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Posted to uk.d-i-y
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hacking MK dual gang shaver sockets!
In article ,
(Fergus McMenemie) writes:
Folks,
I recently replaced the shaver socket in the bathroom, and boy ... do I
feel cheated. The old unit had two outputs one labeled 110v the other
220v with an external switch to select one or the other. I have both an
electric toothbrush and an electric shaver and I was fed up having to
keep track of which was being charged and for how long. So I replaced it
with a 2 gang MK shaver socket from B&Q which had two outputs and no
switch, one marked 110 and 220. Since both my devices will run on either
110 or 220 I intended to plug in both simultaneously and it would not
matter about the different supply levels.
However it turns out the MK unit was switched, it had an hidden internal
mechanism operated by insetting a plug. Only one of the sockets can be
used at a time. A real pain. This was not marked on the packaging
anywhere. I phoned MK and they gave all kinds of guff as to why things
were the way they were. Interestingly the support guy did admit that
these devices were designed decades ago and were not intended for
continuous use, even if this continuous use only involved having to
support trickle chargers. Some shaver sockets tended to overheat and
would cut out, if say a shaver was left continuously plugged in! This
has apparently been fixed.
The other problem is that, off-load, the 240V side is allowed to be
up to 270V (due to poor transformer regulation). Chargers often look
pretty much like no load, and can end up getting 270V. If the charger
has a wide ranging 110-240V supply, it's often better to use the 120V
side.
Socket has to cutout at loads over 25W, but this doesn't need to
be quick, and often relies on the transformer overheating and a
thermal trip.
--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]
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