American Reacts to British Plugs
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- Опубліковано 1 бер 2024
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As an American I have heard that the British use an entirely different plug than us here in America. Today I am interested in learning all about the British plug and reasons why it is superior. If you enjoyed the video feel free to leave a comment, like, or subscribe for more!
This is what happens when stuff is designed for safety over cost efficiency..
UK plugs are less than £1 so a little over $1 - is your life worth it?
@@trevortrevortsr2It's not about the store price, it's about the manufacturing price. And Idk what you mean by this comment, I'm English and use English plugs..
I took my hairdryer to the states when I visited and it was the difference between being out in gale force winds and someone blowing lightly on my hair lol
You lost 100 volts
I did the same thing. My son brought a lamp back. It went bang. When he plugged it in.
Imagine a Brit in USA who can't use an electric kettle because there's not enough voltage! What?! I have to make tea in the microwave? Pass me my musket, it's time we took the colonies back!
kettles work just fine in USA it just takes a little longer ,anyway they use instant hot water dispensers which are far more efficient and faster ,even i use one in the UK
I’m of that generation of Brits who learned to rewire a plug by age 10 or so, because back in the 70s and early 80s most electric things didn’t come with a plug so everyone had to know how to fit one themselves. It is actually very easy and when you buy a plug from the hardware store it comes with a wiring diagram on it just in case you’ve forgotten which wire goes where.
And the “downsides” to them aren’t really downsides. It takes seconds to work out whether a light isn’t working because it’s switched off at the wall or on the light itself, and in my 55 years I have never even met someone who’s trodden on a plug because appliances are either left plugged into the socket or are on something like an iron or vacuum cleaner that’s going to be put away when not in use.
Unfortunately Australia didn’t adopt the type G plug along with 240V, proper swearing and steering wheels on the right, so I’ve spent years living with crap plugs and sockets. The Aussies do at least still have a power switch on the wall socket though.
I’ve trodden on a plug once, and yes the air was blue!
I was definitely brought up to understand the diagrams, fitted my mum's toilet pull-switch successfully last year and the only thing that made me ffing *@£+, was screwing the damn thing into the rubbish plaster that is the ceiling 😩😣😂😂 The wiring was easy, knew the safety procedures etc, guess our Education system followed technology and programmed us to fit 😏?
Ditto, I was changing plugs before age 10. It's such an easy system to learn.
I remember learning how to wire plugs in science in the first year of comprehensive. I already knew how though, my parents taught me when I was about 8
I really enjoyed learning how to wire a plug in primary school and I've never forgotten how.
I have definitely stood on a plug, a few times down the years, one time breaking skin cause me to bleed out... so now they're always in the socket.
NOT mentioned is the fact that the fuse in EACH plug can be of a different type I.e. 5A, 10A, 13Amp etc to protect the appliance dependent upon power usage. Thus even more safety for the user ! ALSO the fuses are colour coded to make changing easy for those with poor eyesight or reading abilities... 😊
Yes really need to bring out a 1a fuse though 3a for a 10w lamp is a lot of overkill (3a can arround 700w of current)
Yes really need to bring out a 1a fuse though 3a for a 10w lamp is a lot of overkill (3a can arround 700w of current)
I’m colour blind
The embedded fuse is genius.
@@simonupton-millard We do have 1A fuses. B&Q sells them for £1.50 for a pack of 2.
UK born here -- Had to learn how to rewire a plug in school, came in surprisingly handy as a skill
Although the plug head in the UK is larger, the US ones end up being ‘bigger’ in that they stick out so far from the wall where the cable protrudes horizontally
Terrible ux design.
And still no insulation on the live/neutral so you can still get a shock...
Most English teenagers would be taught how to change a plug/ fuse either at school or by parents
I reckon most people my age learned even before that. In the 70s and early 80s it was unusual to buy anything electrical with a plug already fitted so kids were watching parents taking plugs off dead appliances and putting them on the new ones from a young age. By the 90s everything came with a plug so I wonder if as many Gen Y and later know how to do it.
There was a time in the UK when appliances came without plugs. So plug changing was a common activity. These days they are usually a fixture. There is no longer any need to decide what rating fuse to use. It is very unusual for anyone to change a plug in this day and age. I would guess that most young people would not have a clue about how to change a plug.
Indeed everyone in our school was taught how to wire a plug in Y8 (13-14yo ) and made to actually do it and inspected - it was a frequent exam question.
@@mikelheron20 I looked it up. The law was changed to make plugs on new devices and appliances mandatory came in in 1992. Which is actually a bit later than I thought because I remember plugs on new things being rare in the 70s and increasingly common in the 80s and near ubiquitous by the end of that decade..
@@DasyuridIt’s still taught (or at least was a decade ago), usually around year 8, so I can account for Gen Z, not sure about Gen Alpha though. Honestly, the whole thing’s intuitive enough that you only need to see it done once to learn it.
we are higher power, before i watch, you guys run on 110, we run on 240, 1 minute to boil a kettle, 4 minutes in america to boil the same kettle
Yes. We like our kettles to boil this century
@@Rachel_M_well TYLER told us they don't have electric kettle it's microwave or pan or on the stove kettle. I'm wondering do they have the plug in the wall air fresheners. The smart frebeeze
Yes the higher voltage also makes electric shocks more dangerous, so the need for safety features is greater.
@@kathryndunn9142 probably not. They're still struggling for reliable fast Internet connection
Have you ever used a 12v caravan kettle?
It’s that slow I’m sure you could gather some wood. Make a fire and boil some water quickly then a 12v kettle 😂😂
Very common to change a fuse over here, most people know how to do it.
Unfortunately the younger generation just throw away reith out checking fuse
Here in the UK you can also add a "gang lead" ; this plugs into a wall socket and has 6 or 8 additional sockets, all perfectly safe to use at the same time. For more convenience (eg. behind a tv set or table) you can but them so they stand vertically, not trailing across the floor.
I have, in my bedroom, a 10-gang multi-socket Tower into which is plugged my table fan (switched on practically '24/7' during the Summer months) + my floor lamp (switched on '24/7' at the Tower, the lamp is switched on/off as required, on the lamp stand) + my Tablet (switched on '24/7' on the Tower, etc) + my mobile phone (ditto, '24/7' etc, as the phone is "ancient" - a few years old - and it 'dies' fairly quickly if unplugged!!) So that's _4_ electrical devices plugged into the Tower, leaving _6_ more presently unused - it being plugged into the wall socket, which is out of reach to me, due to my disabilities).
And there are online calculators you can use to help you work out what combination of devices is safe to load up into one of these gangs together. So you don’t overload it.
...or even 12 gang. I use a such a beast.
@@blackale I've never had a need for more than a 6-way extension lead, but I can see that a 12-way might be useful in some circumstances as long as you take a little bit of care over what's plugged in or your extension lead has a built-in circuit breaker as mine do. There's a 6-way behind my TV into which the TV, PVR, DVD player and various stereo components are plugged, as well as one behind the computer into which powers the PC, monitor, printer, cable modem and SATA disk caddy.
Yep, but it's a good idea to work out the load of everything before doing this and make sure it doesn't exceed 13 amps drawn current (which is the design limit for each 13A socket on the wall, if it was properly installed)
Power = Voltage x Current btw for those that don't remember from school. So take the total max power of your devices (look on the labels), and divide by 210volts (to be on the safe side) and if it's
Another point with the switches is that it’s safer to disconnect a faulty appliance. If there’s a problem with the appliance, you don’t have to pull a live plug out of the socket.
If the appliance is faulty you should still pull the plug out so there is no risk of accidentally making it live by touching the switch.
Another point is that switching OFF an appliance at the power point
preserves the switch on the appliance from failure due to arching.
Replacing a switch on any appliance - be it a Television or Vacuum
cleaner - means that the disassembly and replacement of a switch
becomes expensive.
Replacing a Wall plug is a fraction of the cost.
One must understand that a switch has a limited number of ON OFF
switching cycles - both mechanically and electrically there are
even fewer cycles as a result if arching which burn out the contacts.
We have two European made Vacuum cleaners - one is a PHILIPS
over 40 years old - And another EU brand that is at least 25 years old.
One of them is used every day - and always switched ON / OFF at the
AC power-point - not the switch on the device -
The only items that required replacement was the Hose - and the
seals inside the power head
@@peterturner8766 yes, but it's considerably safer when you can cut the power first.
When I was at school everyone was taught how to wire a plug. The best thing is it's really easy to make any cable as long as you want.
Same here I was a school leaver back in 2002, I have no idea if it's still taught, it was in a science class that I learned how to change a fuse, think I must of been about 10 or 12 at the time.
@@jamesfry8983 I really hope they do still teach it but sadly I have a feeling that they might not.
@@chipsthedog1 @jamesfry8983 we were all taught how to wire plugs last year in year 10, I believe it is still taught as part of GCSE Physics
@@chipsthedog1I learnt it in school in 2018 or 2019 at gcse so it was still taught then, but my science teacher liked to teach life skills so I don’t know if it is standard
@@matthewbrown2567 I am happy to hear that, I must admit I was pessimistic and thought that they had probably stopped teaching it. Shout out to your science teacher & to you for letting me know.
It’s funny when UA-cam reactors react to the same things in a short space. I feel like I’ve seen thumbnails for about 10 American UA-camrs reacting to our plugs and sockets in the last week alone. Like that should even be a thing 😂
less that reactors are posting at the same time, rather that the algorithm is now pushing so many plug videos, although it's probably "people who like British plugs and American reaction content also liked these..."
@@hareecionelson5875 I’m going by when it says the videos were posted though, rather than just seeing the videos
They get sent analytics by YT, telling them what similar channels are getting views on. And i expect they troll other channels to see who's getting views.
As a Brit kid in the U.K, I too learned how to wire a plug, simply by remembering the colour code. The clue lays in the second letter of each of the two wires, (indicating left and right):
- BLUE to the Left;
- BROWN to the Right;
The third wire, the green/yellow wire goes straight to the top. My mum couldn’t wire a plug, so I did them all, and really liked doing it. It was very satisfying.
"British plugs are better than American plugs"
Tyler: "I'm shocked"
They shock easily.
That's because you use American plugs ......
🤣🤣
@@carefulwatcher3073 *Tyler
To be clear - your comment is that of one who is at best naive and poorly educated.
This is because
1.. America is a continent - and within that continent of AMERICA
there are several different standards of Plugs.
Argentina for example uses the AUSTRALIA / NEW ZEALAND type I
Other American countries use other Standards.
You must educate yourself to write accurately and learn to be SPECIFIC
When referring to the "" United States "" of America -- make that very clear
as to which PART of America you are referring to
It is NOT difficult for educated people to get things right
The More ons do not know any better.
I would also speculate that you do not know the difference between
The United States of America and
The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
--- They sound the same - but they are NOT one and the same entity
Make some effort to educate yourself - and allow others to teach you
and be teachable.
Pay attention to detail
Whilst at school in England (ages 8-13), my class was instructed on how to fit a plug onto a new appliance, how to change a fuse in the plug, and even how to strip the wires on an appliance in order to allow for the different lengths of the three wires (Live, Neutral, Earth). We were tested on this both in Yr 5 (aged 9/10), and in Yr 7 (aged 11/12). Isn't this type of basic electronic skill taught in the US?
Yes😁 We are taught how to wire a plug!
The plug wires either is down or up never out. Also in my school when we are looking at our plugs we get to open up the plug and look at it.
tyler just to give you another bit of context, you can buy these plugs for £1.00 maybe a $1.20 the fuses can be bough 3 pack£1.00 i dont think it happens now, but when i was at school 70s and 80s we were taught at school how to wire a plug as standard
Yes. I was taught that it wasn't really good practice to just stick the wires in the relevant socket holes and then stick the plug on top 🥴
Yes I was taught that as well how to change a plug
People often don't realise the main reason for the fuse in a plug... thinking it is to protect the appliance, while it's actually to do with the flex (wire) used from the appliance to the socket! A lamp (for example) is supplied with a thin flex versus (say) a kettle wire, which is heavy duty (as it takes more power). Thus the lamp will have a 3 or 5Amp fuse and the kettle a 10 or 13Amp fuse. So if the flex is damaged and overheats, it may catch fire BEFORE the mains breaker fuses even trip... The fuse in the plug will blow if the wire should overheat, prior to a fire starting - So ALWAYS replace a blown fuse with the correct rating (and don't just put a 13A fuse into the plug!).😊
I was taught how to wire a plug in school
I'm from the uk and a qualified electrical engineer for many years.
The safety of this plug, from what i can remember was originally from a company called MK.
They are renowned for top quality electrical equipment even nowadays.
If you purchase one of there plugs which is a little dearer than the imported ones, you will find another little benefit which you did not mention.
The screw for retaining the wire on the M K plug has a captive washer that rotates as you tighten the screw up, thereby not twisting the cable , only clamping it.
Still the safest plug in the world.I believe they also designed the insulation on the pins.
My best friends son was nearly killed with the old design, the plug was in a socket ,switched on and he pushed some keys behind plug and bang, he was ok but not the keys.
He was about 2 years old.
Thank goodness for this new design.
Take care everyone.
John
The only items in the UK that have a ground (earth) are devices with a metal body. Fridges, dishwashers, washing machine, toasters etc. He means double insulated, not double grounded.
110v v 240v means we can boil water with a kettle in a couple of minutes. Most Americans don't even know what a kettle is... 110v just hasn't got the power!
1. The U.S. Standard was revised decades ago when global changes
were being made to reduce 4 different voltage standards to TWO
Now we have two standards 115v and 230v
These are world standards.
Though voltages will ' drift up and down ' according to loads on the GRID
varying according to usage and load demands.
Also the USA uses a a SPLIT center tapped system - where the voltage is actually 230v -- and between the center and any end of the supply transformer
winding is 115v,
So 115v is used for small domestic appliances
230 v is used for bigger appliances such as water heaters /
Air conditioning etc.
Industrial applications use 415v 460v 575v
[]▶ Why don't Americans use electric kettles?
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Jun 2, 2022 24:54 -----------------------------[RELATED]
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[]▶ Gas stoves aren't really that fast - even standard electric is faster!
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Most of the time many Brits do not bother turning many appliances off at the wall. However if they are things you want to keep plugged in but don’t use all the time then it is handy to be able to turn off the power. Also when you are going on holiday and want to cut the power to things for safety or to save money you can just flick a switch at the wall.
At work we have to turn everything off at the wall at night. We’re supposed to have kill switches in the wiring because it’s a lab but it’s an old building so we have to do it the old fashioned way. But we didn’t burn down yet, so it’s all good!
He missed a further advantage - look at the shape of the plug! It has recesses to help you grab it, and flanges where it sits against the socket plate to further inhibit fingers getting anywhere near the metal. Also, most plugs have a screw-down cord grip rather than the angled flanges he showed.
One of the main advantages of a ring main is that you can add as many sockets as you want and it is very easy to do so. The only disadvantage with the size G plug is stepping on it in bare feet. It is Lego pain x 3 .
How often do you leave a G on the floor? That is what the switch is for. leave it plugged in, or put it away.
@Yandarval You only step on once! After that, they are definitely left plugged in.
@@Yandarvalyears and years ago when the UK electrical wring was not as safe as it is now, there were instances where lightening could strike a building and blow the fuse board and plugs so people used to unplug all appliances especially the TV when not in use or before going to bed. I know people who still go round turning off all appliances except fridges or freezers and unplugging them. Also during power cuts (these rarely happen except in rural areas during extreme weather) when the power was restored, it could blow appliances so that’s another reason people unplugged. These days it’s only if you are using extension leads mostly for gaming etc and need to charge a phone maybe but don’t want to leave a game you may unplug one appliance and plug in another thereby leaving a plug on the floor which you then forget about and stand on it!
@@munchkinheaven7877 That was a long time ago. yes, some do still go around doing that. They generally don't leave plugs lying around to be stepped on when they do. You are correct about power cuts in rural area. I was speaking in general. There are always edge cases to most things.
@@Yandarval not a criticism, just adding to what you were saying. I very often tread on plugs as I unplug at night or if I go out and I never leave anything in the oven or a washing machine on when I go out. Old habits die hard.
Not everything has a built in switch. Here in Croatia my water heater is fixed to the wall but still has a cable with a Schuko type plug. There is no switch on the heater or the wall socket and it is quite a high power device. You do get quite a big spark when plugging it in. In UK you could plug it in then turn it on at the socket.
We have to have adapters for shuko plugs. They're round pins and definitely require a UK type G adapter.
I see my country in green there, because we have 220-240. Having that separate switch allows me to turn off the power to my microwave and other electrical appliances without plugging them out. Saved a lot on electrical bills. It's easy to change a fuse instead of having to throw things away.
As a schoolteacher, I had to teach how to wire a plug to 11 year olds. Ironically the school banned teachers from wiring plugs on devices in the school. It had to be done by "property services". It is not taught now, because a law was made that all new devices are wired to a plug, something which didn't happen before.
The entire way British homes are wired was systematically redesigned to be simpler and cheaper post WWII due to the enormous amount of building needed and the scarcity of both materials and money. This redesign drastically reduced the demand for copper which was particularly expensive to acquire. Using thinner gauge wire did cause some issues later as people got access to more and more appliances but almost every building has been upgraded with better wiring since.
I'm sure every Brit will agree with me. The worst pain is stepping on an upturned plug in barefeet 😂 lego is also a bastard 😅
No, I just leave things plugged in and use the switch. Why leave dangerous spikes there to step on when there is a switch on the socket? Multi-gang adaptors are cheaper than ready meals in a lot of cases.
Lego bricks are a close second.
I've never stepped on a plug.. You switch it off at the wall, so there's no reason why a random plug should by lying on the floor.😁
It's how people learn the hard way on why there is a switch on the plug... so you don't need to unplug it lol
because you might have more devices than outlets?@@jameslewis2635
All teenagers growing up were shown by their dads how to wire a plug safely. The colours are not random on the wires either. So yoou dont mix them up bRown - R = right side. bLue - L = leftside.
The type G standard was adopted during the rebuilding process after World War 2 as a way of standardising electrical connections and improving electrical safety (as well as fire safety) standards in general during a time where many people had lost their homes to bombing campaigns. The USA (not counting island territories) was untouched by bombings during the war and therefore didn't have the need to rebuild which along with all the money made with the lend-lease program helped them have the worlds greatest economy coming out of World War 2. To put it simply, you guys kept the standards you already had.
With 20% of all UK homes destroyed or damaged by bombing in WW2 then that's a lot of rebuilding/repairing so a great time to introduce a new system. I remember the old style sockets in the 1960s, but maybe the houses in the street that were destroyed and later rebuilt might have had the new design.
The MAIN reason was to save copper. Ring circuits use less copper than spur circuits. The safety feature was a bonus!
As a Brit who lives in France, I am aware that British plugs and ring main system is the safest in the world.
Most appliances in the UK come with a sealed (non servicable) plug that is ultrasonicaly welded together. The only thing you can do is change the fuse. But we still have the option of cutting that off and replacing with a user servicable plug if things go wrong.
We have the wall outlets that have 2 separate switches on all. I have several extender leads with 8 separate sockets and 8 separate switches. I have never stood on a plug in my 53 years of life as we just switch it off at the wall or on the extender. The only plugs we have with leads coming out of are usb charging leads for mobiles but the lead from the plug itself hangs down. I also have never heard or experienced load balance. I did learn who to change a plug as a teenager but nowadays every new item comes with a plug legally as standard. I have not had to change a plug in almost 40 years. The higher voltage 240V is good for running multiple items and of course for boiling water in a kettle. The separate switches is a great thing for people going on holiday or overnight for fire safety, as they switch off.
I’ve we stood on hundreds and it hurts
It's like you designed a plug in 1915 and decided 'yeah, that'll do' and never gave it a second thought.
A good example of the advantages of 230v (although mine is always 253v as we have so much renewables on the grid here), is my EV can charge on a standard plug socket in around 12 hours and my kettle takes around 2 minutes to boil and both can use any socket in the house to do it
With regard to Electrical products and the Trickle charge he mentioned. 17:02
Any product that has a transformer (ie) An internal component to reduce the power from, say your 110V down to say 12V or 24V depending on the product. That incurs a trickle charge fee. That never stops unless you unplug the device or turn it of at the socket. On larger power hungry products like Washing Machine, Dryers, TV, Computers etc.. That will be costing you money non-stop, even at times when you're not even using them. *Something your electric companies aren't going to tell you, for obvious reasons.*
If you have the outlet behind something large and heavy. Say a fridge or eashing machine. The outlet itself may not have a switch to turn off the power. There will be a secondary switch before the outlet to turn off the power.
Meanwhile, in the USA they decided to make the cheapest possible plug. Which wouldn't actually blow up in your face the first time you plugged it in. Since 1992 electrical appliances in the UK have to be sold with a plug already fitted. So most people below a certain age have never wired a plug. I also collect trailing sockets from dumpsters, because they have often been thrown away just because the fuse in their plug has blown.
Our outlets run 240v, which means more power and it’s really noticeable when heating water or operating a motor (such as a blender). We’re confident running high power due to all the safety features. More metal in pins means it’s practically impossible to bend or warp them - they’re sturdy and plugs always fit snugly in outlets, I’ve heard type A pins can be bent or knocked out of shape which sometimes means they don’t sit well in outlets and work their way loose but personally I’ve never used one so can’t say for sure.
Have you seen them 😂 they look as flimsy as a 80 year old particulars 😂
I forgot to ask your u.k. I assume my apologies. What a doughnut 😂 😞
There are fully sealed type G plugs here where only the fuse is accessable.
In South Africa we use a similar plug, Type M. Only difference is that we do not have flat pins, but round pins.
The UK used to have round pins also, but they were updated.
The reason the UK plugs were changed from round to rectangular pins was because square ( actually rectangular ) pins have a greater surface area for elctrical connectivity in use. The 'square' pins were first introduced in 1937 but it took until after WW2 for most premises to have completely changed over... 😊
There is another difference. The SA plugs dont incorporate a fuse.
In the UK these plugs are (or at least were until a few years ago) still part of the national curriculum, until 1990s most electrical appliances had no plug on and you had to wire it yourself, that's no longer true but we still get educated on it because you needed to know that for a long time.
Edit - most people will not regularly replace fuses in their plugs, we have RCDs in the wall (US sometimes call these GFCIs) so its not super common for the fuse to blow but it happens now and then, and for example with an extension lead, it was £10 to replace it but 70p for a replacement fuse.
We also have circuit breakers that kick in when something overloads...it cuts all power in the house and you need only flick a switch to turn it back on again.
"The fuse can blow rather than tripping the breaker" Yeah.....In my experience that barely ever happens, often the fuse will blow and it still trips the breaker. OR the breaker will trip and the fuse wont blow.
Yes, he is wrong now, in most cases. The plug fuse system was introduced in the 1940s, when houses did not have circuit breakers but just a fuse for each circuit - 30A for a ring main. In any case, fuses will normally not blow until they are drawing nearly twice the rated current - I once had a 30A ring main fuse not blow until the ring was drawing around 53A (don't ask...!) and a 13A plug fuse will not blow until the appliance is drawing well over 20A. The circuit fuse is to protect the circuit (ring mains use a lot narrow-gauge copper than would be required for equivalent radial circuits). The plug fuse is to prevent the appliance flex from overheating - it will not blow fast enough to prevent a fatal shock or serious arc. That is what circuit breakers are for. A 32A breaker will trip near-instantly at 32A. So plug fuses are a lot less important than they once were, and to me really only make sense now for 3A fuse-rated applications
That isn't really true. The fuses in the plug are there to protect the appliance (and its power cord). The breakers in the consumer unit are there to protect the wiring in your walls, so that your house does not burn down.
Plug fuses are the reason why large gang power strips are safe to use in the UK.
MCBs in a mains ring circuit are typically rated for 32A. A fuse in a plug will be 13A *at most,* and should in most cases be smaller as required by the appliance. 2A is very typical.
If there is a dead short in an appliance, the MCB will probably trip before the fuse, because it reacts much faster. However, there are many other faults that can happen in an appliance or its cable which will not push the 32A required to trip the MCB (as far as the wiring in the house is concerned,
@@AethidIt is true. I have known breakers to trip without the fuse blowing.
We do have 2 pin unearthed plugs and sockets in the UK for shavers and electric toothbrushes in the bathroom (restroom, which we don't go into to rest but to bathe), These are on a low fused circuit (lighting) and anything used on them has to be double insulated. They stick out and will pull out from the wall as in the US.
One thing I encountered when driving an RV in the US and Canada was at one campsite the electrical connection could not cope with having the A/C on in the RV and blew a fuse. This doesn't happen in the UK unless you have the wrong fuse rating in the plug.
Bathroom outlets also use isoltion transformers to separate the earthing systems.
Our plugs are the best. From the safety aspect as well. U can leave the plug in & switch it off, whilst leaving it left in the socket. Also our cables face downward coming from the bottom, therefore won't pull the plug out due to its weight
Yep and we use differently rates fuses in our plugs depending on whether it is a light, an appliance or a heater. If the switch on the socket is too much for our US visitors you can always leave it switched on. The Safety features must work as I have never had a shock from a plug in my 60+ years.
I am old enough (68) to remember the old 2 pin sockets (all new buildings were on type G) but these sockets pre-dated modern equipment needing higher power.
4:20 Interesting fact: The "square pin" plugs were introduced post-war to replace previous round pin plugs. Initially specified in imperial units in 1947, they were metricated by conversion in 1984, but your '9mm' is actually 9.5mm or 0.374 inches, or if you prefer, 3/8 inch. Initially, plugs did not have insulating sleeves, these were also introduced in 1984.
I could have sworn you've already done this one!!
Looking for this comment to check I wasn't going mad!
and I recall being taught how to service/change a plug at school.
Me too... Could change a plug from before the age of ten... And at the time, they never sold an electrical item with a plug attached, so you really did need that skill ! LOL 😊
Heavy users of electricity, toasters, kettles, washing machines etc, will have the same plug but fitted with a 13 amp fuse, smaller users lamps etc, will have a smaller rated fuse ie 3 amp
I used to travel with a heating coil to heat water in a mug to make coffee in my hotel rooms around the world. In UK this would take about three minutes but in the USA it would take over twenty minutes: that's how bad their 110V system is.
Not 'bad', just different.
There is another reason for the larger size for the British plugs (or any other country that uses similar plugs) compared to the US. In the US, you have the 110 volt nominal system, but the British plugs handle 220-240 volts nominally. That is the reason, you require special plugs for heavy load equipment while the same plugs can handle heavy loads under the British plugs. Only difference is that heavy load equipment in the British plugs use higher ampere sockets than usual but they are just a single connection on the same circuit.
We brits probably made plugs that can handle more electricity so we can keep boiling the kettle every 5 mins and make several cups of tea every day! 🎉🎉
I love a good cuppa! ☕️
I was in St. Lucia back in 2010 and they had both US 110v type A/B and also UK 240v type G wall sockets side by side in the hotel there.
13:31 Yes, most people have changed a fuse. It's easy. We are taught how to re-wire a plug in school.
When I was in school they actually used to teach us the basics of how a plug worked and how to fix them as part of our second year (age 14) science class. Not sure if they still do it nowadays as a lot of plugs have switched to full plastic covering with just the fuse cover that can be changed
I’m in Scotland so watching this in reverse is funny. Didn’t realise you guys weren’t taught in school at age 12 how to rewire a plug and about an electric circuit and how to use a soldering machine. It’s like going back in time watching Tyler’s face 😁😂 he’s like a 12 year old boy seeing this for the first time. Love it.
But on a serious note - it’s not just the plugs that are superior it’s the British safety standard that’s superior in itself. EVERYTHING must pass the British safety standard. Having things in America that can literally cause death to a toddler and is actually fixable with standards but just no one cares boggles my mind. Priority’s 🤷🏻♀️
learned to rewire a plug and replace a fuse when I was a kid, I think most of the kids could in those days, it's one of the first things we would check if an appliance went off, replace the fuse (we kept several new fuses in a tin in the kitchen drawer) and checking that the wiring hadn't came loose.. I showed my kids how to do this too..
In the 80s and 90s, kids at school were taught how to fit plugs to appliances. There were taught the colour for each cable, and then the corrected rated fuses. This was though during a time when you had to fit your own plugs to new appliances, the law then changed meaning they had to come with them already fit.
Our appliances do not use double electricity, higher voltage means less current, this means less resistance and less heat on the same gauge of wire, bigger pins will also experience less resistance and just generally be less prone to bending or wearing out. Because the system is 240V, I can draw more power- A US space heater is typically 1500 watts, in the UK they can go up to 3000 watts, this means that a heater you plug into the wall can heat twice the size of room a US heater would. You'd need to buy two heaters to match one of ours.
13:40 In the UK you can also buy fuses in supermarkets, DIY stores, etc
7:54 - "Strain relief" - if you look at the image, you can see that you can easily push the big white cable further into the plug, becase it would push those little "fins" aside. Try pulling it out again, and it binds on those same "fins" - which is whay he says that you have to remove the "fins" to be able to get the white cable out easily. In other words, it makes it very hard to pull the cable out of the plug.
13:32 - yes fuses in the appliance plug are commonplace. I have a box in my kitchen that contains spare fuses, ready to go.
14:15 - more metal means that that it is easier for a given amount of electricity to pass through, so the wire heats up less. It also means that they are intrinsically able to handle much more power.
Forget about load balancing, I have a single socket in my cellar and I run two freezers, a washing machine and a tumble dryer at the same time with no issues
There’s a few different fuses too. 3amp 5amp and 13amp. Maybe even more. Electronic items usually have a 3amp fuse.
Most plugs in Britain now are a sealed unit which in some ways a see as a shame, because I loved it when I was young and shown by my parents the safety features of the plug plus be able to re wire one up and learn how they work, apparently years ago if you bought an electrical product most didn’t come with the plug attached to it and both were bought together as one item and wired up at home.
I wonder what the guy in the original video thinks of the europlug and the type F plug that are commonly used elsewhere in Europe. I see them (especially type F) as even safer because the plug goes completely inside the inlet so that there is no way for people to touch the pins. Also, no moisture can get in there in a kitchen or a bathroom. The main difference seems to be that these other European plugs don't each have a fuse of their own. But I'm not sure if that matters so much anymore because most fuses nowadays are automatic fuses, meaning that they are just switches in a cabinet. If a fuse blows, the switch just clicks into the "off" position and then, instead of having to change any part, you can just switch it back on after you unplug the appliance that caused the problem.
We still have the equivalent of a breaker box, so each ring has another breaker.(trip) at the box. As we can isolate at the socket we don't tend to pull plugs, so the tread on problem is minimal. As you noted at the start, it's huge but the cable down means it's lower profile from the wall. I was taught in school (aged 10) how to wire a plug. There are also different fuse sizes. Big stuff like kettles will be 13amp, but smaller items can have lower ratings.
Oh, we have no outlets in bathrooms/restrooms except for shavers. That's the whole water-electric thing.
It's been normal for nearly 60 years now to change a fuse in the plug but, in the beginning the sockets there was no shield to stop poking thing's into the socket and the plugs didn't have insulation half way up the live and neutral .
That came 10 years later , before the G plug we had round terminal plugs with no fuse in the plug .
Who'd have thought a video on plugs could be so interesting!!!!
I learnt how to rewire a plug during a Year 10 physics lesson. Very useful knowledge that.
You finished before the end of the video when he gives you the cons of the plugs. We have double the power than you so that is why you don't have electric kettles, you have to wait twice as long for them to boil. If you get a shock from a plug it isn't nice but if we do it could kill us hence no outage in our bathrooms.
Strangely, he will never know because he never reads comments.. 😢😢😢
we do have electric kettles in the US, no one buys them, as our coffee machines has a hot water button to boil water for tea, hot chocolate, oatmeal etc...
you know this already
Those little fuses in the plug should be chosen according to the current the appliance will draw. The most common are 3 Amp, 5 Amp and 13 Amp. A modern TV would normally have a 3 Amp fuse but a washing machine would have a 13 Amp one.
The idea is that you choose one that will not blow when the appliance is working normally but will if it is clearly drawing too much.
The whole system has evolved, rather than being designed though. You can still find sockets without the shutter system and I still have one or two plugs without the insulation on the live and neutral pins.
There are other fuses and trip switches further up the system too.
Having moved from the UK to Philippines where I now have the dangerous type A outlets I totally agree that the type G sockets are far safer.
All new appliances sold in the UK must, by law, have moulded socket so only the fuse can be changed.
I also find that with 229V the type A plugs can get hot.
My bedside lamps are placed some way from the bed to avoid them getting knocked over when I put things on the bedside units. However, the sockets are close to the bed head. So, the socket switch is the easy way to turn off and on the light when in bed.
Growing up with these 13 Amp plugs , same since 1970 universal nation wide British Electricity board . (in the UK) it made sense to standardize across the whole country . Also I can have on a washing machine , tumble dryer, microwave or kettle all at the same time on the same circuit without blowing the main 32 Amp circuit breaker. we have one 32 amp power circuit down stairs and another 32 Amp up stairs and in modern homes one 32 Amp in the utility room .Lighting circuit are 6 amp again one circuit down stairs and one upstairs.
when I was young it was 250V AC then went to 240V AC and now at 230v AC 3KW was the maximum for electric heaters and kettles but now that has come down to normally 2KW as appliances have become more efficient . Just to note you get a hell of a shock from 240v AC that can kill you .That is why we do not have electric appliances or light switches in the bath room .water and electric do not mix with humans . Industrial Heavy duty electrics work through safety transformers and can be 16 Amp or 30 amp plugs but plugs do not have fuses.
So yes I think we have the best electric safety i have seen all around the world .
Love the modern wall sockets with the built in USB connection.
Only major downside to UK plugs is that the pins tend to quick straight up in the air if are foolish enough to leave them on the floor and standing on a plugs pins in the dark is mildly annoying and mildly painful
I used to get so frustrated whilst living in the US, things took so much longer to heat up especially a kettle. Here it takes less than a min to boil on here. I had to purchase so many items such as a hair dryer, straighteners etc as my British appliances wouldn't heat up enough in the US. Also those US plugs were always falling out of the socket!
The switch on the wall on the outlet socket is for safety.
So when you plug in or unplug it should be in the off position, less chance of short/sparking and little fingers touching the pins. That’s all it’s for (other reasons are a added bonus).
I’ve lived in the UK. Its so obvious, the huge, heavy UK plug standard is so crazy stupid in every single metric, and for absolutely no real benefit. Of course, our 240 volt appliances like ranges and dryers have their appropriate socket and plug standards. And that is understandable.
One of the things like the best is that if there is a circuit break, it does noe affect everything and is easier to find where the issue is and importantly does not destroy the appliance, i.e. computer
Most of our plug outlets here have a multi extension plug in them. From just one outlet i have four things plugged in, plus my usb charging cables for my phone, watch etc. just curious are you able to do this in the US? Do you have multi plug socket extension leads?
yeah think i learned at school how to fit a plug and about standing on em we just keep em pluged in and turn them off at the switch
We learn't how to rewire a plug at school. I remember it clearly because after rewiring mine which for some reason had a longer cable than everyone else's, i went and plugged it in and stuck the bare cables on a girl in my class and shocked her, making her cry 🙄. Weirdly i didn't really get in trouble as the girl was nice about it and the teacher was cool. In fact a few years later she was my girlfriend and we are still friends today 30 something years later. No matter how safe you make something, stupidity will still find a way to make it dangerous 😂
My cooker stopped working and blew the circuit. Went to the fuse box and flipped the switch. Opened the plug to the cooker, it's a mini oven so no sealed plug. Changed the fuse on the cooker but discovered that the fuse on the socket had blown. A 5-minute job for the electrician because I could identify the fault myself. Various appliances have different amp fuses, fitted. You can buy a selection (about 8) of household fuses from "The Pound £ shops" and most houses will have some in their tool box. 🪛🛠
theres lots of other things what makes the system unique, when the plug is in the wall socket and the socket switch is switched off off off, cut that wire from the plug to the appliance with a pair of scissors and the fuse in the fuse board what we call consumer box will auto switch off and make all sockets redundant in that room until the switch is switched to the on position on the consumer mcb switch which has all the mcb switches and rcd switches which will be in the hall way close to the ceiling height out the way, the electricity supply is so sensitive we could go away on holiday leave a tv radio lights on and not worry about any risk at all, but if the fridge defrosts we cant do anything about that when the powers off but where working on it
when I was 15 we were told how to wire a full house at school its really quite easy just make sure you have plenty length on your tails every room is on a ring main a 2 way switch for lights is a little bit tricky, switching light on down stairs and switching off upstairs or switching light upstairs and switching off downstairs, just buy a box of plugs and sockets from Britain and change yours it wont make any difference to the supply you have, but it would be better, double socket and 2 plugs only about 7 dollars, we did discover electro magnification, Faraday, and maglev rail was a british idea in the early 1960s
This makes me wonder if there are any UK households that still have the old round pinned 5 amp and 15 amp plugs and sockets? We had them at the farmhouse until it was rewired in 1987. They didn't have fuses inside the plugs and the pins were all metal. I do remember getting a shock as a child when my fingers slipped into a half inserted plug.
You still often find them in hotel rooms, before they get refurbished, especially for lights.
The fuse lowers the ampage for, lights+.
The majority of us have left them on floor and stood on them, they hurt like a mf but lately seen a lot of plugs with rounded backs so they roll to there side. Also a lot of our extension leads have there own switch as well, some on all plugs most for just the whole block.
A while ago I was using a fan heater on an extension and it just stopped. I first thought it had broken. I plugged a small lamp into the extension and it didn't work. Plugged it into the socket and it worked, so I changed the fuse in the extension plug and that fixed it. Also more recently I was using an old hairdryer which just caught on fire, moving the switch did nothing, but I was able to switch it off at the socket.
here in the US, hair dyer, space heaters actually says do not use any extention .
Yep, with ~230V we get to just plug in washers/dyers wherever we want (and other high power stuff like hair straighteners and so on).
BUT, to all UK residents, all US homes actually have 3 phase 230V installed, so they could do this as well. There are special outlets for washers/dryers, with their own plug/socket system which allow for the 230V machines.
In the UK we only need 3 phase in workshops with high power electric tools, so it's very rare outside actual manufacturing plants.
The downside in the US is that everything else has to run on a split phase (one of the reasons for radial circuits), and while this has the advantage of not putting so much current through your body, if it goes wrong it can still be fatal, and plugging in a vacuum cleaner and a hair dryer into the same radial circuit at the same time can cause it to trip... Annoying...
Plus, I wouldn't want to be seeing any arcing in my sockets, which is apparently something 'Muricans don't get alarmed by.... That's fire, dude!
The big thing you need to remember is that on US voltage sticking a fork in your socket mostly will not kill you. Sticking a fork in a UK voltage socket WIll KILL YOU
yeah most of the time its lamps that blow their fuses, usually when the bulb blows, so I have replaced the bulb and the plug fuse on many occasions, usually at the same time
To me it's crazy that you u would need a different type of plug for things like a washer or fridge. Here if it's electric powered and designed for the home it just goes in any plug in the house they are all the same. And I'd have no issue running an iron and a hair dryer fridge dryer washer all at the same time just never occurred to me that it would be an issue
It's NOT crazy. It means you cannot insert a 120-V plug into a 240-V socket. The US/Canada uses a 240 V/120 V system in homes.
We also have instant electric showers because we have the much higher voltage :)
You’ve branched out in your own American way in everything!! 🤣