We keep a 2nd fridge and freezer out in the garage, as 'overflow'
capacity for the kitchen. Both are plugged in to the same double socket.

A few weeks ago, the fridge suddenly failed totally. I checked
everything I could - fuse in the plug was OK; power was obviously OK as
the freezer was still working. Bummer. It was reasonably old so
decided it had just given up the ghost.

As it happened, I had planned on taking it down to the council tip
tomorrow. However... this afternoon I was giving the car a cleanout -
something I haven't done in about 2 years - and plugged the hoover into
the now-empty socket in the garage. And guess what - the hoover didn't
work! One of the twin sockets had simply failed, and of course the
fridge was perfectly OK. Knowing my usual luck, it wouldn't normally
have been until I'd dumped the old fridge and bought a new one, and
finding out that didn't work either, that I'd have sussed. So eat your
heart out, Victor.

(Weird failure actually. Presumably it must have been a knackered
switchcontact? - but the switch was never used at all, and certainly
hadn't been recently. Didn't 'feel' at all dodgy either. After swapping
the socket I did (natch) try dismantling the old one for a shufti, but
all the bits just dropped out as the cover came off, so no idea!)

David