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[YouTube]: American is impressed by sensible British mains plug design
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themadhippy:

--- Quote ---I believe shuko are 16a rated?
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yep,same as a 16A ceeform,i know which id trust most to handle 16A 24/7

--- Quote ---The UK used to have a 3 pin plug that is the roughly the same shape as the current ones but with none of the considerations of the current ones, then there were 2 or more sizes.
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Do you mean the old round pin 15A, 5A and 2A,rarely fused and until fairly recently non shrouded pins,the 15A and 5A is still very common  for dimmed supply's in theatres.The 5A and 2A  is also still in use for lighting circuits were you want to centrally control over  table lamps
james_s:

--- Quote from: nfmax on October 22, 2022, 08:00:13 am ---So did we in the UK. The BS1363 plug & socket was a replacement, developed as a result of a committee set up in 1942 to consider the electrical aspects of post-war rebuilding. One of its members (and the only safety specialist) was the electrical engineer Caroline Haslett https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Haslett, noted (among many, many other things) for her activism in promoting the use of electricity in the home to reduce women's workload, and in home safety.

Of course the BS1363 plug is a model of good design - a woman was responsible for it!

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That's relatively recent compared to the American NEMA 15 plug, which was developed in 1904 and remains in common use today. It has been improved with polarization and grounding but an original 1904 plug will fit perfectly in a modern receptacle.
coppice:

--- Quote from: wraper on October 22, 2022, 03:33:21 pm ---
--- Quote from: MadScientist on October 22, 2022, 03:18:09 pm ---I have moved from U.K. plug land ( Ireland ) to Schuko ( Greece ) I way prefer Schuko

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Schuko is garbage. Non polarized and unreliable. I've seen plenty of them eventually fail with melted and carbonized plastic around terminals when intensely used close to the max rated current. And those were sockets from reputable manufacturers like Siemens. Sockets from less reputable manufacturers have an unreliable contact even with light use. Sockets which are protected from inserting things are garbage too. UK socket mechanism relies on earth prong to release the shutter on live terminals. Schuko is either unprotected, or even worse, protected and relies on garbage shutters you need to push though with a lot of force, some sockets are nearly impossible to use because of that. Works especially bad with phone chargers and similar things which often get damaged with bent or broken prongs as a result.

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The UK plugs often weld into their socket, through melting/melding of the plastic with older sockets. There was a plague of this when the plastic half sleeve was introduced on the live and neutral pins. The contact position inside the socket had not previously been well defined, and many sockets were contacting the pin close to the plastic/metal transition. The resulting poor contact meant high consumption appliances, like tumble dryers, that run for long periods would melt the plug and socket into each other. Things like kettle are usually OK, as they run in shorter bursts.
Gyro:

--- Quote ---The UK plugs often weld into their socket, through melting/melding of the plastic with older sockets.
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Really? I've never experienced that.  :-\

You must have some really old sockets.
coppice:

--- Quote from: Gyro on October 22, 2022, 05:55:12 pm ---
--- Quote ---The UK plugs often weld into their socket, through melting/melding of the plastic with older sockets.
--- End quote ---

Really? I've never experienced that.  :-\

You must have some really old sockets.

--- End quote ---
Its probably a matter of makes. MK developed the sleeve design, and probably always made sockets which work well with them. Old Crabtree and Contactum sockets would weld. Clipsal sockets of any vintage will weld, but they are not exactly high quality products.
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