220v. 230v, 240v, 250v?

[DPG]

I do not believe the US plug has any advantages over anything anywhere.

There is one advantage.

 

[nicebutdim]

Only downside I can think of is its aesthetics - not pretty, but robust and functional.

 

[DPG]

Only downside I can think of is its aesthetics - not pretty, but robust and functional.

One of the things they considered is a common occurrence - what happens when someone trips over the flex, eg when hoovering etc.

With the US plug, and others which also have the cable exiting horizontally, is that the plug just pulls out of the socket. No harm done.

With the UK plug, because the cable exits at the bottom, the plug does not pull out. What happens is that the flex gets partially ripped out of the plug, and sometimes damage occurs to the plug and even possibly to the socket.

I don't know of any other disadvantages and, like John, I think the British 13A plug is an excellent design generally.

 

[LastManOnline]

Having a local fuse to a single socket outlet is a great advantage and safety feature.

Perhaps you misunderstood my previous post. The fuse in a British plugtop HAS to be there due to the design of the ring circuit. It's a NECESSARY feature for the protection of the appliance cable connected to it.

This extra safety feature is generally not a requirement on European 16 amp radials

 

[Rockingit]

I've a flightcase full of global anything to anything adaptors, and there's good and bad in each one. We're stuck with a fused plug due to the RFC, and we're stuck with the RFC as a left over from scarcer times. Apart from the guarded outlets in the sockets there's little to be gained by our design - over engineered and cumbersome. The Australian one is pretty good.

 

[LastManOnline]

He said he bought a whole bunch of UK plugs,.... If one piece of equipment was at fault, it never took the lot down.

Not "taking the whole lot down" is a good reason for using local fuse downsizing. But this is a very different reason from the primary reason British plugs have fuses... without them circuit safety would be compromised. They are a necessity, not an option.
I would suggest to the American in question that he try using more radial circuits.

 

[John-SJW]

Not "taking the whole lot down" is a good reason for using local fuse downsizing. But this is a very different reason from the primary reason British plugs have fuses... without them circuit safety would be compromised. They are a necessity, not an option.
I would suggest to the American in question that he try using more radial circuits.

I would assume his portable film equipment was all radial. The fused 3-pin was to accommodate rings for sure - and to offer other safety spin-offs which were all thought out, not incidental.

 

[John-SJW]

This extra safety feature is generally not a requirement on European 16 amp radials

That is why they are not as safe as British systems.

 

[John-SJW]

I've a flightcase full of global anything to anything adaptors, and there's good and bad in each one. We're stuck with a fused plug due to the RFC, and we're stuck with the RFC as a left over from scarcer times. Apart from the guarded outlets in the sockets there's little to be gained by our design - over engineered and cumbersome. The Australian one is pretty good.

You need to think it all through.

 

[John-SJW]

Only downside I can think of is its aesthetics - not pretty, but robust and functional.

Two plugs. One white one black. Available in any colour in fact. They are ugly to what we see elsewhere? Please.

 

[Rockingit]

You need to think it all through.

Say what?!

 

[DPG]

The whole shutter design and the design of the contacts in the UK plug and slcket is very good. The cord grip of the plug works well, and there is plenty of room for termination.

As I say, I think it's the best of the lot.

 

[Rockingit]

The whole shutter design and the design of the contacts in the UK plug and slcket is very good. The cord grip of the plug works well, and there is plenty of room for termination.

As I say, I think it's the best of the lot.

That’s what I said…. Except, thanks to Esther Ranson the end user should never need to know about termination and cord grips anyway

 

[DPG]

That’s what I said…. Except, thanks to Esther Ranson the end user should never need to know about termination and cord grips anyway

Ooh careful, we'll be entering into the whole 'you can't cut plugs of cos it voids the warranty' thing!

And can I just say the word 'plugtop'. Ta.

 

[Rockingit]

This thread has reminded me that I need to PAT most of the contents of said flightcase! At least I can do it with a cider by my side later. Actually, I'll have to, as I think that case is currently acting as a bench for the home-made....

 

[John-SJW]

Ooh careful, we'll be entering into the whole 'you can't cut plugs of cos it voids the warranty' thing!

And can I just say the word 'plugtop'. Ta.

But the instructions say consult an electrician, who deemed it should be cut off, so all is well.

Plugtop? What a silly term.

 

[DPG]

But the instructions say consult an electrician, who deemed it should be cut off, so all is well.

Plugtop? What a silly term.

That's two plugtops now. Don't forget what happens on the 3rd one ?

 

[Lucien Nunes]

In the late 1980s there was talk of a standard Euro plug that would all adopt.

This was IEC 60906. It is a good, compact design of plug following European practice with certain incremental improvements locked in, similar in layout to the Swiss SEV1011 which is based on the usual 4-4.8mm pins on 19mm centres but with an offset earth pin.

IEC 60906-1 was later taken up by Brazil and SA in 10, 16 and 20A versions, but failed in Europe. There was insufficient commercial benefit to standardisation, not least because a significant proportion of low-load class II items come fitted with 2.5A Europlugs which are already pan-EU compatible.

I was a keen teenage inventor at the time and I had a go at solving the remaning compatibility problems for 60906 for the UK. The elephant in our particular room is the lack of OCPD required for backward compatibility with 32A circuits. This I solved with value-added features by replacing the socket switches with MCBs. The socket itself is small enough that a UK back-box has space for a version including the MCB(s). The MCB was also interlocked with the plug so that it would only switch on with a plug inserted, and I had a version that would set the thermal trip current according to the shape of the plug. Insert a Europlug or 3-pin plug with a keyway, and the breaker would set to a lower value than with the full size 16A plug inserted.

It worked, but at the time it was too expensive and no-one wanted to take it on. But FWIW the MCB-equipped socket is available from Bticino in CEI 23-50 form. Today I think it would be cost-effective but there's not the interest in 60906 that was buzzing then.

• 16A allows a good safety margin on 3kW
• Contacts designed for continuous operation at 13..5A for life of product
• Can be connected to circuits up to 63A rating
• Fully touch-proof / interlocked / child-safe
• Up to 4 outlets in normal dual-gang box
• Compatibility with 2-pin Europlug
• Sleepwalker-friendly!

It was my attempt to take the best of European and British and combine them into one product with no geographical limits or undesirable compatibility issues. Anything that fits it, is safe to use in it.

 

[John-SJW]

This was IEC 60906. It is a good, compact design of 16A plug that follows from European practice with certain incremental improvements locked in, similar in layout to the Swiss SEV1011 which is based on the usual 4.8mm on 19mm centres but with an offset earth pin.

IEC 60906-1 was taken up by Brazil and SA, but failed in Europe. There was insufficient commercial benefit to standardisation, not least because a significant proportion of low-load class II items come fitted with 2.5A Europlugs which are already pan-EU compatible.

I was a keen teenage inventor at the time and I had a go at solving the remaning compatibility problems for 60906 for the UK. The elephant in our particular room is the lack of OCPD required for backward compatibility with 32A circuits. This I solved with value-added features by replacing the socket switches with MCBs. The socket itself is small enough that a UK back-box has space for a version including the MCB(s). The MCB was also interlocked with the plug so that it would only switch on with a plug inserted, and I had a version that would set the thermal trip current according to the shape of the plug. Insert a Europlug or 3-pin plug with a keyway, and the breaker would set to a lower value than with the full size 16A plug inserted.

It worked, but at the time it was too expensive and no-one wanted to take it on. But FWIW the MCB-equipped socket is available from Bticino in CEI 23-50 form. Today I think it would be cost-effective but there's not the interest in 60906 that was buzzing then.

The problem is that if we wanted safety all over the EU, they would have to adopt the British/Irish/Cypriot 13A-fuse-in-the-plug approach. The UK inserting a fuseless plug on the millions of rings in the UK spells many fires and deaths.

The reality is that no common domestic appliances these days need more than 13amps, as efficiencies have risen. An EU directive could have gone out to ensure no new appliances consuming more than 13A. Having a fuse in the plug is an added safety feature even on radials.

In short, change the socket/plug shape and pins if you want (nice to have sockets where you only drill a large hole to fit), but a max of a 13A fuse must be in the plug.

 

[Lucien Nunes]

The point of my post was to illustrate how it can be got out of the plug, with consequential cost and space saving on the plug side and reduced heat dissipation, without losing the advantages of local OCPD.