Just picked up a new fridge, and it says you shouldn't plug it into an
extension lead...

Why the hell not ?

In article ,
Colin Wilson o.uk writes:
Just picked up a new fridge, and it says you shouldn't plug it into an
extension lead...

Why the hell not ?

Is it a big American one?
Have you seen their extension leads? ;-)

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

Is it a big American one?

Nah, standard under-counter larder fridge

Have you seen their extension leads? ;-)

Not recently :-}

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:07:34 +0000, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Is it a big American one?
Have you seen their extension leads? ;-)

:-)

You should see the one we have for our drier - like an elephant trunk it
is...

Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Colin Wilson o.uk
writes:
Just picked up a new fridge, and it says you shouldn't plug it into
an extension lead...

Why the hell not ?

Is it a big American one?
Have you seen their extension leads? ;-)

Ferzacerly. Amercans have yet to discover exactly how electricity should be
provided.

I have an American ectension lead, looks more like a 1/2" garden hose.

Americans use gasoline powered presure washers.

Americans use truck mounted (engine driven) carpet cleaning machines.

Americans use propane powered floor polishers in shopping malls.

The reason? Their poxy useless 115v spur type electrical system can't hack
anything else.

I worked for an American floor cleaning machine company once. We ended up
sending them a 13 amp double socket outlet and a 13 amp plug top with
relevant details & they were completely & utterly gobsmacked by the concept.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

In article , The Medway
Handyman writes

I worked for an American floor cleaning machine company once. We ended up
sending them a 13 amp double socket outlet and a 13 amp plug top with
relevant details & they were completely & utterly gobsmacked by the concept.

To connect to the cooker/washing machine point?

--
(\__/)
(='.'=) Bunny says Windows 7 is Vi$ta reloaded.
(")_(") http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/windows_7.png

Mike Tomlinson wrote:
In article , The Medway
Handyman writes

I worked for an American floor cleaning machine company once. We
ended up sending them a 13 amp double socket outlet and a 13 amp
plug top with relevant details & they were completely & utterly
gobsmacked by the concept.

To connect to the cooker/washing machine point?

Yup. Thats why it really confused them.

Which bit of "American floor cleaning machine company" didn't you
understand?


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:12:08 +0000, The Medway Handyman wrote:
The reason? Their poxy useless 115v spur type electrical system can't hack
anything else.

TBH, i've never seen an issue with higher-powered 115V devices (e.g.
things like carpet cleaners), nor with fixed wiring at 240V (the fixed
wiring for our cooker, drier, well pump, water heater etc. don't seem any
beefier than UK equivalents).

The problem seems to be with the cables sold for "240V consumer use" in
the US - e.g. the last few feet of 'flex'* for the cooker, drier etc. - as
these seem to be massively over-specced for the job (I assume someone had
a H+S wibble about it once, and now everyone's stuck with a crap standard).

* yeah, right.

US plugs/sockets for 240V use are similarly ridiculous, and like something
out of the ark. OTOH US folk find the massive fused UK 13A plugs
hilarious, so it works both ways :-)

cheers

Jules

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:54:50 +0100, Colin Wilson
o.uk wrote:

Just picked up a new fridge, and it says you shouldn't plug it into an
extension lead...

Why the hell not ?

Generally it's bad practise .

Plugged into a socket out of sight and sound of the fridge (IE round a
corner) it could be unplugged by the cleaner ( or somebody ) and get
plugged back in at the end of her shift and nobody would ever know it
had spent a few hours warming up. Potentially this could happen every
day.

The compressor could take a big surge at start up, many that do are
susceptible to low mains voltage. It could potentially sit there in a
stalled rotor condition, 'till it burnt out.

The fridge may come with the same set of instructions as it does when
sold into a different market which uses radial wiring and not ring
mains.

The extension lead may be too feeble for the job.

Or perm any 1, 2 , or 3 out of 4.

Derek

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:20:02 +0100
Derek Geldard wrote:

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:54:50 +0100, Colin Wilson
o.uk wrote:

Just picked up a new fridge, and it says you shouldn't plug it into an
extension lead...

Why the hell not ?

Generally it's bad practise .

Plugged into a socket out of sight and sound of the fridge (IE round a
corner) it could be unplugged by the cleaner ( or somebody ) and get
plugged back in at the end of her shift and nobody would ever know it
had spent a few hours warming up. Potentially this could happen every
day.

Reminds me of a problem we had at work years ago. The computer (a
DEC VAX) rebooted every night, we could not work out why. Turns out the
cleaner's large backside hit the reset button when she bent over to
change the nozzle on her vacuum-cleaner. Every night!

Cleaners are a menace around electrics.

R.

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:14:05 +0100, TheOldFellow wrote:

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:20:02 +0100
Derek Geldard wrote:

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:54:50 +0100, Colin Wilson
o.uk wrote:

Just picked up a new fridge, and it says you shouldn't plug it into an
extension lead...

Why the hell not ?

Generally it's bad practise .

Plugged into a socket out of sight and sound of the fridge (IE round a
corner) it could be unplugged by the cleaner ( or somebody ) and get
plugged back in at the end of her shift and nobody would ever know it
had spent a few hours warming up. Potentially this could happen every
day.

Reminds me of a problem we had at work years ago. The computer (a
DEC VAX) rebooted every night, we could not work out why. Turns out the
cleaner's large backside hit the reset button when she bent over to
change the nozzle on her vacuum-cleaner. Every night!

Cleaners are a menace around electrics.

R.

Had similar at work, but cleanereither unplugging a 19" cabinet with 12"
discs in it or plugging a polisher into the next socket - on a UPS!
We fitted Electrax plugs and sockets on the UPS circuits - the cleaners
couldn't even manage to unplug them!

BTW, Electax are good for 'secure' plugging and are completely
child-/rep./engineer-proof

http://uk.farnell.com/mem/az0010/soc...85?Ntt=538-085
--
Peter.
The head of a pin will hold more angels if
it's been flattened with an angel-grinder.

Reminds me of a problem we had at work years ago. The computer (a
DEC VAX) rebooted every night, we could not work out why. Turns out the
cleaner's large backside hit the reset button when she bent over to
change the nozzle on her vacuum-cleaner. Every night!

Cleaners are a menace around electrics.


Ever seen nurses thumping in crooked plugs in a hospital.

On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:01:20 +0100, "John"
wrote:


Reminds me of a problem we had at work years ago. The computer (a
DEC VAX) rebooted every night, we could not work out why. Turns out the
cleaner's large backside hit the reset button when she bent over to
change the nozzle on her vacuum-cleaner. Every night!

Cleaners are a menace around electrics.


Ever seen nurses thumping in crooked plugs in a hospital.


Nurses are not a patch on 20 y. old female radiographers, (although we
came across a few nurses who used to stand at the lab door and just
throw the blood at their Blood Gas Analyser )

- enormous steel handles just "come off" in their hands.

R.N. Captain overheard at a trade exhibiton in 1970 about the (very
first Philips VCRs) ...

It's not "Sailor Proof").

Derefgk

On Oct 10, 6:54*pm, Colin Wilson
o.uk wrote:
Just picked up a new fridge, and it says you shouldn't plug it into an
extension lead...

Why the hell not ?

Its fine to do that. Saying not to can cut their customer calls
slightly though, since some issues will turn out to be due to a faulty
extension lead.

Startup current isn't an issue. A 1/4A fridge might eat 10x = 2.5A or
16x = 4A during startup, and even bell wire can handle that.


NT

"Colin Wilson" o.uk wrote
in message ...
Just picked up a new fridge, and it says you shouldn't plug it into an
extension lead...

Why the hell not ?

It's ********.

Bill

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:54:50 +0100, Colin Wilson
o.uk wrote:


Just picked up a new fridge, and it says you shouldn't plug it into an
extension lead...

Why the hell not ?

Elfin safety paranoia. If the extension lead is left coiled on a drum
it will overheat at a small fraction of its rated current. Fridges go
on and off by themselves so the overheating and possible subsequent
combustion may take place at night or when no one is in.

On Oct 11, 10:27*am, Peter Parry wrote:
On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:54:50 +0100, Colin Wilson

o.uk wrote:

Just picked up a new fridge, and it says you shouldn't plug it into an
extension lead...

Why the hell not ?

Elfin safety paranoia. *If the extension lead is left coiled on a drum
it will overheat at a small fraction of its rated current. *Fridges go
on and off by themselves so the overheating and possible subsequent
combustion may take place at night or when no one is in.

Even bell wire could cope with an intermittent quarter amp load
coiled.


NT

On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:16:52 -0700 (PDT), NT
wrote:

Even bell wire could cope with an intermittent quarter amp load
coiled.

A. You are assuming that's all that is plugged in.
B You are forgetting the Elfin Safety writer had probably stopped
taking the dried green frog pills.

It never pays to confuse Elfin Safety with reality.

On Oct 11, 2:57*pm, Peter Parry wrote:
On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:16:52 -0700 (PDT), NT
wrote:

Even bell wire could cope with an intermittent quarter amp load
coiled.

A. *You are assuming that's all that is plugged in.

Not really, even a 20A load on a sensible 5m extension lead wouldn't
take the fridge out of its voltage spec.


NT

Peter Parry wrote:
On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:54:50 +0100, Colin Wilson
o.uk wrote:


Just picked up a new fridge, and it says you shouldn't plug it into
an extension lead...

Why the hell not ?

Elfin safety paranoia.

I think the term Effin Softy sums it up nicely :-)


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Colin Wilson
o.uk saying something
like:

Just picked up a new fridge, and it says you shouldn't plug it into an
extension lead...

Why the hell not ?

Load of ********. It'll be fine if it's a short lead and not coiled.

"Grimly Curmudgeon" wrote in message
...
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Colin Wilson
o.uk saying something
like:

Just picked up a new fridge, and it says you shouldn't plug it into an
extension lead...

Why the hell not ?

Load of ********. It'll be fine if it's a short lead and not coiled.

I agree

Adam