets.). Third, which in general may not be a hughe problem, but with many electronical devices, it would be advantageous if the plug would actually have defined L and N Prongs. For general function it is not that relevant, but it has advantages regarding for example noise in audio components. With really old equipment like Tube radios depending on which way you plug it in, the internal chassis of the radio might be grounded (Neutral actually) or hot. (Ok, that one very likely is negligible these days.) In this regard close relatives to the Schuko like the French one with the ground prong in the socket or the Danish one with the ground prong on the plug are already better. Although I do not like the flat danish sockets, as they may allow exposed metal prongs, if the plug is not seated correctly. and the prongs on Schuko plugs do not have to be sleeved, other than the smaller, not grounded Euro plugs, as a Schuko socket has to have a certain depth to make those metal prongs impossible to touch, as they may only make contact from the point where the flat base of the pug is inside the sockets well.
@alexanderkupke920 9 ай бұрын
@@hardstyle905 see my reply and you will realize that a Schuko plug is electrically inferior to a number of plugs. Especially than the UK one. But sure, compared overall, it is still at the top end of the list. And looking at the recent australian plug for example, that thing has simply the advantage of being a way newer design.
@klausstock8020 9 ай бұрын
@@alexanderkupke920 If I wanted a good plug, and don't care about it's bulkiness, I'd use an IEC-60309-2 plug. Sadly, Perilex has died out - these were more compact than IEC-60309-2. Yup, microwave oven with a three-phase plug comes to mind.
@Mrbobinge 11 ай бұрын
Shocking it is. Here in Denmark they have two pins only. Earth-fault detection trips the relevant circuit breaker at the main board. The shocked culprit will usually scream loud enough to help pinpoint fault location.
@okaro6595 9 ай бұрын
Denmark dies use grounding with a third prong. However, as many use schuko plugs the ground does not connect. I wonder who smart ass decided that it was sensible to use different type of grounding than all the neighbors.
@philipbotha6718 9 ай бұрын
Brits mandate arc-fault interruptors these days which include earth-fault detection.
@Mrbobinge 9 ай бұрын
@@philipbotha6718 Shows how out of touch I am! Left UK in '75. (Ships' Lekky).
@fedemtz6 11 ай бұрын
I would to see a comparison with other plugs, specially the ones used in most of the EU. type C and F
@ThePixel1983 10 ай бұрын
Same, I want to see where you put our plugs and sockets.
@nickwinn7812 10 ай бұрын
EU plugs are truly awful in comparison to the UK ones. here in France I have melted a plug and socket (both termo plastic plastic rather than thermo setting plastic) by plugging in a 3kW electric radiator (drawing approx 12.5A) The plug was clearly marked as being rated to 16A and marked NF (norme Francais). Either the norme Francais (French standard) is not being met by manufacturers or it is inadequate. Pretty much all of the plugs you can wire in yourself here are very flimsy. it's also super hard to align them to plug them in and I have broken several in the struggle to do this. Rather annoyingly they pull out /fall out all too easily.
@entcraft44 9 ай бұрын
The Swiss type J is my personal favorite (as a Swiss person :P ) It is very compact and has all safety features (child-proofing shutters are not required but do exist). (Except the fuse) It is Europlug (type C) compatible like E and F, unlike the British type G. For a 230V 50Hz country, Europlug compatibility is a big plus. It is impossible to plug an earthed type J into any unearthed socket I am aware of. Schuko's and type F's can be plugged or jammed into various unearthed sockets that may still exist in older installations or in other countries. It exists in 10A and 16A, single phase and three-phase variants, and you can plug 10A into 16A, single phase into three-phase. It is quite rugged despite being small. Many old designs are bigger than necessary today because manufacturing capabilities have drastically increased. Though the nice compactness is often ruined with beefy "wall wart" style AC adapters, especially on power strips :( Also, you can plug 10A unearthed plugs into 2.5A Europlug adapters/extension cords. Those are illegal in Switzerland but if people buy things on wish e.t.c. that could be a problem. Also: The IEC seems to agree that it is a good plug, they introduced a 16A version with slightly altered dimensions as IEC 60906-1. This was supposed to become an European standard, though it was way too late for that. There is little to be gained with changing plug types, at a very high cost. South Africa uses it though.
@cleverca22 11 ай бұрын
the argument ive heard about the fuse, is that the wiring in the walls is rated for say 20A, and the circuit breaker stops anything over 20A but a malfunctioning device, can happily pull 20A thru its 1A cord, and set its own cord on fire the fuse in the plug protets the 1A cord, any time you reduce the current rating, you need a safety device to further limit the current
@thinklist 11 ай бұрын
Yep this is the problem if the fuse is to truly protect the appliance then it need to be sized correctly
@flatfingertuning727 11 ай бұрын
@@thinklist UL rated appliances have to be constructed in such a manner as to be unlikely to fail in a manner that would result in a current draw between 1A and ~50A. If damage to the cord causes a dead short, that will cause a residential breaker to trip within 1/30 second--fast enough that even the massive overload wouldn't ignite the wire. Doesn't always work perfectly, but it works pretty well.
@stuartcommon4651 11 ай бұрын
I reckon the Aussie convict got this one wrong, and going by the comments I'm not the only one, especially about the shutters being for anything conductive which would still pass through on the aus plug, and also the fuse being to protect the wire from the plug to the appliance
@thinklist 11 ай бұрын
Hey my uncle Ned takes offence to that
@stuartcommon4651 11 ай бұрын
@@thinklist better not show him then 🤭
@robichris 9 ай бұрын
Fused plugs are great! In Australia, when an appliance blew a fuse, we ad to go down to the basement to change the fuse at the fuse box. In UK a faulty appliance is isolated then and there.
@6F6G 10 ай бұрын
The purpose of the fuse in the plug is to protect the appliance cable, not the house wiring. Australian plugs may have narrow contact blades so the socket openings are too small to insert body parts but imagine the fun a small child could have with a straightened out paper clip. That's why shutters are good.
@katrinabryce 10 ай бұрын
Also, a baby's fingers won't fit into the opening of a UK socket.
@perrybrown4985 10 ай бұрын
My dad was a sparky - and as a toddler, I was always fiddling about with electricity... (I am an EE now 😞). I used to poke things into GPOs and this concerned my parents, so dad went about changing all the GPOs to ones with safety shutters (which were uncommon in the early '60s). I followed him about, nagging him about what he was doing - and naturally, he explained how they worked. Shortly thereafter after, I was poking a wire into a GPO, with scissors into the earth pin to open the shutters - while explaining their operation to the girl next door, who was playin with the other end of the wire. (We both survived) Another time, my dad had come home with a cut off plug top in his pocket and it was turned out onto his dresser. I grabbed this and pushed it into a GPO - naturally, by pressing my flat palm onto the cut wire stub. That burned a large hole into my palm... Another time, I had a jar of mercury (the good old days) and had submerged a penny with wires attached and was poking the wire ends into the bar radiator to "get electricity". If I hadn't been stopped, that little experiment would have woken up the house (damn, I was a "bugger of a kid"). I had seen electroplating on the show "Mr Wizard"... Good grief, RCD safety switches were made for kids like this - once I made it past 5yo, I became a bit more safety conscious...
@PF-gi9vv 10 ай бұрын
My mate once played hide the 10p and whoever finds it keeps it. One of his brothers hid the 10p behind a plug and plugged it in. In those days there wasn't the protective plastic on the neutral and live, while everyone was looking for the 10p, it exploded and also took out most of the houses on the street, the street when dark. 😆
@frodev728 10 ай бұрын
it’s genuinely a wonder you’re here today to make this comment. 😮
@deang5622 10 ай бұрын
I love it how you recognise that RCDs were invented to protect kids like you killing yourself...
@PaulaXism 10 ай бұрын
@@frodev728 Proof that no matter how "idiot proof" you make something nature can always come up with a better idiot
@tikaanipippin 9 ай бұрын
I guess you'll sadly not achieve a Darwin award, although, if it were up to me. I'd be the first to present you with one. Maybe some time in the future.
@dj1NM3 11 ай бұрын
As an Aussie, I beleive that that the UK *socket and plug combined* is perhaps the best design, particularly the shutters in the socket and the insulation around the bases of the active and neutral pins. Our gracious host ThinkList is quite fair about the massive pins on their socket, but the socket pin holes are shielded/shuttered until an earth pin pushes the shutters out of the way. Our fusing is perhaps safer, with 10A (or 15A) on each fused circuit, rather than the UK's "it could draw 30A from the ring-main before blowing" worst case scenario. At least both of our countries now use RCD/GFCI protection on the each circuit, which is much better than the USA's "maybe a RCD/GFCI on a single power point in the bathroom and/or kitchen, if you're lucky".
@thinklist 11 ай бұрын
A voice of reason, I like it 👍
@dennisphoenix1 10 ай бұрын
No appliance could draw 30 amp before the fuse blows . As shown a 13 amp could draw 20 amp maximum before it blows the plug fuse . Any appliance rated at 13 amp would have a flex capable of passing 20 amps for a short period so no fire risk
@thinklist 10 ай бұрын
@@dennisphoenix1 hmmm 🤔 what size flex do appliances have? I’ve seen many with 0.5 or 1mm cable.
@dennisphoenix1 10 ай бұрын
@@thinklist any appliance with a 0.5 mm flex wouldn't be 13anp rated . So a 3amp or 5 amp fuse would be fitted in the plug . Say a table lamp or tv etc they are only low current devices
@andygozzo72 10 ай бұрын
@@dennisphoenix1 yes, thats the main idea of the fuse, to suit cable rating
@dontuno 10 ай бұрын
Of all the plugs/sockets I have used around the world, there is nothing better than the UK pattern. Disregarding any influence by a "copper shortage" it runs rings around every other design and in my mind I think it should be an international standard. So many other designs are flimsy garbage that are an accident waiting to happen.
@e1woqf 10 ай бұрын
The concept of a ring circuit is a flawed one because the current doesn't distribute evenly.
@karstenschuhmann8334 10 ай бұрын
Have you not been to Germany, Switzerland, or France?
@SebastianSchleussner 10 ай бұрын
The only "ring" it runs may be its circuit. 🙃
@karstenschuhmann8334 10 ай бұрын
The Ring circuit makes drilling in the wall far more dangerous and one issue makes the whole house go dark.
@andygilbert1877 9 ай бұрын
@@karstenschuhmann8334No on both accounts. If you’re not sure where and if it’s safe to drill in a wall then you shouldn’t be doing it! Everything doesn’t go dark because lighting is on separate circuits anyway. A typical home will have upstairs and downstairs power sockets and lighting, on 4 separate RCBs, and usually the kitchen would have it’s own ring circuit too. Cooker, shower etc. would be on separate radial circuits.
@roccov3614 9 ай бұрын
I've seen the pins on a plug get bent on more than one occasion (I'm an Aussie), so the fatness of the UK plug is good in that sense.
@djdave0220022 10 ай бұрын
The plastic adapter for double insulated appliances i have never seen in 36years of UK life. Usually double insulated appliances are simply connected to a 3pin plug with a dummy earth pin - why complicate it with a plastic shim taking up valuable connection surface within the socket ?
@davefb 10 ай бұрын
Yeah, they're not a uk thing. Never seen such a thing ever!
@TheQuiQuestion 9 ай бұрын
For the record, the fact that plug sockets have shutters fascinated me as a toddler, and I still managed to electrocute myself when probing the socket with my mum's knitting needles. I ended up ripping off half my fingernail. Apparently I ran to my mum and said "Mum, mum the wall just went... EEEEUEUGGGHGGH" (mimicking the motions of being electrocuted).
@robertgaines-tulsa 11 ай бұрын
I'm still wondering why US plugs aren't shrouded yet. The prongs on US plugs look very similar to AU plugs-- just at an angle and without a hole. Shutters or child protection as we call it here are now in the latest NEC code requirements. As for fuses in plugs, I actually like the idea. We don't need the fuse for the circuit in the wall, but a fuse would protect the cord and the appliance especially when it's not a dead short. Also, I don't care to reset circuit breakers.
@lickablestinkage7783 11 ай бұрын
its cause they cant be, if you were to put shrouds on a us plug then it wouldnt work with older sockets because the shrouds would take up the space where the contacts touch. It would be nice if we could move away from the very poorly designed plugs in north america, but I know we cant cause that would be very difficult and very expensive. Were too far in to go back
@tchevrier 11 ай бұрын
Actually we DO need circuit protection for the circuit in the wall. The primary purpose to circuit breakers at the panel is to protect the wiring in the wall so it doesn't burn your wall down.
@robertgaines-tulsa 11 ай бұрын
@@tchevrier Oh, I was talking about how the British use fuses in plugs to protect ring circuits. We use circuit breakers in the main panel to protect the circuit in the wall, but if the current draw on the appliance cord isn't enough to trip the circuit breaker, the cord could burst into flames. A fuse in the plug would go a long way in protecting the cord.
@dougbrowning82 10 ай бұрын
Many appliances in N. America do have fuses or other over current protection built right into the appliance, where there is more room than in the plug itself. In Canada, it is common to have two fuses in series, one slightly higher amperage than the other.
@davidg4288 10 ай бұрын
@@dougbrowning82 The fuse in the appliance does not protect the cord though. Most cheap looking North American cords *will* trip a 20 amp breaker if solidly shorted, If there's a long extension cord involved or an arcing fault then maybe not. Arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCI) should fix that but they are not widely installed yet. New electrical receptacles here do have shutters. No plug shrouding yet, there must be a backward compatibility problem. Holiday lights *do* come with a fused plug. In the US you don't dare change anything, people still consider the metric system communist or satanic.
@KC-shunting 11 ай бұрын
I don't know why you deliberately chose not to mention the Australian side-entry plug. Or the fact that class-2 devices can have the earth pin omitted.
@Bastler95m 9 ай бұрын
I just stumbled across this video, and I have to say something about that. I've never wired a british plug, but a euro plug fit's nicely in to the british sockets as well especially if you know how to open the shutters with things you have in your pocket. the shutter is easily defeated with a single key from the keychain allowing you to shove in the europlug. that's a thing that can't happen with the plugs from your country and I can say that by just looking in to that. well here in germany I dismantle my flexible cable long enough to have a longer earth wire after cutting back the line and neutral wires, then I add ferrules to the stranded wire, connect them in to the screw terminals and then secure the cable with the strainrelief clamp and finish with putting the plug together. I think the swiss have the best connectors by the way, they're small in size and still very safe and I think the're is an IEC standard out there that was inspired by the swiss 10A and 16A plugs. greetings from a german electrician.
@Gomorragh 9 ай бұрын
well the fuse system gets further fun when some sockets themselves has fuses in them as well, as well as the switches on them, failsafes upon other failsafes. The thick pin was probably because of the damage done to the infrastructure and was easier just to bulk cast pins that size and it never changed, i have a vague memory that the pins were originally just a thin layer of copper over something else, and when copper became easier to extract just never got changed, but that was from a really old plug my grandad had on one of the things he had passed down to him so dont know how old that was. But, the plugs thickness is also quite possibly with the inevitable stepping on the bloody thing, the pins wont bend
@tchevrier 11 ай бұрын
the biggest issue that I have with the Canadian plug is the fact that you can actually have the live pins exposed. I've done this many times when, for example, I'm trying to unplug something from an extension cord using only one hand. I'll use one finger in between the two receptacles to try and pry them apart. More often than not I get shocked. With respect to fuses in the plug. If you look at Christmas lights, most of them have a fuse, or 2, in the plug. The reason for this is that the wiring is usually smaller and multiple strings of lights are typically connected end to end thus increasing the load.
@thinklist 11 ай бұрын
What Canadian plug sounds like a new video opportunity 👌
@computerbob06 10 ай бұрын
Probably not such a bad thing if you've the same voltage as the US, 110v. But at 220v to 250v.......deadly!
@tchevrier 10 ай бұрын
@@computerbob06 Canada and the US are on the same power grid system. 120v nominal yeah, I wouldn't be doing that with 240v.
@davedixon2068 10 ай бұрын
do it once shame on the designer, do it twice shame on you!
@shaunp9592 10 ай бұрын
Put your foot on the extension cord about 1 meter (3ft) from the end, use one hand to grab the cord that's plugged into the one your stepping on and pull apart. You can do this all day long with one hand and not get shocked, you're doing it the hard way.
@jocramkrispy305 11 ай бұрын
the prongs falling upwards is a safety feature, it prevents you from putting enough weight on the plug to break it.
@KissMyFatAxe 10 ай бұрын
Tbh, I'd rather break the plug...🤣
@paulstubbs7678 10 ай бұрын
There is one situation where I'd like to see a fused plug in Au, that's with very small loads, where the power lead is also extra small, these puny things can really get stressed trying to trip a 20A breaker. A plug with a 1A fuse would suit so many devices
@therealpbristow 10 ай бұрын
One thing that's always annoyed me about our system in the UK is that you can't get 1A fuses for the 13A plug, for use in the many, many modern devices that should never draw more than a fraction of an amp in normal use. You can get physically smaller 1A fuses that go inside the devices, but of course, if one of those blows you've now got to dismantle your VCR or Blu-Ray player or whatever-it-is to change one silly little fuse, then re-assemble it just to test and see if the new fuse blows (indicating a genuine problem with the equipment) or not! Or, if it never occurs to you it might even *have* an internal fuse you could replace, you end up either claiming under warranty; paying for a repair shop to fix it; or just buying a replacement for the whole thing! =:o(
@paulstubbs7678 10 ай бұрын
@@therealpbristow Not so, I just dug through my pile of random cords for a British fused one, success, my sample has a 3A fuse in it. I looked through my fuse collection and found a 5A of that size. They are a bit shorter than a 3AG, mine are labeled 'BS1362', otherwise the fuse labeling is rating and manufacturer. Do a Google search on BS1362, 1A up to 13A can be had.
@andygozzo72 10 ай бұрын
@@therealpbristow you CAN get 1Amp plug type fuses but are not generally available to the public in retail shops for some reason .... CPC and Farnell certainly used to sell them, also the 'odd' ones 2, 7 and 10 amp not easy to find although 10amp ones are stocked by B and Q , which is a good idea as many 'reel' extensions are only 10amp rated
@therealpbristow 10 ай бұрын
@@paulstubbs7678 I never said you can't get 3A, or 5A. I've got supplies of both (and vast collection of spare 13A fuses that I've taken out of the plugs they came in to replace them with something smaller and more suitable!). I've never yet succeeded in buying a 1A fuse that fits the standard plug, though admittedly it's been a few years since I last tried.
@icarossavvides2641 9 ай бұрын
@@therealpbristow I think you're missing the point, 1A to 13A is immaterial isn't it? The MCB, at the, so called, fuse board will trip in 40ms, any appliance flex will survive this.
@duncancremin1708 10 ай бұрын
The fuse in the plug allows the flex for say a small lamp, or a radio, to be much thinner than the 2.5 sq in the wall. A 3amp fuse will blow very quickly when subject to a 5 amp load, long before the flex cord catches fire.
@marknhopgood 10 ай бұрын
Fascinating. All makes sense. Also when I was in high school I thought the fuse was to protect people, but a physics lesson ( where they taught plugs ) and a couple of questions later, led me to believe the fuse was to stop the circuit from ovrloading.
@FM60260 10 ай бұрын
11:40 Double insulated plugs still have earth pins, they are just redundant other than as a shutter mechanism. I think the original video was meant in reference to the plugs in north America, where not only is it possible to touch something conductive against an exposed live pin, it is even a TikTok challenge.
@ferrumignis 10 ай бұрын
_"it is even a TikTok challenge"_ Why am I not surprised? I have to wonder if TikTok wasn't designed to remove the lowest IQ members from the population.
@FM60260 10 ай бұрын
One reply but there is no reply, what is going on???
@ferrumignis 10 ай бұрын
@@FM60260 KZfaq shadowbans millions of comments, the person that posted the comment can see it but no-one else can. In this case it was my comment regarding a certain social media site the lower IQ members of the population that use it.
@FM60260 10 ай бұрын
@@ferrumignis The one I mentioned?
@ferrumignis 10 ай бұрын
@@FM60260 Yes, my first reply to you is not visible to anyone but me (and I don't see it if I log out), but it still adds the the reply count under someone's post. You will see this all over YT comments if you look for it, the reply count can be significantly higher than the number of visible replies.
@steveknight878 10 ай бұрын
I remember, in the days before the square-pin plugs and sockets, there was a huge variety of sockets. Two pins and three pins. 3 amp, 5 amp and 20 amp IIRC). I used to have a socket that had a mechanism whereby you could not pull the plug out if the switch was in the on position. Clever idea.
@YTANDY100 10 ай бұрын
@steveknight878 i remember them in the 60s and 70s , do you also remember the bayonet to two pin adaptor and the bayonet 2 way adaptor so you could power a lamp and appliance , the good old days , still wouldnt want to step on them though 🙂
@steveknight878 10 ай бұрын
@@YTANDY100 Oh yes, remember them. Plugging the iron into a light socket. And having multiple in-line adapters so you could plug in several things to one light socket - looking a little like a Christmas tree. And a bayonet-to-bayonet adapter that incorporated a bimetallic strip, so that anything plugged in would flash on and off.
@IsaacClodfelter 7 ай бұрын
A fuse in the plug still makes more sense than not having one.
@DangerWrap 5 ай бұрын
They required to have a fuse because their home wiring fault.
@TheTomco11 9 ай бұрын
Just a few things to note. The big pins aren't big enough for even a baby to stick their fingers in, the shutters are there for metallic items being pushed in. I would argue thinner but wider pins are worse for that. We were early adopters of sleeved pins, but even before that they were protected from items being dropped from above as the earth pin is always on top. The contacts are also deep enough in the socket that if the gap is big enough to get your fingers in then the pins aren't connected. Now for the fuse. Yes it's there because we use ring mains, but it makes overloading appliance cables impossible. Using your scenario you have a 10A plug relying on a 16A breaker at the consumer unit, so in case of a fault you can already draw more than what the plug is rated for. But you also have higher output sockets. What stops you plugging a 10A extension lead into a 32A socket and powering multiple high power devices? The breaker won't trip but the extension will be massively overloaded. In the UK if you overload an extension all that'll happen is you blow the fuse. You can't tell me that's not safer. Now yes the the cable coming out of the bottom does put the pins up, but that's a pretty easy risk to mitigate. Personally I'll take that risk in favour of having them low profile, but that's just a matter of preference. Those plastic adapters that open the shutters are not something you should ever use in the UK btw, all plugs are 3 pin including double insulated products without an earth. Yes means those products have a bulkier plug but is that really an issue?
@tomwakeham1445 10 ай бұрын
One thing I noticed when working in Sydney was the number of 15amp earth pins that had been ground down to fit in a 10 amp supply. Obviously, that comes down to people being muppets but that's the beauty of having one standard domestic plug. Once you step up to 16 or 32 single phase, they're completely different designs.
@entcraft44 9 ай бұрын
The Swiss design also uses a hierarchical system like Australia. However, it would be significantly harder to grind down the square pins on 16A to round ones on 10A. The round pins still fit into the square holes with sufficiently low contact resistance.
@keithduthie 11 ай бұрын
Fused plugs would be a great idea for those cheap extension cables with stupidly thin wires. Of course, if someone is going to cheap out on the wires to the point of the cable being dangerous, they're going to cheap out on the fuse and/or the analysis of which fuse is appropriate, so that's a wash.
@jantschierschky3461 10 ай бұрын
Most multisockets have a 1800W overloading protection. In Australia and Europe
@klausstock8020 9 ай бұрын
Cables which are too thin are illegal. Euro plug cables are thinner than Schuko cables, so multi-plus are forbidden (but you can still buy them from China...). A fuse may sit a device with a Euro plug, or the device may some other measures to limit the current. And even the thin Euro cables can carry 6000A for 5 seconds in case of a short circuit - enough to trip the fuse, which will do in a few milliseconds.
@teh-maxh 11 ай бұрын
I don't think the shutters on the UK receptacle are because of thick pins. US pins are only 1.5 mm but they've required shutters since 2008. (They work a bit differently than the UK implementation, though.)
@ferrumignis 10 ай бұрын
Tbh he barely came up with a single good point in the entire video. The shutters are are stop people (particularly children) poking metal objects into the holes. A smaller hole doesn't prevent this.
@Zeusdie0 11 ай бұрын
What about the european ones!:) Specifically Type E. Round pins with isolation, doesnt turn into a hedgehog when you drop it, etc.
@neutronenstern. 11 ай бұрын
Schuko will win, i think.
@mariospanna8389 11 ай бұрын
@@neutronenstern. it will with an Aussie judging, let's be honest not the smartest country x
@johaquila 10 ай бұрын
As a German, I am used to Type F (schuko) myself; we tend to think of Type E as French. Nowadays almost all plugs sold in most of Europe that are not Euro plugs are compatible with both Type E and Type F. I think Type E and Type F are both very good standards, with Type F making everyone aware that you can't rely on live/neutral being wired correctly. Type E gives you the illusion that you can, but it's simply not safe to rely on this and put a switch only on what _should_ be live. The best socket would probably be a similarly combined Type E/F, which would then only be compatible with the Type E/F plugs but not old-fashioned Type E or Type F plugs, and would connect earth in three independent ways rather than just one (Type E) or two (Type F). I have never seen this though. Add an individual switch to the socket, switching only on what should be live so that wrong wiring is noticed immediately, and it is perfect. By now, any old-fashioned Type E or Type F plug is too old to be safe anyway. Modern plugs of Type E/F are highly optimized to encourage wiring such that the earth connection tears off last. If the Type J and Type N standards (basically europlug with an extra pin, but in two different locations) have enough space for that, then they are probably the best system.
@manolisgledsodakis873 10 ай бұрын
@@johaquila Schuko would be fine if the Chinese sockets weren't so dreadful!
@Jake-ug6fk 11 ай бұрын
Mhmm... I like the fuse because if your hair dryer is fucked it doesn't take out your grandma's life support machine.
@thinklist 11 ай бұрын
But does it blow the fuse first?
@Jake-ug6fk 11 ай бұрын
@@thinklist If the fuse is smaller than the one at the panel... theoretically. (Not talking about ring circuits here, I mean literally just having a fuse in the plug.
@thinklist 11 ай бұрын
@@Jake-ug6fk theoretically but HRC fuses tend to have a different trip curve to your typical B type MCB. I totally get your point though
@danisaac 9 ай бұрын
As others have said biggest benefit to the fuse is there are many appliances with just 0.5 mm flex if your just relying on an upstream 16A breaker the flex is NOT correctly protected it’s like this in most countries it seems, much better in UK where a 3A fuse may be fitted in the plug to correctly protect the appliance flex. Also doesn’t hurt to have the thicker pins they are more resistant to being bent. And it’s a great idea having the longer earth wire I’ve seen several where lives been pulled out, but earth and neutral are still connected so fails in a safe state in that condition (usually because somebody hasn’t tighten the cord clamp up properly on the outer sheath!)
@klausstock8020 9 ай бұрын
Devices with thin flex cables limit the current by design (and a short circuit will still trip the 16 breaker). And many devices have fuses in the device, just not in the plug. A vacuum will have a fuse inside the motor, protecting against excessive current *and* overheating of the motor.
@danisaac 9 ай бұрын
@@klausstock8020 overall in most cases will be ok but 0.5 mm flex is only rated 3A so it’s not deemed as properly protected via upstream 16A breaker (likely 32A breaker in UK!), if we were to wire a light in say a shed off of 16A/32A feed we would also fuse it down using a fused switch to allow the use of 1mm cable for the light. Say you had a table lamp with little inline switch rated 3/5 A if the lamp failed short circuit and that little switch was switched into a short circuit it would likely be damaged where as if fused at 3A it would. likely be saved.
@JohnThomas-rx7eo 9 ай бұрын
Quick summary to save you wasting 12 minutes of your life: Aussie drinks beer and talks bollocks (shock).
@LeeFlemingster 10 ай бұрын
You don't get uk plugs without an earth pin. On double insulated appliances the earth plug can be plastic but it's always there. I've never seen that adapter.
@jjjacer 10 ай бұрын
although both systems are probably better than the plugs we use here in the USA, always falls out of sockets, pins always get bent, socket insertion is either too hard or too loose. and unless you use those right angle plugs you end up with the same issue the AU plug has when shoving something against the wall with a plug sticking out
@athhud 9 ай бұрын
Instead of buying the cheap residential receptacles that cost less than a dollar, splurge on the commercial versions that cost a couple of dollars and you won’t have an issue with them being loose. If you are extra fancy, go with medical grade receptacles. They’ll take a little bit of extra effort to plug in, but they definitely aren’t going to fall out. I am certainly biased, but in my opinion the American style is far superior to the UK and Aus styles. The only caveat being that you don’t cheap out on the receptacles or plug ends. They are smaller, cheaper, and hurt a lot less when stepped on in the middle of the night. As a bonus, American children learn at an early age that touching the pokey bits, while a cord is plugged in, is a bad idea. My only complaint is that I wish manufacturers of televisions, computers, and desk lamps would utilize a 90° style plug end so the cords wouldn’t get bent behind desks or wall-mounted televisions. Thankfully though, we have the option of recessed receptacles.
@jjjacer 9 ай бұрын
@@athhud yep every outlet in my house has been replaced by commercial grade (well most, still have a few left, just a pain as the original outlets are RV style were the cable is basically just crimped inline with the socket (similar to those splice connectors you see in car electrical kits to add a wire to an existing circuit) the new outlets do work pretty well although the first few insertions can take some force.
@ak983625 13 күн бұрын
Heres the thing, plug and electrical standards were set around the turn of the last century in haste by a few industrial conglomerates. If the UK or Europe could somehow go back in time say 120 years, all would have chosen the compact A/B plug and the more versatile 120/240 volt split phase residential electric system.
@Xavier_The_Dragon 10 ай бұрын
in the US some things like Christmas lights actually have a fuse in the plug as well and also other things like window units and some pressure washers have their own breaker built into the plug
@benjamin2305 10 ай бұрын
By the look of the Australian plug it had a feature that loops the wires around to resist being pulled out in the first place.
@TheTomco11 9 ай бұрын
You're unlikely to actually pull the wires out of the screw terminals of the plug, the live being shorter means it is the first to snap
@Drew-Dastardly 10 ай бұрын
The best thing about UK vs OZ plugs is we do not have to call a licensed certified electrician with a PhD in plug science to wire our plugs for us, or else risk going to prison on a ship. Even my 70 year old aunty can wire a plug - she taught me "bLue to the Left, bRown to the Right" when I was a kid. 😉
@timwatson682 10 ай бұрын
Black to red, blue to pieces..
@RFC3514 9 ай бұрын
If your aunty lived in continental Europe (or anywhere they use europlugs / schukos), she wouldn't even need to teach you that.
@TalesOfWar 9 ай бұрын
Or as Tom Scott mentions in his video, live is Brown, because that's the colour your trousers go when you touch it.
@ianz9916 9 ай бұрын
Our plug has the cable at the bottom and a flat back so it doesn't get damaged when you push furniture against it, the Aussie plug has the cable coming directly out the back. We win.
@Meow_YT 8 ай бұрын
As someone who lives in a badly wired, rented, accommodation, having a fuse on the plug has saved the entire, single, mains supply tripping when something in the kitchen decided to go pop. So yeah, there are some actually reasons to need a fuse in the plug.
@mdmkoopman 11 ай бұрын
This is GREAT! we need to add more plugs to the list. Schuko and Nema next please :)
@Troppa17 11 ай бұрын
Sounds like an brilliant idea to me.
@furTron 10 ай бұрын
If I had to create a new socket-plug connection, I would mix schuko, and UK plug‘s features. 1) fuse is a must-to-be cord overload and fire protection 2) socket „doors“ are another must-to-be protection. I don’t know any patentes, who didn’t install extra protection on schuko sockets. It should be just permanently integrated in all sockets 3) i very like the „depth“ of schuko - short pins will be first electrified, when plug is literally inside of the socket, so no matter what, you will never be able to touch a live pin 4) I like the fact that schuko doesn’t have polarisation and can be plugged „upside down“, but I think it’s a safety disadvantage 5) make them all more compact and you have a perfect plug, or would you suggest something more?
@ethanlamoureux5306 10 ай бұрын
@@furTron Lamps with non-polarized plugs can be plugged in with the shell of the light bulb connected to either neutral or line. The edge of the shell may be exposed in operation. So with such plugs you have a 50% chance of a dangerous lamp and no easy way to know. Schuko and other common “Euro” plugs are dangerous because of this.
@furTron 10 ай бұрын
@@ethanlamoureux5306 I cannot agree. Its not the problem of the plug, but a horrible design of edision socket. When I was a kid, Ive been once electrocuted, when I touched the bottom of the E14 socket, so even the polarisation was right, it didnt prevent anything. GU10 socket would work here way better
@ethanlamoureux5306 10 ай бұрын
@@furTron Like it or not, the Edison socket design doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. And that's not the only kind of device that benefits from having a polarized plug. The Schuko plug and similar designs are unpolarized, which is not a good thing when you're using polarized power like our line/neutral system, where neutral is grounded.
@JohnTheHandymanUK 10 ай бұрын
What a load of boxxocks! The UK plug is still a brilliant design, so much so that its used in many other countries. As for stepping on the pins, well, that's a non event. I've never in my many decades done that as a plug is always plugged in to a socket. Having the cable exit the plug at 90% means its impossible to pull the plug out of the socket accidentally and because of its shallow depth enables it to be used in tight spaces like behind furniture.
@nkillick 9 ай бұрын
Point 1 - a child with fingers small enough could not apply the pressure to move the shutters and *IF* the finger could be inserted, they would only touch the ground connector. Either way, most people with very young children, even outside the UK, would use child proof guards but also supervise them.
@Killerspieler0815 10 ай бұрын
Austrailian plug introduced this insulated pins very recently (same with Switzerland) ... while the Germans use recessed outles since the _1930s_ (phaseout of the old non-recessed delayed by WW2) to do the same protection
@Killerspieler0815 9 ай бұрын
@hardstyle905 - Germany introduced recessed outlets in 1930s ... & I have such outlets right next to me now = _You_ have no clue ... Switzerland only introduced recessed outlets a few years ago, if a Swiss home still has non-recessed outlets = get these replaced by recent ones
@kellyaderwa1696 11 ай бұрын
At 10:51, the idea was the live wire to come out first if the cable is pulled out. After all, the neutral and earth are joined at the distribution box.
@killuazoldyck1352 11 ай бұрын
Neutrals and earths are not joined in UK distribution boards, either the earth is supplied seperatly by the national grid or the bulding has it's own earth rod.
@thinklist 11 ай бұрын
Mate you are all over this
@cezarcatalin1406 11 ай бұрын
@@thinklist What is your opinion on fused outlets? (instead of fused plugs).
@killuazoldyck1352 11 ай бұрын
@@thinklist Thanks man, just the late night ramblings of a tired sparky, like others have commented i think the Schuko type F is the best in the world 😃
@Pugjamin 11 ай бұрын
@@killuazoldyck1352 sorry that isn’t correct. Only in TNS and TT systems is the neutral not linked to earth at the incoming supply. both of those are relatively uncommon.
@serenity1378 10 ай бұрын
While there are massive improvements that could be made to the UK plug borrowing some design features from other countries my question would become: Have you tried changing a nationwide standard? We still use Miles on our signs in the UK because it's "too hard" and "too expensive" to get everything switched over. Now try telling everyone we're changing the sockets in our homes. There are still people upset here that our appliances don't come with removable plugs any more. To be honest I'm one of them. Plus that thing about needing the earth pin is a weird complaint, We? Don't have plugs that don't have an earth pin? That's not an issue for us, because plugs that don't need an earth pin still come with one - often plastic - just for the shutters. *That* is a pain in the backside when you're trying to fit a UK plug in a bag, though. That's my complaint for it. I actually bought a dodgy two-pin adapter (that was super hard to source, because again, we don't really, have two pin plugs) to fit things in my bag as neatly as I wanted. I think instead of arguing about which plug is better we should all be admiring the engineering that went into every plug there is at the time it was created. Some very smart people solved the same problems in multiple ways with their own pros and cons and that's, pretty cool. It'd be cool to have a utopia where we all have the same plugs and sockets and they're all perfectly designed with everything we know now, but, we have what we have because we had to Make Do, and that's ultimately the heart of engineering. Do the best with what you have.
@icarossavvides2641 9 ай бұрын
I really take issue with your 'massive improvements' statement!
@serenity1378 9 ай бұрын
@@icarossavvides2641 Oh I'm thinking almost exclusively of the "worse than lego" experience, to be honest. Seconded with the uhh, the way it causes bags to stick up. I'd like all of our plugs to stop hurting my feet and to be foldable or collapsible in a way that makes them streamlined into bags for transport!
@Fifury161 10 ай бұрын
Granted the 3 pins pointing up in the air on the UK design will cause a lot of pain if stood on, but then surely that shows a lack of planning/safety on the owners part? Having the cable almost universally at 90 degrees to the plug also prevents "accidental" removal. The Australian design usually has the cable exiting straight out which enables the plug being "yanked" (see what I did there?) from the socket, it does however result in the plug lying with the pins somewhat parallel with the floor rather than sticking up!
@FalconerDelta 10 ай бұрын
never had a loose UK plug in my home country (not UK), but often encounter loose plug with other plug types in other countries. lolz
@grantbanstead1971 11 ай бұрын
Pratt. The plug live breaks first. Neutral doesn't matter. Needs must and the UK solution still stands.
@klausstock8020 9 ай бұрын
Neutral *does* matter! While counter-intuitive, polarized plugs are not safer than unpolarized plugs - you always need to treat both L and N the same. In case of a neutral fault, N can carry L line voltage. Neutral is much more likely to fail than earth because it experiences much greater thermal stress (earth should not carry significant current, so earth wires and terminal are stressed less). I've seen a few neutral faults in my life. BTW, that's also why solitary circuit breakers on neutral are forbidden. If you have CB on N, it must be connected to a CB on the corresponding L line(s), so if the N CB trips, the L CB(s) trip as well. Now that's the reason why the UK needs to be polarized - because the fuse must not be on N but on L.
@nufgorf 10 ай бұрын
Plenty of right-angle aussie plugs out there that give you the closeness to the wall of the UK style, and the agonising foot spike effect as well.. And the right angle ones have the same extra earth loop supposely set for "UK Safety", but the one I used had guide pins that made sure the aussie one was wired correctly and safely (unless you were colour blind or wearing thick beer goggles ) And a fuse in the plug wasn't a good idea 70 years ago, and is laughable nowadays.
@paulcooper9011 10 ай бұрын
If I'm understanding you correctly. In Australia all rooms are fed with a single 2.5mm^2 cable for its wall sockets which is protected by a 16A breaker and no plugs are fused? Does this mean all appliances come fitted with a 1.5mm^2 flex cable which is the same current rating as the breaker?
@okaro6595 9 ай бұрын
Of course not. Typical small power appliances use 0.75 mm² which is enough as the appliance does not use more. At least in Finland you can never split that to two so you cannot overload it.
@paulcooper9011 9 ай бұрын
Of course it is enough for low power appliances but in a fault condition the wall socket could supply 15A. 15A turns that 0.75mm² cable into a fire hazard without a suitable fuse.
@leighghunt 10 ай бұрын
Re the 13 amp plugs and size of the connectors, when I moved to NZ, it took me a long time to get used to the idea that plugs on heaters get warm - couldn't shift the feeling that a warm plug was the sign of an electrical fault!
@binky_bun 11 ай бұрын
One thing you didn't consider is storage and portability. I remember when the macbook air first came out and then other laptops started getting super thin. I had a nice sleek thin portable laptop with a pretty small power brick and I bought a nice small bag to put it in but had to carry the mains cable in my coat pocket otherwise it was like this massive chonk bulging out of the side of my laptop bag. US plugs win on portability although they're crap in most other regards. Ring circuits can get in the bin though. The UK just doesn't evolve for the better any more in pretty much any regard. I'd love to come over to Australia one day and get a feel for the place. Not sure about the spiders though
@thinklist 11 ай бұрын
I agree mate the US plug for all its faults is pretty slimline. Mate AUS is great and yes the spiders are bloody huge
@DiThi 11 ай бұрын
EU plugs win on this department: They're both safe and reliable because they're two standards merged into one. For high power applications we have the Schuko with thick pins, round connector and recessed socket. For small things like chargers we have the classic flat type C that fits anywhere. Maybe slightly larger than the US one, but it does have insulated pins.
@binky_bun 11 ай бұрын
@@DiThi yes I'd forgotten about the type C. I'm tempted to convert a bunch of my stuff type C and schuko now especially for what I use in my van.
@MrHarmonicminor 10 ай бұрын
Its not the spiders you wanna worry about, its the Drop Bears.
@andygozzo72 10 ай бұрын
@@thinklist i've seen 'chargers' with plastic earth pins that push down into the body of the charger to make it 'flatter' for easier storage, plus a pic of plugs that all pins fold into it in some way
@GryphLane 6 ай бұрын
You haven't got a clue, have you? 😂
@chrissmith2114 11 ай бұрын
We lived in Australia for 8 years, those Aussie plugs and American plugs are flimsy death traps...
@Gisburne2000 9 ай бұрын
Before the insulation on the pins was introduced in the UK it was possible to boobytrap a plug by putting a coin behind the plug so that it touched the pins, push it back into the wall, and wait for someone to switch it on at the wall switch. Loud bang as the fuse blew, instant change of underpants required. Hilarious, dangerous, and no longer possible! As seen several times in my school's cookery class in the late 1970s!
@knghtbrd 9 ай бұрын
I'd say the UK plug is miles ahead of the US plug, but that's not hard. I've seen "power strips" that were two v-shaped bits of brass inside a plastic housing and you could just insert a two-prong plug into it wherever you liked! I believe that design is best described as "dumb ways to die for $100"… That said, the UK's insulation, shutters, and other features besides the fuse came along later. Those plugs were originally scary dangerous even compared to US plugs. I do like the fuse in the plug. I like the switch in the outlet. I don't really care about the orientation too much. I do wish that the US would modernize its damned plugs already. At least with the insulation part!
@klausstock8020 9 ай бұрын
I've heard of these "power strips", but for fixed installation. They'd run horizontally all along the wall, so you could plug in your two-prog US plag anywhere you wanted... Guess this design died out with the people who used it. You can insert the plug at a sideways angle, exposing the prongs.
@athhud 9 ай бұрын
Well that’s kind of the idea with the US style. A non-polarized 2 prong plug should be able to be inserted anyway you like, because the polarity doesn’t matter when dealing with alternating current and insulated devices. On devices where polarity matters, the neutral prong will be larger, so you can’t get it backwards. The need for “shrouded” or insulated prongs is absolutely ludicrous to me. Plug the thing all of the way in and don’t stick your fingers in places they don’t belong. Those are basic rules that my children figured out before they could even talk...
@edwardemberton8069 8 ай бұрын
Only the insulation on the pins came along later, the shutters were designed in from day one. Hence the shutters are not noticeable in use, in stark contrast to the North American efforts to add shutters in recent years, which are a nightmare! What Tom forgot to mention was the fact that the UK panel is about 10 breakers, one circuit serves one floor easily, with one circuit for all the outlets in the kitchen. A huge saving in wiring compared to most other countries!
@stgram12 11 ай бұрын
weird, EU plugs have none of those issues! Angled or straight connectors, nice round contacts, shielded contacts due to nest design, two types of neutral when you need it, round design you cant really step on the pointy bits, 16A breaker-protected circuits...
@DiThi 11 ай бұрын
AND low profile version with insulated pins for low power applications.
@SchwachsinnProduzent 11 ай бұрын
Actual EU plugs are btw designed to fit into two different sockets: The original German Schuko socket and the French one with the weird earth pin pointing out of. There are plugs, that look like EU plugs on first glance, but are actually Schuko plugs. Schuko is also one of if not the most common sockets in the world
@jocramkrispy305 11 ай бұрын
are there around 7 different EU plugs, to the point they've standardised a socket that they'll all fit into (but weirdly not standardised a plug that'll fit into that)
@DiThi 11 ай бұрын
@@jocramkrispy305 For low power devices there _is_ a standardized plug that fit into all: The type C plug.
@Johnbags72 6 ай бұрын
Modern Aus/NZ plug sockets also have shutters. The shutter is activated by the neutral pin though, to allow for double insulated appliance plugs without an earth pin.
@psychedelicfungi 10 ай бұрын
You can say what you like about our football teams, you can say what you like about the royal family, you can say what you like about our culture and cuisine, but do not diss the plug. The plug is beyond reproach. The plug is what unites us and makes us proud to be British. Say what you will about anything British, but speak no ill of the plug!
@ash_yt0 10 ай бұрын
Agreed. You can call our King a nonce-befriending, wife-cheating, fox-hunting big eared, scrouging freak whose brother molested a sex trafficking victim of Epstein... but if you come for our beloved plug we're gonna have a problem.
@davidmartensson273 10 ай бұрын
In Sweden we have the European standard plugs with round pins and the ground on the side. The sockets are inset about a 1 cm to prevent access to the pins from the side, but we also have the euro plug that is smaller and that have the same insulated pins. Both of these are much smaller than the UK plug. We also have shielded holes but instead of using the ground pin to open the live ones, the live ones require equal pressure on both to open, if just one is pushed it will not open, which I consider to be a better solution. The British plug can quite easily be opened by a child using for example the back end of a fork or similar utensil, but most children would not manage to push both openings of a Swedish socket at the same time. Also the Swedish pins are round and much smaller so you would need something like knitting sticks to do it, most other things would not be sturdy and small enough to fit and still be able to push the shutters, especially since anything with a sharp point will most likely get stick to the shutter and not allow it to slide to the side.
@okaro6595 9 ай бұрын
Nails, keys, blender beaters. All these were used in deadly accidents in Finland in the early 80s. In one the kid used two nails, in another he used a key while leaning on a radiator (rules earlier did not limit the distance from a radiator to a socket) and in one he used a blender beater while leaning to the kitchen sink. rib.msb.se/filer/pdf/27411.pdf "Varje år kommer ca 350 barn till en akutmottagning efter att ha skadats i elolyckor. Ålders- och könsfördelning framgår av figur 10. Drygt 60 procent är pojkar och flest skador har tvååringar. Nästan 90 procent av dessa skador inträffar i eller vid bostaden och fem procent i skolan och barnomsorgen. På akutmottagningen blir tjugo procent av barnen inlagda på sjukhus eller remitterade till annan klinik för fortsatt vård." Sockets are the most common source for the electric shocks on kids with 28% i.e. about 85 cases annually in the emergency.
@jnsjknn 11 ай бұрын
There's nothing about the UK or Australian plugs that would be superior to the type F plug most Europeans use, and it can be plugged upside down too like USB-C.
@Smona 11 ай бұрын
exactly, we have the longer insulation, no way of orienting it wrong or really getting fingers in there, we don't need a fuse because there's enough copper for separate circuits for each room and also the quality of electrical appliances is such that there's barely any danger to the end user as long as it isn't used horribly wrong, the way it's shaped makes it possible to put furniture in front of it, AND we even have two ground contacts instead of only one
@foogod4237 11 ай бұрын
Actually, the fact that it can be plugged in upside down is actually a *safety hazard* for many potential applications. Polarized plugs have become the norm in many other parts of the world for a _reason._ (The live and neutral lines are not equivalent from a safety perspective, so being able to randomly mix/swap them when plugging things in is a flaw, not a feature.)
@jnsjknn 11 ай бұрын
@@foogod4237 How is it a safety hazard?
@moe.m 11 ай бұрын
@@foogod4237 It is actually safer, as devices sold with this plug need to accommodate for live and neutral being swapped. Polarized outputs are often wired wrong, and a device which expects a certain polarity is then a safety hazard when plugged into such an outlet. This cannot happen with the EU plug.
@foogod4237 11 ай бұрын
@@moe.m Sorry, but that argument is exactly backwards. With non-polarized plugs, devices need to *but may fail to* accommodate for swapped live and neutral, which makes things inherently less safe. You are adding extra potential ways that the process can fail and become unsafe. With polarized plugs, it eliminates that need to begin with, and therefore eliminates many potentially unsafe scenarios. There are also many situations where *it is not actually possible* to design a device such that it is safe in both configurations at the same time (for example, Edison-type light bulb sockets, for which the outer contact (which people can theoretically come in contact with) should always be connected to neutral, not live. Yes, it is true that even with polarized plugs, things can sometimes be wired wrong. That is why there are (really common) testing devices and inspection requirements to ensure that doesn't happen (and unless somebody is doing their own illegal electrical work, it really usually doesn't happen, in my experience). Basically, most other countries have said "hmm, swapping these is potentially unsafe, we'll fix it by designing things so they can't be swapped and inspecting things to make sure they're done right." whereas the countries that use this plug have instead said "hmm, swapping these is potentially unsafe, but we won't do anything to try to prevent it, we'll just pass the problem on to the hundreds of thousands of different appliance manufacturers in the world, who mostly make things as cheaply as possible in some foreign country, and just hope that every single one of them comes up with adequate protections somehow, what could go wrong?"
@IIGrayfoxII 11 ай бұрын
UK: We will allow citizens to wire their own plugs, change their own sockets and switches AU: You can not touch anything, you need to pay an electrician $200 to do a simple job
@thinklist 11 ай бұрын
$200 bucks… is that just for the call out 😆
@IIGrayfoxII 11 ай бұрын
@@thinklist yup
@MrHarmonicminor 10 ай бұрын
This x1000. In Aus you can't even run FIBRE OPTIC cable without a ticket. Jobs fior the boys.
@IIGrayfoxII 10 ай бұрын
@@MrHarmonicminor Or even ethernet. I would like to see how I can get hurt laying ethernet. Fuck that, I laid my own RJ11 cable that connects to a phoneline in the garage to my room for the internet.
@MrHarmonicminor 10 ай бұрын
@@IIGrayfoxII I was going to put ethernet but you always get some ballsucker who tries to make a case for electrocution because apparently anything containing copper is a leathal deathtrap to us mere plebs. So fibre it was, as that doesn't conduct and is still prohibited. AUS has the suckiest DIY laws in the world. NZ allow DIY and nobody has been able to point me to statistics that show NZ has a higher rate of fires or electrocution than AUS.
@martinweizenacker7129 10 ай бұрын
Dang, I'm happy we have type F ("Schuko") as our main plugs (either 90° angled or straight) and in addition the very handy and slim type C ("Euro") plugs for low-power, double insulated stuff. I think having a slim plug as an option is great so that a tiny table lamp doesn't need to have a gluttonous big plug the same size an appliance like a dishwasher would have.
@ferrumignis 10 ай бұрын
Even the type C plug sticks out of the socket a long way, probably more than the thickness of the UK plug.
@martinweizenacker7129 10 ай бұрын
@@ferrumignis Yes, that is correct. It's because there is no angled version of type C. However the 90° angled type F plug (which is way more common than the straight version) is about as flat as the UK plug and there is always the option to use type F for anything, even a table lamp, if the angle is important.
@apveening 10 ай бұрын
@@martinweizenacker7129 There are angled versions of type C, but they aren't very common.
@foogod4237 11 ай бұрын
I think you really missed the whole point of the fused plug, to be honest. Yes, it was originally introduced because of limitations in the ring circuit design without it, but _that is not the only advantage it provides._ One of the huge problems with current electrical requirements in most places is that, as you pointed out yourself, *the main breaker is only intended to protect the house wiring in the walls,* but the wiring in the walls is *not the only thing that can cause a fire* and there are other portions of the whole system that are therefore left woefully underprotected (and thus are actually the cause of most house fires, etc). For example, in the US (I suspect Australia is similar) it is perfectly OK to have a 20 amp circuit feeding a bunch of 15 amp sockets. The breaker on the circuit is 20 amps, because that's what the wiring in the walls can handle. However, if you try to pull 20 amps through a single socket, the breaker will happily let you, and that socket will be seriously overloaded, and can actually catch on fire, even though none of the protection mechanisms will trip. Likewise, even if the outlet is rated for full power, you can plug a 15 amp extension cord into a 20 amp socket, and then seriously overload it with no protection, or have a device that ends up with a fault and somehow pulling more power than its own power cable is rated to handle (but less than the breaker limit) for some reason, etc. So saying "we don't need it" is arguably just wrong. The British fused plug originally came about because of a different reason, but nowadays *it does make the whole system safer* in other ways. Australia (and most other places) should legitimately get a much worse grade than the UK on that one (certainly not higher, that's just stupid). (And in case folks hadn't figured it out, I'm from the US, and we don't have them either, but IMHO arguably should too) However, nobody ever seems to talk about what is, IMHO, the biggest failing of the British electrical plug, which is that it is just ridiculously, stupidly, massively _enormous_ and cumbersome for no good reason at all. I mean seriously, it makes outlets bigger, they need to have more space around them as well, it makes power strips more cumbersome, and for what? Most other countries' plugs are substantially smaller and work just fine (And before somebody says it, it's not needed to have room for the fuse. There are tons of US plugs on things like Christmas tree light strings which have built-in fuses and are maybe _a third_ of the size the British plugs are.)
@thinklist 11 ай бұрын
I get your point but do you have any data to support most fires are due to overloading. I’m genuinely interested. I would have suspected it due to poor connections. To you point, I get it but the system does not allow for the proper fuse sizing. ie I can put a 13A fuse in 5A rated cable and it will not trip until it reaches 20A. I think a better solution is to simply size all flexible applied leads to the capacity of a typical power circuit but I don’t see that happening any time soon
@seraphina985 11 ай бұрын
@@thinklist You can BS 1362 fuses in other ratings, although most non specialist shops only bother to carry the 3A, 5A, and 13A. But then I don't think I ever saw anything come with anything but those from the factory, so unless you are building something yourself there probably isn't much demand for them, and you can find them in specialist stores when you would be buying the materials anyway.
@foogod4237 11 ай бұрын
@@thinklist Valid question. I said that because I'm fairly certain in the past I did see some things from a fairly reputable source suggesting as much, but I can't seem to find it now (I will keep looking and let you know if I can find it). Most of the official data reported on this sort of thing is very vague and says, for example, that twice as many fires start from outlets than from building wiring, but not actually whether that was due to overloading or a bad connection, etc (I suspect because in many situations it's very hard to tell after the fact, since they often result in the same sorts of results). Nevertheless, most of the official safety organizations in the US and lots of other places do consistently and vocally warn people about not overloading outlets, extension cords, etc, which suggests they do at least _believe_ it to be a significant safety problem, even if it isn't the single largest cause. (and, IMHO, the important thing is that it's a problem that shouldn't even exist because it wouldn't even be possible if things were just designed properly in the first place, but they weren't, so it is.) But your argument here basically boils down to "nobody should try to do anything unless they can make it absolutely perfect". Sure, the current requirements are not perfect and can leave some gaps as well, but having _something_ is still arguably substantially better than _nothing at all_ and can potentially avoid many, if not all, problem scenarios. Safety really shouldn't be considered an all-or-nothing game, IMHO. (FWIW, I agree that the requirements really should say something more like the plug fuse should be "13A or the maximum rating of the connected cable/equipment, whichever is lower", and I think that would be a good change for people to consider, but if you don't even have any fuses to begin with, you're not even at the point where you can _consider_ that sort of "fine tuning" anyway, so you're already well behind in the game.) Oh, and the argument about fuses not tripping until it's significantly over the rated value is irrelevant as long as the codes are written consistently. If the specified characteristics of the nominal 13A fuse are that it doesn't actually blow until 20A, then the other components (such as receptacles) which are also nominally rated to 13A should also be specified to withstand up to 20A before failing (I haven't checked the UK codes to be sure, but that's really just common sense, IMHO). If that's the case, then there's actually no problem.
@tchevrier 11 ай бұрын
a 15 amp outlet is essentially the same as a 20 amp outlet. (electrically). Just a different pin layout.
@foogod4237 11 ай бұрын
@@tchevrier Not true. The design is usually similar, but 15 amp sockets are not tested or rated to carry higher currents, and therefore cannot be assumed to be able to do so safely. (Some manufacturers' 15A sockets likely can, but some others quite likely won't). This is why, for example, it is permitted to use 15A sockets on a 20A circuit if there's more than one of them, but US NEC regulations prohibit using a 15A socket on a 20A circuit if it is the only socket on the circuit (so it will be guaranteed that that socket will be carrying the full circuit current before any breaker blows). If there was really no difference between 15A and 20A sockets electrically, then there would be no reason to have such a restriction in the code in the first place.
@rbdogwood 10 ай бұрын
I think the UK plug pins break rather than bend, which reduces the chance of being able to plug in with one pin folded over. However there's a major advantage in having a fuse tailored to the appliance so that you can fit a 2 amp fuse to a radio or a 13 amp fuse for a 2 kW kettle and be able to use either device in the kitchen. Also your US cousin can't fit her 120 volt hair straightener to your 240 volt socket. Personally I'd like to see a 12 volt system for most of the modern stuff, but I can't see that happening without a major re-think.
@Thurgosh_OG 10 ай бұрын
No UK plug pin (of the G type) has ever broken and I've never heard of one with a pin bending, other than for testing purposes and it takes a lot to bend those.
@rbdogwood 10 ай бұрын
@@Thurgosh_OG perhaps I should have said that they were intended to break rather than bend. Overall I've found the design effective and safe. I like the integral fuse., but to be fair I've not had much experience of US and Continental styles
@KayGreylai 8 ай бұрын
This is probably a really dumb questoion but im just a layman, do other countries not trip their fusebox with ease if they overload something or plug in something faulty? Ive plugged something faulty on before and as soon as the plug pins make contact the breaker tripped.
@SwissPGO 10 ай бұрын
Swiss plug is quite good: small in size, so you can place 3 outlets where only one UK or Au plug would fit.
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