Or lack of safety?
This example is one cheap UK-schuco adapter. First look reveals that there is no fuse in UK plug (there should be max 13A fuse).
There is no grounding on adapter (just plastic pin in place of ground pin), but accepts grouded equipment plug.
But there is worse problem: when plug is not fully plugged in you can tough live power pins with your finger!
This goes to dumpster. I need to get safer adapter for my trip to UK.
Same type of dangers can be found on other adapters as well – you have been warned! Look at the safety of your travel power adapters.
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28 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Extra dangerous electrocute-o-daptor with lamp test feature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvOTiQKkQMo
Inside another death-dapter variant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB1DlBpyS9w
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to use European plugs in the UK safely, and European to UK Adaptors explained. A Beginners Guide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-ldVLXnJXs
How to use European plugs in the UK safely, and European to UK Adaptors explained.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to use European electric plug in the UK without adapter (BS1362)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi5_CTBnDgc
This video demonstrates How to use European electric plug in the UK without adapter.
This is emergency method. So you should use adapter plugs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Deadly Chinese plug adapter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESIzuV6kdWY
A common adapter supplied with many ebay products from China that has quite a few design flaws. This exciting device allows you to:-
Plug in upside down defeating the earth connection.
Plug in with pins hanging out posing a shock risk.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Extra dangerous electrocute-o-daptor with lamp test feature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvOTiQKkQMo
It’s sometimes hard choosing which mains plug adaptor is the most exciting. I think this one is a good contender due to its exciting live pop-out death probes that appear at the touch of a button like a very exciting transformer-robot toy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Illegal and Deadly imported UK Plug Rant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RklIu4SE3M
the first thing I pulled from the packet was unsafe, illegal and potentially deadly imported UK plug cable. I felt it was time for a bit of a rant… and an experiment to see what would happen to the cable if the device at the end of it short-circuited internally
why not just put the fuses into the sockets instaid of the plugs
Plugs with partially sleeved earth pins are guaranteed to be absolutely always counterfeit, and are not allowed to be sold, even though they’re for non-earthed applications.
Scary as. I wouldn’t even be going near that cable.
All that damage for 5 amps! Imagine someone plug a PA amp in to this!
And that’s why us wiring is superior. Circuits are mostly kept at lower amp ratings and therefor shut off sooner. Plus, it in no way relies on cord protections and eliminates illegal cables as a possible fault.
Good demonstration! With a total resistance of about 3 ohms for that short cable the manufacturer obviously wasn’t wasting money on much copper. Worth pointing out that the UK system allows for fusing at just 1A which, with the right plug & fuse would make even thin rubbish cable like that reasonably safe. Not something one can say for the Schuko or US style systems.
It never went above 5 amps because you did not have enough voltage.You should do another “dramatic” video where you plug it into the mains.
Main issue is that that cable isn’t fused, but that it’s not capable of handeling every day loads, Allthough a 4A fuse could have offered protection from it’s flaw.
It’s likely that they use the same cable in the US and Europe where it has to be rated for 20A or 16A.
It’s not true that each socket in other EU countries has its own fuse in the CU. At least not in Germany.
Alan Brown
2 päivää sitten
I tracked down at least one of the Chinese factories/major distributors – “Shenzhen Le Tao Xing Technology Company Ltd” and had a chat with them about the lack of safety of their product. They first responded with “if you don’t like them, don’t buy them” and then when I emphasised that my concern was safety, “We don’t understand why you are complaining, we have sold thousands of these into the UK with no problem”
Armed with that admission and a couple of the offending plugs, I’ve been escalating through my local Trading Standards through to National Trading standards and now they’re talking to Chinese authorities with an eye to getting enforcement done in China (remember, everything is licensed there – no license == no exports) and getting production of the dangerous plugs stopped along with production dies destroyed.
Did not know this UK detail. Modern houses have fuseboxes with fuses for every thing, like in a car.
Usually electronics have built in fuses so why an extra fuse in the plug. A lot of cables are ratet below fuse amperage, 2A Europlug, but during a short circuit, they will blow the fuse as they can widthstand much more for a short time.
I wonderd if AC amps generate more heat than DC even if it’s the RMS value.
Arthur says:
The lack of fuse is indeed a problem (though in my opinion the problem is more about UK requiring appliances to have a fuse in their plug rather than having one in the outlet or before…). Everything else, just know what you use it for and don’t be stupid. If you’re careless enough to actually plug something half way and touch the prongs, you deserve your shock. And about the lack of ground, obviously you don’t want to plug a dishwasher or something like that in it, but there are a lot of devices (especially electronics, which I assume are the most common uses of these – charging your phone or your laptop when abroad) that are sold with a grounded plug while actually being perfectly safe without it (I’ve even seen ground-sized plugs that had no actual ground connection… think I remember something about ungrounded outlets in my country not being required to support as much current as grounded ones, so maybe it makes sense in that regard, but still super annoying when you want to plug them into a power strip).
So yes, it wouldn’t pass whatever the UK equivalent of electrical code is, but it’s not that dangerous if you don’t use it in a stupid way.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Universal Travel Shock-dapter (Dangerous Adapter)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoK8voT4Hl0
This is a clever universal travel adaptor with 3 different ejecting plugs. It is sold on Ebay for just $1. The problem is that you can eject more plugs at the same time. When plugged in, the exposed pins of the other plugs are live. It also defeats ground / earth. Ground is not being connected at all, but you can plug into it appliances that need to be grounded. You can also plug just one pin of a plug into it and touch the other one, which becomes live through the impedance of the appliance. You can even stick a ground pin of some plugs into live hole, making the metal cabinet of the appliance live. It claims to have a surge protection, but there’s actually none. There’s just a red LED indicator with two 74k resistors in series.
It is rated 10A, but the sliding contacts of the plugs are very thin. This is definitely a deadly dangerous device that can result in fire or electrocution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Halfdaptor – Convert two prong plugs to half of a UK plug
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qvW6rz_ZhA
An entirely pointless and unsafe device which consists of a socket for various styles of two pin plug, and converts those to two pins of a three pin UK plug.
Impossible to insert into any UK socket outlet without the use of some other thing to open the shutters in the socket.
Claims to be rated 6 amps, 250 volts.
Comments:
Looks like this is for Singapore “Type G” plug & socket (I looked it up based on another comment. Not my own work LOL). There are also a total of 51 Countries and regions that use the UK Style of Plug/Socket/Power Rating (220-260v 40-60Hz) as well.
That’s based on the UK standard. There are several other countries that also use it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
PVC Insulated Cable Damaged by Expanded Polystyrene Insulation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fArXX-u7uxs
An example of PVC insulated cable which has been in contact with expanded polystyrene cavity wall insulation.
There are two problems here – first being that the cable insulation is damaged when in contact with the expanded polystyrene, the second is the current capacity of the cable is significantly reduced when installed in insulation, which could result in the cable overheating.
Fire Rated Expanding Foam on Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abugZYNUs3E
What happens to fire rated expanding foam when exposed to a flame?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Single Wires through Metal Holes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg5eZkq2KgE
When installing a metal consumer unit, the line and neutral wires should pass through a single hole. If they are passed through separate holes, the resulting magnetic field can create eddy currents in the metal, causing overheating.
In this video, a current of 25A and 120A is passed through a single wire which is routed through two holes in a metal consumer unit to see if it overheats.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Proving Dead – Mains Electricity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qh28sHs7XA
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/NTDCPR/videos/live-line-washing-with-deionized-water-at-220-kv-grid-station-new-kotlakhpat-lah/322594215719563/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adapter plugs
for travellers
https://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/AdapPlugs.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Charge leakage in wall charger [closed]
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/326216/charge-leakage-in-wall-charger
Phone charger gives electric shocks, How to measure
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/phone-charger-gives-electric-shocks-how-to-measure-voltage/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/suicide-shower-teardown-bigclivedotcom-on-you-tube/
https://youtu.be/cNjA0aee07k
Tomi Engdahl says:
Universal Travel Shock-dapter (Dangerous Adapter)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoK8voT4Hl0
This is a clever universal travel adaptor with 3 different ejecting plugs. It is sold on Ebay for just $1. The problem is that you can eject more plugs at the same time. When plugged in, the exposed pins of the other plugs are live. It also defeats ground / earth. Ground is not being connected at all, but you can plug into it appliances that need to be grounded. You can also plug just one pin of a plug into it and touch the other one, which becomes live through the impedance of the appliance. You can even stick a ground pin of some plugs into live hole, making the metal cabinet of the appliance live. It claims to have a surge protection, but there’s actually none. There’s just a red LED indicator with two 74k resistors in series. It has safety shutters, but they don’t work at all. It is rated 10A, but the sliding contacts of the plugs are very thin. This is definitely a deadly dangerous device that can result in fire or electrocution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dangerous Mains Travel Adaptors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgpJSQAweDk
A pair of dangerous electrical travel adaptors which convert one electrical plug to another.
These have several problems, and when used in certain situations the result is live pins being exposed which could result in serious injury or death.
Dangerous Devices – Mains Travel Adaptors
Devices designed to allow electrical plugs from one country to be used in another.
https://www.flameport.com/dont_try_at_home/dangerous_devices/dangerous_mains_travel_adaptors.cs4
These products are designed to allow electrical appliances with various styles of plugs to be used in other countries which have different socket outlets.
The idea is good. This implementation is not.
Both of these items have several serious design issues. They will accept several styles of 3 pin plug, typically used with appliances requiring an earth connection. Despite there being a moulded section for the earth pin, this is completely empty – no metallic contact at all, so any plug inserted will NOT be connected to earth.
The protective shutters over the line and neutral socket holes are pitiful – they can be moved aside with any object that happens to fit into the holes, and as such serve no purpose. Properly designed shutters should only open when a pin is inserted into both holes simultaneously.
The rear pins have no interlock to prevent multiple sets being exposed simultaneously. This will result in live exposed parts when one set of pins is inserted into a socket outlet. If the socket is metal faced, this could result in the adaptor shorting out the mains supply.
Both devices claim to contain surge protection. One of them contains a single MOV between the line and neutral pins.
The adaptor with the USB socket has no surge protection at all.
If used in the UK, the adaptor should contain a fuse. Socket outlets in the UK are typically connected to a 32A circuit breaker, and all UK plugs (BS1363) contain a lower rated fuse to enable smaller size flex to be used on appliances.
This adaptor has no fuse, so if used in the UK with another type of plug, flex only rated to 10A or even less is now connected to a 32A circuit. In the event of a fault, this will result in the flex overheating and becoming damaged. For very small flex, fire could result.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Which Universal Travel Adapter to Use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBrc1SErSJw
What is the best universal travel adapter? Which one should you use for your next trip? Watch now to find out
Tomi Engdahl says:
TRAVEL ADAPTERS and Power PLUGS explained | World Travel Tips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX3Fksa7ukI
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/professional-resources/technical-e-news/new-safety-standard-for-travel-adaptors/
A new British Standard ‘BS 8546: 2016 – Travel adaptors compatible with UK plug and socket system’ was published in April 2016. As there has been no British Standard specifically for travel adaptors in the past, there is no transition period, and should be applied with immediate effect to the design and manufacture of any travel adaptors having at least one plug or socket-outlet portion compatible with BS 1363 UK plugs and socket-outlets.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IEC 60884-2-5:2017
Standard for adapters including travel adapters
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://nemko.co.uk/testing/travel-adaptors-safety-bs8546-60884/
BS 8546
Nemko Ltd is UKAS accredited for testing to BS 8546, the standard for travel adaptors. This standard was drafted by BSI sub-committee PEL23, of which Nemko is an active member.
It replaces standards such as BS 5733 and IEC 60884, which have been commonly applied to travel adaptors in the past, for products marketed in the UK.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Universally Dangerous Socket Outlet – The Holiday Shocker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LKcvl7n09U
Is it worth the risk of an electric shock or fire to avoid taking travel adaptors on holiday? Hotels are installing universal electrical socket outlets (or receptacles if you’re tuning in from the USA). These universal sockets look similar to British Standard BS1363 sockets. However, with universal sockets, you can insert almost any plug the world offers.
After the plug on a hair dryer melted, Gordon Routledge put down his Pina Colada and headed off to the local market to discover the problems.
We purchased a Legrand universal socket outlet and a version from Keffy. Neither socket outlet has any instructions of warnings about the potential for electric shock.
========================================
00:00 Dangerous holiday hotel electrics
00:19 A trip to the market to buy a socket
00:50 Locals don’t bother with plugs
01:25 Where would we be without electrical standards – Mauritius (and other places)
01:59 The real reason the UK left the EU
02:33 Universal electrical socket outlets
03:00 Electric Shock Risk 1 – Exposed live parts
04:10 Electric Shock Risk 2 – No earth connection
06:10 Fire Risk – Poor connection
06:30 Breaking news from Unilight
06:55 Inside a universal socket outlet – Keffy
10:00 Poor connections
10:50 The Legrand version
11:40 Look away, now Gary’s got shorts on!
===========================================
Tomi Engdahl says:
Red Sea Mall death-dapter teardown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1huWJeHer4
On his travels around the world, Vince the crew chief kindly bought me a suitably shady looking death-daptor to examine. The first and strangest fail was the wrongly colour coded pins.
Viewer comments:
Clive: our circuits pack quiet a punch…
Germany(16A/230V and no fused plugs): we got you
UK is weird though, our hangover from the post-war copper shortage making ring circuits a thing. Double outlets rated for 16A but nothing to stop you plugging in two 13A products, or if something is unfused then good luck with the breaker rated at 32A.
Still, 16A/230V is less than the UK’s 32A/230V on the UK ring main (truly a mind bending way to connect things, but it DID save copper in post-war UK which was the note. This 32A (or 30A) ring fuse is also why all UK plugs has to be fused, without that they’re decidedely spicy.
Note: UK is technically NOT 240V since decades, as part of the “European Harmonization” that happened decades ago they switched their official definition to be based on 230V though the over/under percentages means the voltage range IS higher BUT overlapping.
If you don’t believe me, argue with the UK goverments official pages, these specifically states that the UK mains voltage is 230V +10/-6% (IE 216.2-253V at the delivery point), the rest of Europe is 230 +6%/-10% (IE 207-243.8V at delivery point) to accomodate both the old 230V and the old 220V countries… I’d provide references but Youtube would just eat the comment, they’re not hard to find via Google.
And before anyone offers proof based on “but he measured 240-245V at the outlet”, see the UK voltage range (“230V” means up to 253V).
Right there with you – AU 220-260v with 20A/Bedroom circuit, 32A@for Living/Dining/Kitchen circuits, and a 20-32A for the shed/garage… To service appliances that are limited to 10A draw without special plugs, and are individually fused/breakered at the manufacturer’s discretion.
It’s going to be awfully hard to beat that death-dapter from years ago with the spring-loaded live electrocution prongs.
Link for those curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvOTiQKkQMo
Ah yes, the death-dapter with integrated “lamp tester”.
traveldefend says:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
The use of these kind of universal socket-outlets introduces a serious risk of electric shock and / or fire. The unsleeved pins of a 2-pin plug are accessible during plug insertion and withdrawal in pretty much any universal outlet that I have seen. Universal socket outlets pose certain risks, and should not be installed in homes for daily use. They do not follow International standard IEC 60884-1.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IEC 60884-1:2022
Plugs and socket-outlets for household and similar purposes – Part 1: General requirements
https://webstore.iec.ch/publication/34175