Staying in a hotel recently - pulling a plug out was in danger of pulling
the socket out of the wall. Are they all poor in this respect or are our
adaptors perhaps a bit tight?

On Sun, 21 Dec 2014 17:34:47 +0000, DerbyBorn wrote:

Staying in a hotel recently - pulling a plug out was in danger of
pulling the socket out of the wall. Are they all poor in this respect or
are our adaptors perhaps a bit tight?

The problem sounds to be either your adapter or the socket. Or a combo.

On 21/12/2014 17:34, DerbyBorn wrote:
Staying in a hotel recently - pulling a plug out was in danger of pulling
the socket out of the wall. Are they all poor in this respect or are our
adaptors perhaps a bit tight?


The Swiss sockets quite often have holes for thin pins. OTOH the French
sockets have larger holes. As far as possible I like to use cables etc
with two pin plugs that I can use with either type of socket.

--
Michael Chare

Michael Chare wrote in
o.uk:

On 21/12/2014 17:34, DerbyBorn wrote:
Staying in a hotel recently - pulling a plug out was in danger of
pulling the socket out of the wall. Are they all poor in this respect
or are our adaptors perhaps a bit tight?


The Swiss sockets quite often have holes for thin pins. OTOH the
French sockets have larger holes. As far as possible I like to use
cables etc with two pin plugs that I can use with either type of
socket.


Why are there 2 pin sizes? I hve an adaptor with the thin pins - but had
started to assume it was for plugging into shaver adaptors.

In article 6,
DerbyBorn writes:
Staying in a hotel recently - pulling a plug out was in danger of pulling
the socket out of the wall. Are they all poor in this respect or are our
adaptors perhaps a bit tight?

Many of them just rely on gripping the sides of a large cylindical hole,
and that does often fail as the masonary wears with use of the socket.

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

In article 6,
DerbyBorn writes:

Why are there 2 pin sizes? I hve an adaptor with the thin pins - but had
started to assume it was for plugging into shaver adaptors.

Why do you think there are only 2 pin sizes?

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

"DerbyBorn" wrote in message
2.236...
Staying in a hotel recently - pulling a plug out was in danger of pulling
the socket out of the wall. Are they all poor in this respect or are our
adaptors perhaps a bit tight?

from 10 years experience of living on the continent

happens all the time, they are cheap crap

tim

It has been my limited experience that the installation of most continental
wiring is at best rubbish, and at worst downright dangerous.
There are, I am given to understand still many places where there are non
fused plugs, with no shrouded pins or shuttered sockets and no earth, Spain
being particularly mentioned.

Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"DerbyBorn" wrote in message
2.236...
Staying in a hotel recently - pulling a plug out was in danger of pulling
the socket out of the wall. Are they all poor in this respect or are our
adaptors perhaps a bit tight?

Brian Gaff wrote

It has been my limited experience that the installation of most
continental wiring is at best rubbish, and at worst downright dangerous.

And yet they don’t have a significantly worse rate of electrocutions or
fires.

There are, I am given to understand still many places where there are non
fused plugs,

Yeah, like almost all of the rest of the entire world.

with no shrouded pins or shuttered sockets and no earth, Spain being
particularly mentioned.

And yet they don’t have a significantly worse rate of electrocutions or
fires.

"DerbyBorn" wrote in message
2.236...
Staying in a hotel recently - pulling a plug out was in danger of pulling
the socket out of the wall. Are they all poor in this respect or are our
adaptors perhaps a bit tight?

En el artículo 6,
DerbyBorn escribió:

Why are there 2 pin sizes?

One's 6A, the other is 16A. You can insert 6A plugs into 16A sockets,
but not vice versa.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
Brian Gaff wrote

It has been my limited experience that the installation of most
continental wiring is at best rubbish, and at worst downright dangerous.

And yet they don’t have a significantly worse rate of electrocutions or
fires.

don't they?

Do you really know that?

tim

On 21/12/2014 18:10, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sun, 21 Dec 2014 17:34:47 GMT, DerbyBorn
wrote:

Staying in a hotel recently - pulling a plug out was in danger of pulling
the socket out of the wall. Are they all poor in this respect or are our
adaptors perhaps a bit tight?

Happened to me years ago. A two pin shaver socket into which my
adapter plug was a rather a tight fit. Socket came clean away from the
wall. I extracted my adapter, pushed the socket back into the wall,
went down for breakfast and checked out. It was only a one night stop
anyway.

ISTR there are two incompatible "standard" sizes for these things and if
you have them one way round it is a rattling good fit that falls out
every time you breathe on it and the other way round can be forced in
but will almost certainly damage one or both components on removal.

Never had any real bother with European plugs and adapters bought and
used over there so I think it is something a bit dodgy about UK ones.
There are some dodgy electrical installations in European hotels and in
places the (badly maintained) gas water heaters are potentially lethal.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

tim..... wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Brian Gaff wrote

It has been my limited experience that the installation of most
continental wiring is at best rubbish, and at worst downright dangerous.

And yet they don’t have a significantly worse rate of electrocutions or
fires.

don't they?

Nope.

Do you really know that?

Yep.

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
tim..... wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Brian Gaff wrote

It has been my limited experience that the installation of most
continental wiring is at best rubbish, and at worst downright
dangerous.

And yet they don’t have a significantly worse rate of electrocutions or
fires.

don't they?

Nope.

Do you really know that?

Yep.

I was kindof hoping that you going to give us a wee link

tim

En el artículo , tim.....
escribió:

I was kindof hoping that you going to give us a wee link

It's Woddles.

1) he's a troll
2) he's in Aussie, so knows **** all about European electrics
3) actually, he knows **** all about anything.

Just killfile him.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

tim..... wrote
Rod Speed wrote
tim..... wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Brian Gaff wrote

It has been my limited experience that the installation of most
continental wiring is at best rubbish, and at worst downright
dangerous.

And yet they don’t have a significantly worse rate of electrocutions or
fires.

don't they?

Nope.

Do you really know that?

Yep.

I was kindof hoping that you going to give us a wee link

Go and find it for yourself.

Its not as if that sort of thing isn't well recorded
in the best of the european countrys.

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
tim..... wrote
Rod Speed wrote
tim..... wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Brian Gaff wrote

It has been my limited experience that the installation of most
continental wiring is at best rubbish, and at worst downright
dangerous.

And yet they don’t have a significantly worse rate of electrocutions
or fires.

don't they?

Nope.

Do you really know that?

Yep.

I was kindof hoping that you going to give us a wee link

Go and find it for yourself.

why, it was you that made the claim



Its not as if that sort of thing isn't well recorded
in the best of the european countrys.

In English?

tim

tim..... wrote
Rod Speed wrote
tim..... wrote
Rod Speed wrote
tim..... wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Brian Gaff wrote

It has been my limited experience that the installation of most
continental wiring is at best rubbish, and at worst downright
dangerous.

And yet they don’t have a significantly worse rate of electrocutions
or fires.

don't they?

Nope.

Do you really know that?

Yep.

I was kindof hoping that you going to give us a wee link

Go and find it for yourself.

why,

Because I am not going to do what you can do yourself.

I'm not going to wipe your arse either, you will have to do that yourself.

it was you that made the claim

You quite sure you ain't one of those rocket
scientist pathetic excuses for a bull**** artists ?

Its not as if that sort of thing isn't well recorded
in the best of the european countrys.

In English?

You never could bull**** your way out of a wet paper bag.

On Monday, December 22, 2014 9:01:25 AM UTC, Brian Gaff wrote:
"DerbyBorn" wrote in message
2.236...
Staying in a hotel recently - pulling a plug out was in danger of pulling
the socket out of the wall. Are they all poor in this respect or are our
adaptors perhaps a bit tight?

It has been my limited experience that the installation of most continental
wiring is at best rubbish, and at worst downright dangerous.
There are, I am given to understand still many places where there are non
fused plugs,

its ok to use the fuseboard fuses to protect the appliance as well as the fixed wiring. I prefer plug fuses for a couple of reasons but its very minor

with no shrouded pins

of little real value with narrow pins

or shuttered sockets

again of minimal real safety value. Look at the death figures.

and no earth, Spain

aren't 2 pin systems outdated historic things now?


NT

On 21/12/2014 17:34, DerbyBorn wrote:
Staying in a hotel recently - pulling a plug out was in danger of pulling
the socket out of the wall. Are they all poor in this respect or are our
adaptors perhaps a bit tight?


When I had a house in France, I had to re-fix several sockets. It seemed
to be a combination of weak wall construction and poor fixing design.
Just this morning in an hotel, also in France, I noticed that one of the
sockets in the corridor was mounted on a thick piece of timber that had
been screwed firmly to the wall with several screws. Presumably that
had, at some time, also come away from the original fixing.

--
Colin Bignell