In message , Max
Demian writes
On 12/06/2019 02:15, John Rumm wrote:
On 11/06/2019 10:59, wrote:
On Tuesday, 11 June 2019 10:26:46 UTC+1, dennis@home* wrote:
On 10/06/2019 19:02, tabbypurr wrote:
On Sunday, 9 June 2019 22:25:24 UTC+1, Steve Walker* wrote:
On 09/06/2019 09:42, dennis@home wrote:
On 08/06/2019 23:29, tabbypurr wrote:
On Saturday, 8 June 2019 15:20:05 UTC+1, Steve Walker
wrote:
On 08/06/2019 12:46, dennis@home wrote:
You could also plug a "continental" two pin in
directly without the need for a shaving adapter.
Risky though as the pin sizes are wrong. The same is
true of plugging them into shaver adapters the pins are
too small. You might get away with it or you might
overheat the thing and cause a fire later when someone
plugs an electric fire in.
Indeed.
I have done it with a shaver needing a charge when there
has been no shaver socket or adapter. In that case it is
unlikely to cause any harm due to the very low charging
current. More worrying is that in a fault case the very
thin flex and the shaver itself is only protected by the 32A
MCB or even 30A fuse for the ring.
SteveW
Pin size is fine, those plugs are on low current loads.
Lack of fusing is more an issue.
NT
The pin size is not fine.
No it is not. However, with the low current drawn by a charging
shaver or toothbrush, overheating due to poor contact is not
going to happen, so it wouldn't matter. Higher loads would.
... which makes the pin size absolutely fine for such loads.
Sheesh.
But it doesn't. Even with small loads any vibration can make it arc
and that damages the contacts in the socket and then it becomes a
fire risk when someone plugs in a real plug with a load on it.
I conclude you've either not used the method or not examined the
mechanics behind the faceplate. I used such plugs & sockets
extensively as a kid. I looked to find the sockets gripping the pins.
That's ok at low current.
They grip ok, but how do you guarantee that the pins which don't
have the proper profile will not displace or bend a contact on
insertion? Are you confident that a smaller diameter pin which that
can be inserted at an angle will not hit the leading edge of a contact?
This is a pointless discussion as obviously plugging a continental
2-round-pin plug into a 3-square-pin socket (if we are still talking
about that) isn't quite the correct thing to do, but you can get away
with it in many cases, like sticking bare wires into the socket and
relying on the shutter to hold them in place. (You used to need
matchsticks.)
You can often get away with poking a low-current EU 2-pin plug Type-C
(2.5A max) in a UK socket (provided the thin pins make contact - which
they usually do).
However, never Never NEVER insert the 16A Type-E (the normal sort of
European domestic plug) and similar. The diameter of the pins tends to
be a bit more than the height of the slots in the face of a UK 13A
socket, and it's usually an obvious tight fit when you try to insert it.
But the real danger is what it does inside to the 13A socket fingers.
There's a good chance that they will be permanently splayed - and if you
later insert a UK plug, the fingers may make no (or very poor) contact
with the pins. Back in the 1980s I recall a cable TV 30-channnel headend
where the customer kept complaining that some of the channels kept going
off and on - to the constant annoyance of the customers. It turned out
that much of the original equipment was of European manufacture - and
the Type-E plugs that everything was fitted with were simply forced into
the UK multiway strips sockets. When the headend was later updated, and
the old equipment replaced with new units fitted with 13A plugs, it was
act of God what, whether and when anything worked (or not).
--
Ian