Inside another death-dapter variant.
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- Опубліковано 5 лис 2015
- While using this adaptor to check out the little Chinese air pump, I randomly checked it's earth continuity. There was none... So off comes the cover.
You can support this channel at / bigclive
These things are awesome. They offer so many ways to electrocute yourself that it's almost like a game.
I really need to make a full video featuring all the variants of these and ways you can ruin your day with them. - Наука та технологія
![Power Outlets PISS ME OFF [RANT]](/img/n.gif)
Great video. I discovered a few of these in an office a while ago. The self tapping screws used to hold the case together had stripped the posts. Result: when the appliance plug was pulled it took the top half of the adapter case with it. The bottom half remained in the socket, along with the pins which were now exposed. This product must win an award for the highest number of dangerous failure modes.
In addition to being a shock hazard, that adapter is also a fire hazard. The lack of a crimped or other mechanically bonded contact means that over time, the resistance will go up and the adapter will be arcing internally when connected to high current loads. Over time the plastic housing will deform and melt, and eventually it could catch fire.
I just had an "Oh sh*t!" moment watching this video when I realised where I'd seen an identical death-daptor to that. My girlfriend is now complaining that she can't charge her electric toothbrush because I have dismantled and binned the same p*ss poor adaptor as in the video.
what a shameless plug, huehuehuehue
+Liam Russell I don't think it has any shame whatsoever. It knows what it's doing and is just bad through and through.
+bigclivedotcom I know nothing about this stuff, but I have an adapter which I'm 99.9% sure is the same as this one (arrived with my OnePlus One import from a cheap Chinese seller on Amazon). Provided I'm not stupid enough to plug things in to it incorrectly, is it safe for me to use it, or should I throw it away immediately?
Also, I have a slightly different question. Would it not be possible to sue some of these companies selling dangerous equipment? Even if they didn't actually cause any damage, it must be very easy to prove they'e selling dangerous equipment that puts their customers in serious danger. Apart from the money (dunno if you'd even get any without being harmed by it), I would think if people started to at least threaten legal action on a large scale it would stop a lot of these companies doing this stuff, would it not?
+XTheGamingBossX I'd suggest only using a decent pin converter bought from a high profile local supermarket.
There's no point suing Chinese suppliers. The only person who would win would be a lawyer, mainly with your cash.
bigclivedotcom Thanks.
I would imagine these aren't just Chinese suppliers though, right? There must be some European companies shipping them?
+XTheGamingBossX Probably, but mostly naive.
2:21
"I fixed it, daddy!"
(Blows out every light in the house)
It's just poorly assembled, those screws should go through clamps (hence there are holes), so that socket contacts are attached to the lower part with pins.
+Иван Ерохин agreed, but, the fact that the ground will fit into the hot, is just terrible and dangerous.
I opened 4 of these units, none of them had the screws going through. Shocking!
Samuel Doye I see what you did there ;)
Puns are fun!
Go Ohm, you're drunk.
I've had a few of these over the years, but most shockingly I had one sent to me by an Amazon seller when I bought an ethernet switch.
The best place for these is the bin.
+Strider9655 "The best place for these is the bin."
Very true - and for that's where I immediately put the ones I get, given that the body won't fit into the round recess of the outlets; utterly useless here.
Surely you could use the metal elsewhere? If not to repair an actually good plug, then at least as scrap metal to melt down?
@@lepidotos Sure, because the average person has an use for _molten metal._
I love the phrase death-dapter. Well I don't know why I have never opened one myself as I have about 15 of them, but thankyou for showing us what's inside, they are even worse than I could have ever imagined :(
Yeah, don't use the ones that you have, only use them for showing if you want to start a plug and outlet collection.
Thanks for making these videos. I have learned so much about 'electrickery' and circuits by watching your excellent videos. You also manage to make it entertaining and interesting. Many many thanks.
Surprised you've never been in one of these before.. I think i have three of these death-dapters now! I enjoy the blast from the past these days of having to put on your own plug.. Reminds me of 80s electrical/electronic purchases! I remember Tandy not selling me a desktop calculator with printer because it needed a plug and the new laws just came into effect, meaning they all had to be pre-fitted (and later moulded).. Ah, memories!
It "works" with small appliance (1.8VA). Pure curiosity made me plug a 10 amp heater (2500W) into this device, after having seen the construction with the screws under the holes, put it in an outlet on my desk. It is marked !0A/250V, so it should do.
Well, there was a strong plastic smell after a couple of minutes followed by fumes and little yellow flames. A perfect set your home on fire device this type.
And that's why it is for export only, not to burn homes in the country of origin.
As I had an identical death adaptor waiting for me to look inside it, I took at apart whilst watching this video... Exactly the same inside.. Surely they should have put the screws through the contacts... I think I might have to plug a 10A load into it just so that I can watch the thing melt... Cheers BigClive!!!
+Jim Conner Video! :D
Hi Mr. +TheChipmunk2008 ... I just spent 20 mins in the shed running 11.6Amps through the death-daptor (fan heater), but the reaction was rather unexciting... After 20 mins, the death-daptor was getting rather hot, but no spectacular failure I'm afraid... Just a bit hot and a smell like the plastic was just starting to think about melting... Maybe if I'd left it for an hour or two... but I got bored, so I'm afraid no video for melting the death-daptor. Cheers!!
+Jim Conner They only go on fire while you're not watching them.
Thanks +bigclivedotcom - Upon post-mortem inspection, it seems that the plastic around the screw holding the live terminal was just starting to melt... I should have given it another hour or two, but I grew bored of standing around in the shed. Cheers!!
+Jim Conner I shall have to get hold of a few of them and try it :D... but thank you :D
How many of these lovely "Gizmos of Death" carry CE markings? (or the infamous "China Export")
Oh dear! it's a this world to the next adapter! Lovely meters Clive, look forward to seeing more about them :)
One thing you didn't point out was the pin sizes - if you compare them, the death-dapter pins are significantly smaller than a real plug, so you can get some fun arcing in some sockets where the undersized pins don't make a good contact. Some of that is due to them being the wrong shape as well though.
A video comparing all the different adapters would be very interesting to watch.
I had two of these from handheld radios, the earth pins worked but they're in the bin now. Thanks for making my life a bit safer!
That really is an horrendous adapter.
Nice one with the free meters.
Thats a professional ground isolator plug ;)
I have the exactly the same adaptor powering a android box. It even has the "for export only" sticker as well. Since watching this video, I've taken the adaptor out of the plug socket and chucked it in the bin. I didn't realise how bad it was. Great video. Subscribed!
I have that adapter, it came with some sort of Chinese device (phone, charger, something), but with the Euroean pins on the plug end (German here). The funny thing is, because our sockets are recessed (instead of flush like UK and US ones), the large, non-round shape of the device and the positioning of the 2 pins off center means you can't plug it into a socket. Even if the pins were centered, the whole thing is just a few millimeters too wide to fit a socket. Genius!
I do have the other one with the electrocution pins though.
"defeat the Earth"
So all the Borg had to do was plug something in upside down and they would have won?! My God, they must never learn this!
"Resistance is futile!"
you can unscrew the pins first and put it back with the receptacle in between the screw and the pin. this way they will make contact for sure.
Yeah, I noticed that immediately -- spent the rest of the video yelling at the screen about it.
Nope you can't, trust me i tried, holes are not aligned with screws.
and then my parents continue to use the 2 pin wall outlet to stuff with the plug same to what was in the video (the appliance one). they wont listen because I am 16 and I am "too unexperienced"
they even run a 2000w vacuum cleaner on it. it hets hot as hell. but the ones we have the metal is screwes into the plug so there is no continuity issuea
+Anas Malas This kind of stuff drives me mad. your age has nothing to do with electrical theory.
+Anas Malas
That sucks man, I'm 18 lol. I've had some people be weary of me, but honestly, I probably could do a better job than some electricians out there!
+Anas Malas I'd go out and buy then a Decent Adapter, better to be safe than sorry
+Anas Malas Sucks dude; I watched my parents do all kinds of dumb crap despite my advice, when I was a teen. But I'm 36 now and they still don't listen. Go figure.
+Anas Malas My dad pulls that all the time whenever I ask him to use literally any safety equipment of any kind. On the plus side, I get to say I told you so when he gouges an entire knuckle off while using an angle grinder with no guard and an oversized disk running faster than it's rated for in a t-shirt with no gloves and no safety glasses on. He does that regularly, and has ground the same knuckle off about 6 times now, along with other random bits of hand. I get to say I told you so a lot.
These little plugs are lots of fun. I've got oodles of them. Cheers!
Wow, we got to see two plugs in one video! Great one, Clive!
Great new meters ! love the big display, that would be so helpful with my crapy old eyes!
I just throw those things in the bin, absolute junk and as you point out there, are not safe in any way at all, better just to cut the plug off whatever's been bought and stick a proper, full-fat British rewireable plug on there... :)
I do exactly this! Much safer, works a treat, and keeps practice in the increasingly rare (i.e: Could net £40/hr from 2022) skill of being able to wire a plug! :-)
The only hiccup came on the one occasion where I wasn't thinking straight and had forgotten I was working on an appliance in France. That said, it seems that a UK-Shicko adaptor is easier to come by in French stores than a rewireable Shucko plug! :-o :-p
Not surprised AMECal are sending you freebies, your review of the ST-9927 sold me and I was not disappointed when it arrived yesterday. I wonder how many others have done the same. I also got the Cubot H1 because of your review.
Unbelievable!!! Oh, and the meter looks great too...
I recently purchased some reptile heat mats from Singapore as a bit of an experiment to their quality.
with them, I received these exact same horrendous adapters and I took it apart like this and posted to Facebook warning my friends.
Ironically, the reptile heat mats are of good quality construction. 0.75mm copper flex (14W rated mats), the joints to the mat were clean & insulated and the mats themselves.. well they are simple enough to not get wrong.
This was a far cry from the cheap Chinese replacement power supply I bought for my laptop a few years ago.
It set itself alight (which was what made me started checking this stuff) and here is how:
the kettle lead (IEC C13) that came with it, they had went to all the bother to put a fuse in it, but it was completely bypassed. it was connected to nothing inside the molded plug and the live went directly from the socket to the device.
I found it shocking to go to all that length to include a fuse, but not take that extra step to connect it!
A simple compression spring couldn't be added... scary device indeed! Thanks for showing this.
I have one myself, fortunately only using it for a phone charger. Let out an audible "Oh god!" when the earth pin went into live though!
Took one apart the other day (before seeing this video) and I too was shocked at the danger this thing could present!
Its still apart and will remain so!
I'm guessing the screws should go through the holes on the contacts? Very poorly assembled
+Jason VomitStorm
Couldn't be assembled in a other way, becuase the screws wouldn't line up with the holes in the contacts! Yes, it's designed that poorly.
Actually with fiddling for some time, it worked to get them in. But seriously none would do this due to the time consumed.
Got one of these death-dapters just the other week something I bought. Chucked it straight in the bin.
this completely blew my mind. just from the outside look i could have sworn that the plug and the corresponding connector on the other side would surely be one solid piece of metal. i'm totally appalled. the designer should been send to jail directly.
I got one of those for free with a lamp that didn't require one (the 'dapter was schuko on the "goes to mains" end, the lamp lead Europlug (unearthed, compatible with schuko sockets). The phrase "handing them out like candy" comes to mind.
You are a hero. Saving lives one video at a time. We survivors thank you bigclivedotcom.
I wish I was a UA-cam superstar so that I could get free multi-meters... but, then again, you did coin the term death-dapter, so I s'pose you deserve it.
Nice stuff they sent you you really deserve it.
Oh my gosh! My mother uses one of these on a regular basis! Definitely going to find her a different adapter now lol.
I've got one of these recently and surprisingly there has been an upgrade!
for one thing, EARTH IS CONNECTED!
it doesn't fix all the other issues such as pluging-earth-into-live but it's nice to see earth connected up
Opening it up, the screws have been replaced with like standoff things? that poke up into the metal above
Also this doesn't have the middle ground pins oddly enough
Thanks for this video, it made me check the earth continuity of the death-daptor supplied with my chinese rework station; no continuity... ESD safe haha. Well, it's fixed now. So that's why I've been blowing a bunch of BS170s...
Love your videos super smart. It helps me fix cheap Ebay crap I regretted buying
Just found out my electronics classroom has these but in an American version without grounding. JOY! These ones are sneaky. They have a grounding plug but no pin, same construction though, with the contacts just pressed together and not screwed in.
One of these saved my bacon I had a 3amp 5v charger for a chrome book and broke the plastic earth pin off it's the only thing that would charge it so I glued it to the death adapter and problem solved
This travel adapter is called a death dapter because it causes death. The earth pin is not connected, which means the circuit breaker will not get tripped if something fails in an appliance
I was sent this adaptor with a laser engraver - guess I'll start by throwing this bit in the bin.
I use an adapter we didn't need at work. It was an extra on a $30k instrument, so I thought "That will work".
It looks to me that it was designed for the plug pins to be screwed to the internal terminals, but some bright spark (I know!) found that you could just screw the unit together and the screws would touch the internal connectors (except the earth of course) thereby saving money, and know one would ever know (until they died - at which point they cease to care about the internals of the adaptor).
Being very alarmed at the exceedingly poor quality and risks involved with these Chinese "death daptors", I've never actually used one and the two I got with some items I purchased on eBay some time ago just got thrown in the junk draw.
Today I thought I'd have a look at how bad the two that I got really are.
I was astonished to find the contacts for the sockets to all the pins were actually screwed together making almost a good connection between the sockets and the pins, but the fingers of the sockets looked to be very flimsy chromed metal, not brass!
Plugging one adaptor into the other confirmed that the pins are not gripped very well at all, and confirmed Clive's findings that you can plug any pin into any socket of the adaptor in any orientation.
The adaptors remain in the junk box, never to be used unless I want the brass pins to machine in order to make something, which is the only reason why the adaptors haven't just gone in the bin!
These adaptors are so bad I am astonished they are not made of conductive plastic!
K Watt
Yes that is my name and yes I am an electrical engineer, now retired.
First rule of Chinese manufacturing is: The manufacturer will make sure he makes a profit on the stuff he makes. Either by using cheaper materials, scrimping on safety margins or removing steps of the manufacturing process.
I have many of these adaptors and what I have found is they actually come apart overtime when you withdraw the three pin plug. Leaving you with exposed live parts still in the wall.
eeek, chucking mine out now! thanks
Hillarious, just got one of these all these years later in my banggood order, mine had no ground pin!
I've got one of these death-dapters (came with an Amateur radio), which is also not earth connected.
Just for good measure, mine's also got the 1/2 insulated earth pin.
I replaced it with a Poundland shaver adapter.
It seems like that this plug was wrongly assabled. :D
I got an identical adaptor with some Chinese thing. Oddly enough I was tempted to use it even before seeing this video.
I have opened a couple of these kinda adapters, and the screw should hold the metal to the part that has the plugs to the wall, hence the holes in them! I know they are not good for high amps but they work ok for a phone charger or something similar..
Thanks for sharing
I have at least two very similar ones as well (can't find the rest), the Schuko-version that is (and funnily enough two Australian versions, because apparently the Chinese don't know where Austria is). They are clipped together though, so I can't open them and I don't want to destroy them, because I need them for wall wart power supplies where I can't exchange the plug. But I measured the resistance on the Earth pin: 250kOhm on one, 150Ohm on the other.... After pushing into the earth socket with a screwdriver it has gone down to 3-5Ohm on both. I filled the earth pin with hot glue on both, so I don't forget that and will exchange them when eventually.
It looks like the pin screws are meant to pass through the back plates but the assembler got lazy
I been using this adapter for years I’m still alive and kicking.
... just got a Czech/central EU version of this...
not only ground-pin-head do not touch, we don't even have screw-head on ground pin
+ as protection from ground metal strips falling out, it is lidded by one more plastic cover.
They probably flogged the missing screws on ebay.
learn something every day.. that's sneaky.. I bought one of those mains to 12v cigarette adapters so I could use my car tyre pump on my motorbike in the back yard.. bought one for 3 quid from China and first use it went bang with smoke and fire.. not only did I have a near heart attack... and it took the house fuse out but I never sent it too you.. thanks for the reply. ..
There is a real piece of work...
Just a little thank you, from someone who can no longer work. Boredom os a huge problem been looking for a hobby. Javing add or ADHD as we call it its not easy for me,not a lot interests me but for some unknown reason soldering on pcb's has peaked my interest, especially the hacking part. Got some goodies on tbe way.
Fark! That is shisenhousen!
Fark Tard do u mean scheissenhausen
I had one of these adaptors. Not anymore. After viewing this video, it has been taken apart and binned. A fire hazard waiting to happen.
I saw one of these recently, although the version I spotted in the wild, didn't have a ground plug on it.
it had failed in a flamboyant fashion, charring the outlet it was used in. I am guessing that the tea pot it was used to adapt to the outlet, had caused it's fire-y demise.
I wonder if they were hoping that the prongs on the plug would push the metal pieces in!
After viewing this I took one apart that I got with some (rather good) walk talkies about 2 years ago..... to my horror they are exactly the same (and are now in the bin).
if it's so easy to make a dangerous travel adapter it's because of the flawed u.k. plug that requires the implementation a recessed receptacle to be safe instead of being intrinsically safe
It looks like it has just been assembled the wrong way. The springs from the plug could actually be held by the screws that also hold the pins before the whole thing is put together.
I bought a phone on eBay and it came with one of these "death adapters" (ends with the North American plug though), complete with the "For export only" thingy!
I just got one of these death-dapters from Banggood yesterday... American version, the live and neutral were the same, and there wasn't even a ground line on the wall side. What a horror.
Great meters!!
Wow give it to your enemies! I guess these screws should go through the holes of the metal parts, and then catch the other side. Someone did a mistake assembling it......
They now have the ones with this style of plastic body on ebay but with only two 4mm europlug pins, which will "work", with a lot of slop, on a flat Danish socket or a non-recessed type C socket in e.g. Russia, and on most Italian 10A ones, but it's useless for anything else. It won't go in the French, German or Swiss recessed ones at all and people will probably try to jam it past the shutter on a type G, to no avail. I mean at least it's not pretending to have earth continuity any more!
Looked almost as if the spring connectors should have been screwed to the pins. Maybe an enterprising Chinese assembly person found a quicker way.
Had these adaptors before, especially with my EPROM UV blanking boxes, which I promptly bin and get something like a 1 amp shaver adaptor from the likes of Poundland etc.
I think they're meant to be screwed completely through the contacts into the pin holder, so you would screw the 2 halves together and then put a screw through the positive/negative/earth plug holes, through the hole in the contacts and into the hole where the screws are in this one. Might just be a case of faulty assembly.
I liked the gasp
Shirking assembly employee. The screws are supposed to go through the metal.
I have opened up four of these units and none of them had the screws going through.
Off to gulag with them!
rewatching the video. I think the screw for the ground would not go through because it would miss the opposite hole?
Clive, at least you got an earth pin on yours. Mine only has live and neutral pins.
Identical looking versions of these do exist with earth continuity, I just checked one that came with a Soshine battery charger and was pleasantly surprised.
Back in 2009 when I made a class trip to England I bought two UK-socket-adapters on the ferry from Calais to Dover, which I still have. Luckily I only had a non grounded device (protection class 2) with me, but I later found out that you can actually fit a grounded Schuko-plug (I'm from Germany) into it, while there is no connection to the two ground contacts on the side of the Schuko-plug.
I wonder if these adapters are banned now from the shop on the ferry because they are dangerous, especially if there is a live wire touching the metal housing of a grounded device you can plug into these adapters.
It's pretty amazing what kinds of dodgy stuff can be found on the market.
By the way: My first experience with British style light bulb sockets was when I tried to turn on the light in my room after my arrival, which didn't work, so I checked out the lamp closer and I saw that the CFL was not sitting straight in it's socket and then I tried to unscrew it (like it's done here in Germany) and as I finally got it out, which of course was tricky because of my lack of knowledge about these sockets back then, I found out that a pin broke of the side of the metal cylinder. The bulb was replaced after that so the light problem was fixed.
Does that happen very often with these sockets in the UK?
That was a kinda interesting experience back then but I have learned something new about UK electricity.
Thanks to you i don't trust ebay what so ever anymore.
One of these come with my led strip lights, for some reason nothing would plug 🔌 into the adaptor, when I opened it one of the metal things at the bottom connecting the pins, was actually put in incorrectly, this was a death trap I had to put it in a different position, then I decided it’s for the bin also there was NO METAL AT ALL connecting the earth pin, so it had one missing contact and another incorrectly put in.
No quality assurance and death threat guaranteed. Clive could be building a dossier to present to the appropriate minister to do with Electrical equipment manufacturers: regulations and ... - Gov.uk. Or if it's imported I guess customs and excise. One draw back could be Clive getting fewer freebees or being black listed as a whistle blower.
I just re-assembled mine using the screws, although the earth pin does not have a hole, I will try to drill it.
Some of the death adapters I've had in the past were actually magnetic - the brass pins stuck to magnets and that was without the steel screw inserted down the middle to hold them in place..
That's on top of the magnetic flex I've found on some imported goods!
Test one of your adapters with a rare earth magnet.
as a PAT tester i see lots of these, i always dispose of them
nice plug for Amecal :P
when will you be doing a full review and teardown of the multimeter, does it at least have a fuse? can't wait for the clamp meter as well! thanks!
I would send a polite notice to whomever sold you the pump. If they don't respond well, report them to eBay/Amazon/whatever. These ones are definitely illegal, IIRC a lot of them also have the pins slightly the wrong shape so they can actually cause damage to sockets and potentially not make contact properly (since they're not to spec) and so get rather hot. A lot of them are also physically smaller than the standard requires which causes other problems that I don't recall right now. They obviously don't have fuses which makes them illegal too. You've already mentioned the holes that are far too big and (of course) the lack of shutters.
I got one of these mysteriously added in for free with a decent quality 12v cigar to USB converter and someone had simply removed the earth prong altogether.
Hi Clive! I'm not sure, but it looks like the whole adapter hasn't been assembled properly. When I watched this and you said the screws makes the contact and the connectors slide inside, first thing came to my mind that it was intended to assemble so that the screws hold the contacts against the backplate, so when you remove the screws the metal slides comes out as well, but for some odd reason the wall contacts were screwed in place without the adapter metal slides.
Though I haven't ever had one of those to tumble with and in EU don't need one, the alignment suggests it would be so. Thank you for your great videos, love to watch them and learn more about electronics :)
Lol the electrical system here in the US [rightly] catches a lot of crap... But one thing that nobody can ever do, is get a ground pin into the hot side (or neutral for that matter) of an outlet 🤣