On Dec 17, 2:11*am, DerbyDad03 wrote:
I bought a few sets of Philips mini Christmas lights this morning. As I was
putting them on the tree, I noticed something about the plugs and sockets..

1: The plug does not have a wide neutral prong.
2: The socket on the back of the plug will not accept a wide neutral plug
because there is no wide neutral slot.
3: The socket at the end of the string *will* accept a wide neutral plug
since it has a wide neutral slot.

I wonder why that it is. Yes, it allows me to string together lights from
other manufacturers that use a wide neutral plug, but there is no guarantee
that the neutral is actually connected to the neutral because the Philips
plug doesn't force the user to orientate the plug in any given manner.

Why not build the plug and socket at the start of the string with a wide
neutral prong and slot or build the socket at the end without one? Why mix
and match?

If the lights are Chinese, there may well be issues with plugs. It
runs in my mind that there are places in the world with non polarised
sockets similar to yours.

In the UK we have had moulded on plugs that are deadly from China..