In article ,
David Looser wrote:
For the last 20 years I have PAT tested every mains electrical item
submitted to a charity auction that is held twice a year in the village
where I live. In that time I met a fair few horrors: flexes so damaged
that the bare live wire shows through, a standard lamp (with a brass
fitting) wired up with two-core bell-wire, flexes extended using a bit
of choc-block wrapped in insulating tape, broken plugs, mis-wired
plugs, plugs with the cord-grip either missing or incorrectly used etc.
But I've only ever had one example of a plug with anything other than a
BS1362 fuse in it, and that had a few turns of 5A fuse-wire wrapped
round the prongs of the fuse-holder. So I don't buy this idea that
people are putting screws, bolts or bits of metal rod into plugs in any
significant numbers at all. Its *so* much easier to nick a fuse from
another appliance than to start looking for bits of metal that will fit!

Indeed. As I said, how many homes will have a plug in appliance that draws
more than 13 amps so needs the fuse shorted out?

I'd say it's restricted to things like some welders and compressors -
which a keen DIYer might buy.

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*Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.