And MK are supposed to be superior?

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Minilogic. Been around since the 70's.

Don't they have the same mech as the 1st gen Logic sockets? That two pins need to go into the L and N apertures simultaneously to open them up?
IE, a pin in the E aperture will do nothing.
 
MK "minilogic" 2949 WHI, one of the "relics of the past" in MK's range. Still using the old MK 2 pin operated shutter mechanism.

However the reason I noticed it? The plug was just in the earth hole upside down and there was I thinking the 1363 spec doesn't allow that.
I have just had a look through BS1363 and I'm not seeing anything that prohibits it.

Clause 13.10 requires the live and neutral contacts to be at least 9.5 from the edge and increases this to 18mm from the lower edge for sockets with a 2-pin shutter mechanism (presumablly to prevent the insertion of a plug upside down in the line and neutral holes), but I'm not seeing any corresponding rule for the earth contact. I think the MK minilogic complies with said rules but I can't be 100% sure working from a photo.

P.S. when I saw the thread title I thought it was going to be about the totally crap MK essentials range.
 
I didn't look at it in any detail to see what was open, owner 'Parks' the plug upside down to stop it falling down behind a freezer when not in use, Why they don't simply leave it plugged in and switched off I know not.

I haven't looked at BS1363 for many years but I remember it as not permitting any sort of inverted insertion, perhaps one detail lost in the mists of time. I've certainly seen videos about being incorrectly able to do this with some of the slimline 4 way sockets in recent times.
 
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Plenty of people claim things are requirements without actually looking at the standards in question.

Searching for "invert" in BS1363 part 2 (the part that covers sockets) doesn't seem to find any matches.

A *large* proportion of extension strips and Pretty much every socket doubler I have ever seen will let you insert a plug upside down in the earth hole. Which strikes you as more likely? that major vendors are all ignoring the standard or that people are making up requirements that aren't actually in the standard?
 
I was trying to say I'd likely remembered it wrong/misunderstood as it's been a number of years since I referred to the BS, in fact maybe back to the 70's/80's when it was permissible to get a [let's call it a] license to use 13A fuseless plugs.
 
Clause 13.10 requires the live and neutral contacts to be at least 9.5 from the edge and increases this to 18mm from the lower edge for sockets with a 2-pin shutter mechanism (presumablly to prevent the insertion of a plug upside down in the line and neutral holes), but I'm not seeing any corresponding rule for the earth contact.
Searching for "invert" in BS1363 part 2 (the part that covers sockets) doesn't seem to find any matches.
That all appears to be true, albeit rather surprising.

Although, as you say, the word "invert" does not appear in BS1363-2:1995, the requirement you mention above clearly relates to the desire to make it impossible for the L & N pins to be inserted into a socket in an 'inverted' manner when the shutters are operated by those pins (given that the gap been L/N and earth pins is about 16.2 mm).

One can but presume that, back in 1995, all they were concerned about was to make it impossible for L&N pins of a plug to be inserted 'inverted', hence with reversed polarity and no earth for the connected equipment. They do not seem to have been concerned about the risk of the L & N shutters being opened by inserting the earth pin of an 'inverted' plug.

As above, that does seem rather surprising, but perhaps they thought that opening the shutters by insertion of just the earth pin (of an 'inverted plug') was just a special case of the insertion of anything into the "earth pin aperture", and that there therefore was not much point in ruling against that "one possibility out of many"? However, I would personally not be very impressed by that argument/explanation - particularly given that it would not really be all that burdensome to have a "18 mm" requirement for the earth aperture (when the shutters were erath-pin-operated).

Kind Regards, John
 
Ultimately I would say that as electrical hazards go, people opening the shutters by putting in plugs upside down ranks pretty low on the list.

While I can't prove it I strongly suspect the "upside down socket cover" example on the fatallyflawed page was a case of someone deliberately opening the shutters to get a Europlug in and if they couldn't do it with a socket cover they would have done it with something else.
 
Ultimately I would say that as electrical hazards go, people opening the shutters by putting in plugs upside down ranks pretty low on the list.
I'm sure that's correct. However, as below, well-intentioned though they are, FatallyFlawed seem to be concerned what are, in truth, incredibly small risks.
While I can't prove it I strongly suspect the "upside down socket cover" example on the fatallyflawed page was a case of someone deliberately opening the shutters to get a Europlug in and if they couldn't do it with a socket cover they would have done it with something else.
You could well be right. FatallyFlawed seem to be primarily concerned about risks to children. In relation to the socket covers, whilst they can cite some 'near misses', when I last asked they could not provide any concrete evidence of a child who had actually be harmed, ever, as a result of use of these products. I'm sure that, if they so wished, they could find some much more common causes of injury (or death) in small children (nothing to do with anything electrical) that they could more usefully campaign about.

So, it does appear that BS1363 is concerned only about the possibility of an 'inverted plug' rending attached equipment potentiall dangerous (reversed L-N polarity and no earth), and not about ways in which people could/can open the shutters of a socket.

Kind Regards, John
 
When I was 12 or 13 I had a Prinztronic cassette radio for a birthday present. It came with a 2p european mains plug and in the Chinglish manual were instructions to use a probe in the earth hole to open the L&N.
 
When I was 12 or 13 I had a Prinztronic cassette radio for a birthday present. It came with a 2p european mains plug and in the Chinglish manual were instructions to use a probe in the earth hole to open the L&N.
I can well believe it.

Mind you, although I'm not going to 'start a Poll' about it, I wonder how many people reading this could put their hand on their heart and say that they have never done it!

Kind Regards, John
 
When I was 12 or 13 I had a Prinztronic cassette radio for a birthday present. It came with a 2p european mains plug and in the Chinglish manual were instructions to use a probe in the earth hole to open the L&N.

No, this is what you need. No 24/25 here.

http://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/British1.html

Available in a range of colours in any supermarket in Malaysia, around 10p. All Malaysian students here bring a handful back when they return from their first summer break home.

Another "useful" gadget from Tescos in Malaysia. It has dimpled shutters so a Europlug will go in. The SIRIM label is the Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM). So it must be OK then!
 

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Another "useful" gadget from Tescos in Malaysia. It has dimpled shutters so a Europlug will go in. The SIRIM label is the Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM). So it must be OK then!
It's not compliant with BS1363 but other than that I don't really see how an extension strip that can take both BS1363 plugs and Europlugs is any worse than an extension strip for any of the many socket types used in Europe.
 

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