John Larkin wrote:
On Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:35:18 -0500, Wolfi
wrote:


The lack of appropriate machanical stress handling is my biggest rejection of
the American type 130V power plug system, in addition to extremely poor design
of those flat contact receptacles, which wear out very easily, giving poor
contact with all bad things to follow..

Not in my experience. I've owned houses that were first wired in the
early 1900's, and I don't recall ever having a bad wall outlet. Most
of the really old ones have been replaced, not because they failed but
rather because they had to be upgraded to accept a 3-prong plug.

A decent 3-prong molded plug, plugged into even a cheap (79 cent) dual
wall outlet, seems to be perfectly reliable. Our biggest problem is
cats chewing on the cords, some of which seem to be tastier than
others.

John



I've replaced a number of two prong outlets in my house (vintage 1928)
because the outlets failed in just the manner described. I don't know
the actual vintage of the particular sockets involved--although it's
pertinent that no two were the same, leading me to believe that they
themselves were later replacements for the originals.

In some cases it was possible to easily rewired with grounded 12/2 romex
from the breaker box. In others, where that was not practical, the
two-prongers were replaced with new outlets--also two prong.

These are still available and should be used if upgrading to a properly
grounded outlet is not done.

In any case, IME the OP's statement is entirely accurate. The
edison-style outlets are either inherently--or at least 'as
implemented'--prone to losing secure contact.

jak

jak