Okay, regarding loose plugs - it just occurred to me that since my lived experience is mostly around Chicagoland where outlets tend to be sideways, that may be why I have so rarely encountered problematically loose plugs. In either vertical orientation, it's really only side-friction that's holding onto the blades. But when it's sideways, weight from the cord is sort of jamming the blades against the contacts. Perhaps we've been right all along... (though neutral should probably be on top)
@@TargetedMarket I don't know how you came to the conclusion that I'm used to new construction when I said I've lived in plenty of old places with old receptacles. Chicago wasn't built after electrification, y'know ;)
The only loose vertical plugs I've seen (outside of public spaces like airports) are with receptacles that are old enough they're probably out of code anyways. And my home was retrofitted with knob and tube wiring after it was built. To give a sense of how old it is
@@blakebrockhaus347 I doubt they're out of code. Electrical codes very frequently grandfather older stuff. But installing one of those loose outlets today hopefully is covered somewhere in the code. Yes, they are less of a problem when mounted horizontally, but I recall some of the outlets at my grandparents' place having virtually no grip. One in particular had a table situated right by it at just the right height for a cord plugged into its lower outlet to rest on the table specifically so the plug wouldn't fall out of it. The outlet above it was deemed a lost cause, though I recall my brother trying to plug a radio into it by sitting the radio by the outlet and running the cord over the radio. (It didn't work for long, as the weight of the cable running down the other side of the radio was enough to pull it out over the course of a minute or so.) That said, I'm not sure they needed to be out of code. My grandparents changed brands of outlets after learning how much of a problem those cheap outlets were. They were teenagers in the Great Depression, and even they splurged on better quality outlets - but not enough to replace any of the original outlets they'd bought. And I mean not any. The house which only had some of those outlets was their newer house, built on the same property as the first one. The original house they'd built only had the no grip outlets. Fortunately, it was barely livable in so many ways as soon as they were able to afford a redo they did, and we virtually never visited the older house. We certainly didn't use the electrical outlets apart from testing their grip, just to marvel at what our grandparents put up with.
A note on your tangent, in my time on being an electrician, I've been shocked a few times: At 24V DC I noticed I was being shocked, it was disconcerting but it really got scary when I noticed I couldn't let go. At 48V DC I was mostly just embarrassed that it happened. At 120V it's a jolt, sometimes accompanied by a muscle spasm, mostly get angry. At 277V there are usually burns, it's VERY painful, I yelped and inadvertently jumped off the ladder. In conclusion, people are usually shocked when they find out I'm not a very good electrician.
@@ynotw57 Don't do this in Europe, you'll be welcomed by 400V ! (tree phase 240/400 not an industrial but an household thing you can encounter in 9Kw full electric range)
I was told the plug would bite me. Don't put keys in the outlet. I didn't need to be told I found out the hard way. At four years old I got bit at the electricity bug. Funny thing I made my own extension cords not long after. I Always told people I been playing with electricity since I was four. Few bites along the way. 73
As overprotective parent, who happened to be an electrician, I put a GFCI in line with the circuit for my daughters bedroom. It actually saved her from a shock when she played with a nightlight (on a tamper resistant outlet). She got a very light shock before the GFCI tripped a millisecond later, possibly saving her from a severe shock. I would HIGHLY advise GFCI protection for children's rooms.
RCD protection should be on every circuit with user-accessible outlets. 30mA RCDs like that have been legally required in Germany since 2007, and it's getting more and more common to put a 10mA RCD on bathroom circuits.
@@ska042 You're gonna confuse the yankees with your euro talk, lol. They now require ACFI circuit protection almost everywhere, but only GFCI (RCD) protection in wet areas, or basements. Code hasn't expanded GFCI protection in decades, except to only recently expand to 220v devices outdoors. An overprotective homeowner can add GFCI protection anywhere he wants though (though nuisance tripping is common).
@@ska042 You can't substitute good practice. Don't ever touch the prongs when even close to the receptacle, and you won't ever have a problem. We added a ground conductor to our circuits because no amount of good practice could prevent electrocution from wiring faults (we needed a separate ground from neutral because of the cases where the neutral conductor loses its ground connection, resulting in that neutral going hot if something was plugged in). We added GFCIs to wet areas because no amount of good practice could stop water from splashing when using it, which could get in the receptacle, possibly exposing power to the outside of it. We don't need GFCIs on every receptacle circuit because there are no problems it can solve that good practice can't solve better (in dry areas). Plus, they're more expensive and prone to false trips. Arc fault breakers are even worse, since they only trip _after_ the arc happened, and arcs usually only happen when somebody is plugging or unplugging something that draws a high inrush current. If the idea is to prevent house fires, it doesn't do a good job because it doesn't prevent arcs from happening. Not only that, but if you were plugging in an aforementioned device, you will trip the breaker when there was no threat posed, forcing you to go and reset it every time. If these breakers are on whole circuits rather than individual receptacles, then you would end up cutting power to everything on the circuit because of a little arc. I hope you have a UPS for your computer(s).
@@RAndrewNeal "You can't substitute good practice. Don't ever touch the prongs when even close to the receptacle" is funny because that's pretty much made impossible by many good plug/receptacle designs around the world, so that good practice has already been replaced, or at least made mostly irrelevant. The "false trip" thing almost always comes down to semi-defective or mis-designed devices. When adding RCDs you notice these things that previously slipped through. Personally I haven't had a false trip for the last 10 or 15 years having only lived in places with RCDs in the breaker panel, like 90% of the people in this country, but I guess YMMV. An RCD limits the damaging potential of a shock if it does happen - and let's be real, that will never stop happening even in places that aren't wet, no matter how much we advocate for "good practice", so that alone is enough to justify it in my book. A shock is still very dangerous, but on a circuit with an RCD you've got a much better chance. RCDs also catch defective devices that may be potentially dangerous but don't let large currents flow to ground instantly, which would trip a normal breaker. I have no opinion about arc fault breakers, never seen one in person to be honest. They're very uncommon here.
My thoughts on the whole "plugs falling out thing": Visitors from other countries and continents are likely to encounter US-style plugs in hotels. My personal experience has been that I've only encountered dangerously loose outlets in hotels where the outlets get the most use and abuse.
The bedside/desk lamps that have an outlet with square black plastic trim are always the absolute worst, I've never encountered a single one that wasn't incredibly loose even in new hotels so I'm inclined to think they're really that bad from the factory.
I second that. I’m in hotels and on planes all the time for work and they wear out so fast that they are almost universally worn out whenever you try to use them. On a hotel bedside table, if a plug stays in an outlet well enough to even maintain an electrical connection, it’s cause for celebration.
I think it's a combination of "two prongs feel less secure than three prongs" (understandable since there are fewer points where the plug is gripped by the socket) and maybe that hotel sockets are likely to be the type that accept all conceivable plugs and therefore have much wider tolerances.
I think it might also be down to the use of travel adaptors. The extra mass, bulk and sometimes poor design of adaptors (many "universal" ones have rotating flat prongs designed for both US and AU/NZ sockets, the latter of which don't have different widths for the live and neutral pins) combined with a heavier plug can make it more prone to pulling away from the wall when jostled.
The real pro tip is to use commercial outlets in places you frequently use. 9/10 outlets get used a handful of times you own the home. You plug in a lamp when you move in, unplug it when redoing the floors, again when you buy new furniture, and again when you move out. But everyone has a couple outlets that get constant use, you plug in the vacuum to the same outlets because the cord reaches the most places. The iron/hair dryer gets used in the same position. Those are the ones that wear out. The commercial grade ones cost maybe 300% more, which sounds shocking (zing) until you realize it's an extra $2 or so. And has beefier metal clamps to hold your plug in. You don't need to replace all your outlets, just the ones you frequently use. We've all got a select handful, so the total cost to have better outlets is likely < $10.
Not only are they more heavy duty, but they’re also so much easier to install nicely because they have those plates on the screws that mean you don’t have to hook the wires and you don’t have to pushwire.
The outlets I mess with the most aren't even part of the house. One is an eight-outlet power strip, and the other is one of those blocks that covers the outlet and splits the two outlets into six. So I'm not sure where that leaves me.
Midline receptacles everywhere. One hospital grade on the shelf. As soon as one of the cheaper ones wears out, replace it with the good one. And then put a new hospital grade receptacle back on the shelf on the shelf... 35 years in this house and hospital grade #3 is still on the shelf. The 2 I replaced are not the ones I thought they would be.
@@stevethepocket Yup, the one I plug and unplug the most is on my computer's UPS, on the side _without_ battery backup. My UPS sits on my desk, behind my monitor ... and is the easiest-to-reach place to plug in a fan or a vacuum cleaner in that room. A likely former champion is a few sockets over on the same UPS -- where my phone charger stays plugged in 99.99% of the time. I don't unplug it anywhere near as often since I got a new phone with a longer-lasting battery ... and left aftermarket chargers in my car and at my dad's house.
To me (a Canadian), the “plugs always falling out” issue is very real for one specific kind of plug: cheap phone chargers. Their blades tend to not be oriented, they often have a swiveling design, and I tend to use my phone while it is plugged in, which makes it one of the few cords that get tugged. Since those phone chargers are cheaper than an adapter, I imagine that most tourists do what I do when going abroad and buy a local phone charger, only to be faced with the frustration of them always falling out, especially in those hotel desktop receptacles that you mentioned.
If you mean the ones they sell in convenience stores for entirely too much money, and are just two prongs and a USB port, absolutely. Not only are they not oriented, they tend to have smaller blades anyway. Combine that with the hotel receptacles that are already loose from being used more than normal, and yeah, they almost always fall out.
I can totally agree, for most cases. granted i am a little different in that i tend to try and avoid using my phone while charging. i just would when its plugged in not jostle and wear out the USB connector on the phone prematurely. but in the case of i am using it. the way i avoid the problem, i use longer cables and if say im not near a wall i will buy the chargers that come with a plug and wire, something where instead of the charger being a wall wart you jam directly into the wall its got a cord with a standard plug. That or i just use portable power banks for when im charging while moving around the house, and will plug those into the wall warts since. well you aint gonna use them when they are charging. but i think the whole plugs falling out of the wall thing kinda stems from wall warts, especially the older big chonky boys that weighed like a pound, i do remember those often pulling loose and in some cases becoming a great advertisement for replacing an outlet when they would refuse to actually stay in the wall and just flop right back out again.
yeah, Been to a lot of public places where people use outlets a lot... Colleges, lounges, because it's only one screw, The plate and sockets are literally falling out. And I also agree with the international adapters. Sometimes when I order items online, they come with the wrong plug (usually a europlug) and yeah. europlug adapters fall out. cuz they're cheap. they're not meant for normal use. and i will only use them until I get a replacement.
When I was an infant, my mother discovered that putting blanks in outlets made me want to play with them, but if she left them empty, I would completely ignore them. I was a strange child.
I, too pried blanks out of outlets - with a screwdriver (the European ones need a special tool to remove from the recessed plug). I got a stern talking to and my parents then removed most of the visible ones and I ignored the outlets since.
Having been shocked both in the US and in Peru, I can say that the shock from the higher voltage is worse because I genuinely thought I was going to die for maybe a minute afterwards. The shock in the US just surprised me and effectively woke me up because I got it when I had just woken up so all it really did was remove my need for a morning cup of coffee. The one in Peru instantly blasted me physically all the way across the bathroom and made my heart flutter.
I’ve been hit by 277V before and it’s not even close to what 120V feels like. We were removing some lay in lighting and a 277V neutral that lost its path to ground fell and landed on my hand, which grounded to the ceiling grid. Took me a few minutes to recover after that one, nowadays I would recommend anyone who gets hit by 240V+ or even 120 just if they feel bad to go to the ER and get an EKG done. I’ve worked with voltages from 480/277, up to 69,000V. The medium and high voltage stuff is always scary, but everyone knows if you get hit with it you’re dead. Everyone takes caution, tests their gloves and sticks, doesn’t go “hands on” primary until it’s been tested dead and **grounded**. I would guess more people die working on 480V than medium voltage. Everyone takes it casually until something goes wrong
I've been shocked by 120 probably about 10 times now. It really isn't that bad. One time my skin got a little burned and the worst one caused some minor nerve damage in my hand. I respect 120 and I fear anything higher.
Once when I was old enough to know better I happened to be sitting against the wall by a 120V outlet that had its socket guard chipped so you could get significantly more finger in what should've just been a slot. After a few minutes of idly feeling around it the thing bit me (bit of a hot buzzing sting) and I stopped messing with it, but it was mild enough that nobody in the group I was with noticed that I'd gotten shocked.
Pro tip: if you're wanting to cleanly and quickly cut through plastic, use an ultrasonic knife. We use them in our lab all the time and it turns plastic into butter and makes for wonderfully clean cuts.
Just an FYI, the staples used in construction stable-guns, for things like installing insulation or vapor barriers (or a myriad of other uses), fit between the two slots of a standard outlet very nicely. And produce some spectacular sparks. Don't ask me how I learned this... lol
Talking of changing the outlets reminded me of a hack that everyone should do. When you paint a room, take off the light switch faceplate and put a label on the back of it specifying the paint color of the room. That way in 5 years when you want to touch up the room, you'll know what color to order.
Or just keep the paint tin and label it? You should take off light switch and socket face plates anyway when decorating (or at least loosen them enough to paint underneath them), then replace them when the paint has hardened. It looks SO much better than trying to paint round them.
I was about 7 when I learned which breaker was for my bedroom. Much later in my 30s I visited my parents and they remarked how all the outlets in my childhood bedroom had scorch marks. I went and looked and was amazed that I was still alive. I was one of those kids that at about 13 years old my favorite toy was a 7.5kV neon sign transformer that I would make Jacobs ladders out of. I only got bit a few times by that. It felt like getting dunked in ice water, if you were wondering. No, I never told my mom.
Mehdi (Electroboom) nearly died from a Jacob's Ladder. I think it was his 1 million subscriber special where he built it. Of course the most likely way for tinkerers to die is by playing with a microwave transformer, incredibly useful for many projects but also incredibly dangerous.
One cause of the scorch marks is also from people yanking plugs out by pulling the cord instead of at the plug. It creates weakness in the connection inside the plug and eventually you get a fantastic arc when you send power through it one time. My mother-in-law used to pull out cords this way and blew several outlets.
I wired the high tension from the TV set in my room up to the metal venetian blinds. My friend from school still talks about it to this day. Yes, I did get between the HT and ground. Once. The reason the TV survived that abuse is because it was a BW Valve TV set.
As a grown-ass adult of forty years, I LOATHE TR outlets. It’s a fight _any_ time I want to plug something in. It’s never the same angle or amount of force twice in a row, even with the same device. I have very limited outlets in my kitchen and often have to swap things in and out. TR outlets make it take ten times longer than it actually should, every single time, because I have to stand there just fighting the damn outlet to let the plug in.
One other advantage of TR receptacles is that dirt is far less likely to get into them. When I installed backsplashes in our kitchen the original ivory receptacles looked dirty next to the primarily white tile so I bought a box of white TR receptacles to replace them with. Most of the receptacles I removed can be re-used but a couple (especially the one near the stove) were so full of "kitchen deposits" that they were disgusting and went straight into the E waste.
I also think that for people not from the US, airports are one of the first places they might endeavor to plug something in...and those outlets have been used and abused to a degree where I find stuff is constantly falling right out especially stuff that sticks out far and weighs a bunch, like say, a 5v USB power supply with a UK-US adapter on the end. I agree that for US home it's essentially a non-issue or a easily remedied one, it's a clear issue in places that have large throughput!
those airport outlets shouldn't even be used they're so bad, I'm pretty sure that is a feature for them so people don't use electricity. I'm sure that saves them all of 50k/yr a CEO can use to gas up his yaught's smaller yaught for one weekend. The USB ports are 90% just plain unconnected (don't plug anything other than a battery charger into a public USB btw).
I lived in an OLD house as a kid. Screw-in plug fuses, post and wrap wiring in most of the house, push-button light switches still in a few rooms. Some of the outlets were quite worn, and to be able to make electrical contact when plugging in things we had to bend the prongs on the plug inward a bit. - When we started getting enough household income to do so, we replaced those loose outlets and all but one set of the push-button light switches (because you had to find JUST the right dwell point to have an electrical connection). Yeah, that song is so right. I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger.
The UK-US adapters really don't help as the weight is much further away from the wall. I struggled to keep my phone charger seated when charging in the US
I lived in both the Netherlands and in NYC, and I do recognize the complaint about the loose plugs, even with new plugs and sockets. European plugs feel a lot more secure and I think it's because the plug in the EU is not just held in place by the pins, but also a significant amount of plastic. This makes EU plugs feel a lot more secure. Again, not always, because of course not. Especially "Type F" feels really solid.
@@Robinlarsson83 It all depends. I live in Canada, and there are different grades of outlets and plugs. In homes, we typically only see three types of outlets the first being these 15A (or 20 A) NEMA receptacles, second for our clothes dryer, a dual-voltage device and third, a stove or range plug, looks similar to the dryer one and has similarities to the UK standard where it's this big bulky device that you don't want to accidentally step on. The bigger range and dryer receptacles and plugs also require quite a bit of force to insert and disconnect. That said, the smaller 15 and 20 Ampere receptacles have different grades. The most basic is the residential grade then you can go up to spec and commercial and then there are specialized versions for different environments. Anything above Residential is something I would put in my house if it ever came to making that choice. There is one NEMA standard set that even blows most Euro-plugs out of the water and that's the locking type. Mostly seen in commercial and some industrial settings as well as theatre, this standard will not feel insecure in the least. Also, depending on the plug and receptacle type, they are often double or even 5x the price of the standard ones. Around here (Canada), most people would see these being used on their generators.
I'm going to be honest as an electrician it doesn't really help. You really do need both hands to manipulate a receptacle especially with 12 gauge wire. I suppose it can be applicable in a panel as most tasks can be accomplished with 1 hand.
I'll typically but one hand down the back of my pants (palm facing out, thumb outside) and use it to hold onto the waistband. I don't let go until I've completed whatever I'm working on. (I am not an electrician.)
Hi, a European here. I also did a few stupid things with outlets and ceiling lights. I got 230V through my hand (just two fingers on one hand touching the wires) and then I also got zapped from one hand to the other. The second instance shocked me through the heart and I just shook it off. I guess I was - one - lucky as hell and - two - zapped for a really short time. I never really got shocked just by touching one wire. Meaning I was never properly grounded, I guess (except for punitive measures from my parents). What I mean by these anecdotes is that even 230V won't kill you right away on every touch. And while by pure numbers it should be twice as bad, in my head, they're really in the same ballpark as far as safety goes. It's not 22kV (typical mid-range power lines in my country) which will fry you instantly, and neither is it a 9V battery which tingles the tongue.
@@phillipbanes5484 You know, stringing together English words does not make the result English. To answer the part that was comprehensible: "A European" similarly to "an American" designates an inhabitant of said continent. Try Cambridge dictionary. And scroll down to a noun definition. You can tell a noun by the article in front of it.
I've encountered some really loose wall receptacles in hotels in the US. I assume it's because they used the cheapest possible receptacles and they're having things plugged in and removed very frequently. When I moved into my grandparents' house in 2005 (with original 1954 receptacles) there were several that were very loose. So of course I just replaced them all. But yeah, I don't think I've ever encountered loose ones in a house that was less than forty years old. And I've never seen loose ones in a commercial building outside of a hotel.
Yep. I assume it is visitors to the US staying in hotels that typically have _extremely_ crappy outlets that are often loose or might not even work at all.
My house was built in the mid-2000s, and most of the outlets were already loose when I moved in in 2019. They were all really cheap and only had back connectors that wouldn't release, which made replacing them a lot of fun.
Yes when i lived stateside, I worked doing Motel maintenance for 2 yrs, when i first started almost ALL the outlets were incredibly loose. A lot of the issue is also the cleaning staff using them... every day the vacuum gets plugged in and out probably quite violently. First thing I got the owner to authorize was me replacing EVERY single one of the outlets. I replaced with commercial grade.
I remember getting shocked as a kid, around the same age with the same experience. Fumbling around in the dark to plug in a charger at night and was trying to touch the wall to find the holes while guiding in the plug. Wouldn't be surprised if that is the most common reason people get shocked
This is why most places with 240V and regulations have plug standards that have the back half of the pins shrouded in plastic, or the entire socket is recessed e.g. Schuko and the like.
@@Broken_Yugo too bad a lot of things, especially cheap chargers from China, don't follow that rule. When I was a child I got shocked doing basically the same thing, except it was a lamp. It being a Type C Euro charger did nothing.
I've been shocked twice. Once, as a kid, while paying no attention whatsoever, plugging something into an extension cord. I was being ham-fisted, grabbed the plug, and touched both blades with my finger. It got my attention! But that's it. No harm done, and lesson learned ... for about ten years. Then, I was trying to plug a big wall wart transformer into a power strip, behind a desk, where I couldn't see the plug. I was having trouble finding the alignment and didn't realize how close my fingers were to the blades. When it found the socket, I brushed the pins for a brief moment, and learned the lesson again. Cage rattled for a moment, but otherwise perfectly OK. And that hasn't happened since, knock wood. So yeah: We learn to be careful, and the reminder is usually just momentarily unpleasant.
I was plugging in an NS brick into a power strip here in Aus, and must have had my finger between live and neutral (in physics we learn negative and positive). Even back then I usually turn off the outlet before plugging things in, mostly to avoid the prongs being burnt as the oxygen combusts (arcing I think). I currently have a power strip which has switches for each outlet, and I honestly have no idea why that isn't the standard.
I have actually seen a foreign object in outlet issue in my home. We had a nightlight with some jewelry hangers directly above it. A chain necklace fell and landed on the exposed outlet pins, and apparently exploded. Apparently it was high enough resistance that it did not trigger the breaker. Fortunately other than a traumatized 4 year old, there was no damage.
more likely, it failed so quickly, it did not trigger he breaker. breakers take a full 60th of a second to start to trip, while a fuse (which is what the jewelry turned into) can fail within a 120th of a second. it's why some high energy applications still use fuses.
The outlets near my desk at work were always black due to wiseguys sabotaging my plugs with conductive material. I just ignored it and they eventually lost interest in that particular stunt.
Scary 😮 Removal of conductive material above outlets is a best practice and policy in care facilities. A couple awareness pushes in the last 20 or so years. Some older fixtures like wall lights or fans have conductive pull cords (or sections of) often installed directly over outlets. These outlets are often behind heads of beds or furniture.
@@mernokimuvek no. it takes a full cycle for a magnetic trip breaker to trigger. and longer for a thermal trip. as long as the fuse has the interrupting capacity to stop the fault, a fuse will blow faster than a breaker can trip every time.
I worked in hotel maintenance in Boston for a while. I think your assumption about the people from other countries saying outlets fall out is correct. I had to fix a ton of outlets with the issue that you described, and a lot of outlets to the point of not working at all because they were so loose. I will note though, I have also seen the same issue in older homes as well but that's probably less common because you can obviously just easily replace the outlets, which is not the case with hotel furniture.
The people from other countries also go to hotels in other countries than the US. In the 240V country I live in, hotel socket aren't loose, whether it's because of the socket design or the hotel maintenance (maybe by regulation ?), I really don't know… Maybe a bit of both
@@nit_ British plugs don't fall out because, well they just aren't going to. Euro plugs (I happen to be in Iceland right now and so experiencing euro plugs) aren't going to fall out - they have that plastic bit taking all the strain but I've seen the two-prong euro plugs that got sloppy in some sockets because they do not have the plastic surround to retain them. US plugs rely on the grip on the pins to hold them in and so it's easy to see why they fail. My 1925 house in the US is full of sloppy sockets that I'm swapping out one by one.
@@nit_ Those 240v are built solid, wish we had those. I'd say probably more design and definitely regulation. Most larger hotels (especially in major cities) renovate the entire hotel every 7-11 yrs typically. Which includes brand new outlets. So the fact that outlets don't last more than a few years is probably a big red flag. They also do the American thing and get the cheapest outlets you can get. You'd be amazed how poorly some of the fanciest hotels are made. Very MicMansion like.
@@james.mccormackI did a lot of travelling in the US a few years back and it seems that many of the more remote hotels/motels get sold downmarket from time to time (or perhaps just rebranded or refranchised) and only get very modest renovations.
Lol when you mentioned the outlets getting paint on them I remembered when I bought my house. We were painting a couple of bedrooms and my wife had her cousin and his girlfriend come over to help. Turns out neither of them had any idea what they were doing because not only did they not take the outlet covers off or use any painters tape, they literally just rolled over the entire live outlet. So we then had to remove the outlets, paint behind the covers, and replace them all.
I've seen too many outlets with paint on them. Now our outlets usually have removable parts to the face plate, so you can remove the cover before painting and then replace it afterwards. If you get a little paint on the very edge of the outlet you won't see it after the cover is back on. However I still see outlets with paint dripped all over the cover...
When I bought my current house, the painters they'd hired to make everything that awful ugly beige for selling the house had painted over almost every single outlet in the whole place. And not just a little, either, like to the point that some of the outlets were completely unusable from how much paint had gotten into the holes. I had to cut around and pry the covers up with a boxknife and replace every single one besides the one in the bathroom. Awful! Dunno what the heck they were thinking.
@@animeartist888 thats a shame, and it's not even hard to do it right... a quick turn of the screwdriver to remove the faceplate, then a 2-3" piece of tape over the faces is all you need
I think it's a thing with hotels and older homes. My inlaws kitchen plugs would literally fall out and had zero grip on the actual blades. Yes the plug in the wall got very warm and one got very hot to the touch (and quite regularly was used for a crock pot and toasters). We recently went thorough and replaced all the outlets with new ones and no more over heating problems. I'll ask my FIL if he saved any of the old floppy plugs and I could send it to you if you wanted to hold one for yourself 😅
re: "120v can also kill you", I can't help but think about the repair guy at my old apartment who came and replaced one of my outlets without turning off the power to the outlet. there was an amount of swearing that occurred, but he kept insisting it was easier for him to just do it that way instead of walking around the side of the building to flip the breaker. truly a legend.
I used to do this without swearing. Then I moved to a place with 240V outlets. Tried to replace an outlet without turning the power off ONCE, there was lots of swearing and never did it again.
@@Spiker985Studios Dude, I've been shocked by 24 volt before where it really, seriously hurt. for days. As much as the voltage is part of the equation so are the amps involved. Nothing tingly about it, just not comfy when your hand is quickly turned into a heater.
I often don't turn the power off when replacing or reconnecting things. Ok, you get the odd shock (or more likely just knock the circuit out), but it's so much easier when you know something is working (or not) BEFORE you put it all back together!
The European Type F extension coords have quite interesting tamper resistance mechanism: actually there's only single flap which rotates when the plug is inserted and there's a spring which restores the closed orientation when the plug is removed. If you press only one of the holes the flap does not rotate.
Im fact, if you press only one side of the flap, it gets caught on a ledge and can't be pushed away . Both pins pushing at the same time lets it slide or rotate past the ledge with some degree of ease . These sliders are the same for all the double banana sockets in Europe, not just the German Schuko , and they come in two designs: Sliding and Rotating .
@@johndododoe1411 They work for all Sockets as due to some marvel they managed to create (somewhat) interoperable plug and socket designs over the years. I say somewaht, as sometimes you might get power, but the protective earth might be left out, which might become an issue. For sockets there is a list of types they are named, I didn´t even find out where those names came from, if it was some kind of ISO or whatever. US Sockets are considered Type a or B (with ground). For European plugs we start with Type C, which is the round prong equivalent to type A and considered what is supposed to work everywhere in Europe, it is just the two round prongs, no ground. the plug usually is flat, not the round base plate shape and it seems this one is the base for all standards acrosss Europe. Just add different types and arrangements of ground pins and you get either type E, Type F (that is the actual Schuko Socket) and Type K. And if they are not recessed but flush with the wall, you may even add in the Swiss type J or the italian Type L which are not round to begin with. but the L and N prongs are for all of those close enough to fit. Another thing, when it comes to plugs, you commonly find two types around here. the euro plug without ground or hybrid plugs, which at first glance look and work like a Schuko plug, but they have a hole and contacts for the Type E ground pin as well. actually you could say three types, there is the contour plug, which is a larger version of the Euro plug. it has two prongs, but it has a round base plate with space for whatever ground you may encounter. the difference is the flat one is rated to 2.5 A, the contoured one up to 10 A.
As mentioned, the UK sockets require the earth pin to be inserted to open the shutters for the live and neutral pins, however MK makes/made an even safer variety where the earth pin must be inserted first, and then both live and neutral pins must be inserted simultaneously, making it almost impossible to defeat, even to insert a europlug (although this is dangerous anyway).
Yes! Came here to say this, glad I scanned the comments first. As a Brit I find plugs and sockets around the world, and especially the USA, terrifying.
I too came to mention the MK design but would also like to add that the BS 4573 Shaver socket has this type of shutter. As it is the only non-grounded receptacle allowed in the UK it must have a shutter design that opens only when the two pins are present.
in Australia we also have plugs that come in a 2 and 3 prong versions and we have the same shutter system on some outlets (mostly used outside to prevent moisture). our plugs also come with a bit of plastic around the prongs (to prevent something from touching them if they somehow get bumped a bit out of the outlet). our plugs are also designed in a way where its most convenient to put them in and out of sockets while holding far away from the pins. they also come in side ways flavours as well which are my favourite. probably not the best plug out there but it would end up high on a list id imagine.
Just a note on 2 prong activated shutters, we have had them on UK socket outlets for some considerable time. They are less common than the earth pin activated variety though. A further note on the plug in 'child proofing' socket covers that are also available here in the UK, they come complete (all plastic moulded) with all 3 pins. The earth pin is the standard shape and size for any other type of mains plug, but the live and neutral pins are somewhat shorter. This is all self defeating, because now the shutter safety mechanism is opened by the earth pin and the two shorter plastc live and neutral pins can be easily bent away from the socket exposing the potentially live portion of the outlet. Don't buy them, they are more dangerous than just leaving the socket as it is.
From the UK also. I have 2 prong activated shutters in my flat, which did slightly confuse me when I first moved it. I thought my sockets were damaged, then I realised they were just were just working in a different way. I am sure that there were safety campaigns to encourage people not use the socket covers for the very reasons you have explained. They are still legal to buy and sell but seem to be potentially dangerous (for the UK socket type)
In most of Europe, the Schuko plugs are installed next to each other sideways, this makes the right angle plug issue go away. Given that the plugs are symmetrical, you can also install the right angle plugs either down or up, whichever is more convenient.
also most of the right angle plugs are made so that they can sit ontop of eacother as well. if you stick in the bottom one first then the top one so that the cord goes over the bottom one.
Same in the AU/NZ design. We also have switches on the sockets and sleeved pins. Only thing we don't have is the gates, but the live elements are pretty deep so it's an effort getting anything commonly conductive in them.
The funny thing is, I've been shocked before, but never from putzing with an outlet. It was always me doing dumb stuff with electronics that I'd either forgotten to unplug or was stupidly disregarding. The worst I ever got was from an old lightswitch that turned out to be improperly grounded. (Metal faceplate, metal box, built in the 50s) I remember that was literally the first thing my step-dad fixed after he moved in.
Worst shock I've ever gotten was from disassembly the family's first digital camera after we replaced it because it had problems, I was handling it with the battery inserted because I wanted to see what would happen turning it on when half disassembled (spoiler, the screen had white stripes on it and nothing worked anymore) when I got a ridiculous shock which I guess came from the flash capacitors, my hand was kinda numb and weird feeling for HOURS after it happened.
I've been shocked from an outlet before, but not a North American outlet. My family in India has an international converter outlet with every possible plug face on the planet in one connector and at 240V and it's not that hard to shock yourself on one of those
My first electric shock, as a young child, was on the plug. Every subsequent one I can think of was something like insufficient shielding on a power supply, or assuming that a little incandescent indicator lamp would be low voltage instead of mains.
I've gotten shocks from 120 AC outlets a number of times and other than a surprise, it's never been a problem. The earliest I remember was unplugging an old power tool as a kid and the plug was actually broken, so when I grabbed it to pull it, I essentially grabbed both leads. Made me jump, but that was it. So - in that sense - unless you have heart issue or similar - accidently grabbing the terminals on a live 120V plug is mostly harmless. But - if you do something that makes you unable to let go of the live power, it's not going to end well.
Enjoy these outlet discussions. One thing to of course keep in mind is that there is always a cost benefit calculation to be done. The cost of a change to the US outlet standard, in any way that would break compatibility would be enormous. Thus the problem addressed would have to be a severe one. I learned about these the hard way at a very young age when trying to plug in a lamp behind some furniture, I must have touched the conductor with my fingers and got a painful 120v shock. Something I remember 40 years later and have been careful to never repeat. It hurt, but as in most of these cases the actual injury was minor. There isn't an epidemic of folks killed by this scenario, it has to be quite rare. It's also mitigated in more dangerous (potentially wet) locations by GFCI. As an aside, I recently was on a trip to the UK, and had the same issue with a sagging connection wanting to come loose in a London hotel. The issue was having to use an adapter to connect to that large Apple power supply putting a lot of weight on the connection. Frankly, the old design of putting the transformer brick in the middle of the power connection is better than hanging right on the plug, for that very reason. At home this is solved with a power strip, on the road that can be more difficult. Thanks again.
Backwards compatibility can be solved with adaptors as needed, and if adopting a Schoko outlet-plug, it also will be compatible with most European appliances.
Yeah those Apple power bricks are the worst for it with the US plug. It's something I was unprepared for while travelling the other way, as I'd only used them with the UK and EU ends attached. But since I had the travel kit I attached the US end. At first I was quite pleased with it being a genuine flush square when folded up, it legitimately saved space in my messenger bag. Then, it started falling out of every socket in every bus, bus station, train, and some pals' houses, every 30-60 minutes. I'm not surprised your US to UK adapter had the same problem, the prongs in those can be weaker even when new. (And maybe the adapter wasn't new!)
I have been shocked probably at least a dozen times from 110V -- none intentionally, although I did once work for an electrician who would test wires with a quick tap of two fingers to determine if they were hot. Getting shocked across two fingers on the same hand is much safer (e.g. less dangerous) than having your entire body be the circuit. I am now a big fan of non-contact voltage testers and I use one constantly when doing any electrical work. Just because you have a breaker turned off doesn't mean some dummy didn't put wires for a different circuit in the same box.
That "quick test" had been done in Germany, too. With (back than) 230V. No normal person would do it today anymore, we have even at least easy testers for the line, which has an large resistor between the small lamp and the contact, you might or might not touch for grounding. (Maybe its for smaller voltages, at a 240V line it works without and many dont even have the metal cap anymore.)
I am said Dummy! - And I shocked myself, even though I KNEW it was wired that way, because I wired it! - Kitchen 20A counter circuit, and overhead lighting circuit....same box...
non-contact testers don't always work but fluke makes good testers where you only have to have one of the leads touch a live wire and it starts beeping. (T90, T110, T130, T150)
Had a moment as a teen where I was definitely not paying as much attention as I should've as I was trying to plug in an appliance to a power strip. (Edit because I forgot it originally but I am in America.) Using the ol' dangerous tech of using my fingers as guides to find the holes and as i found them, i closed my fingers against the blades and shocked my right arm. Had no lasting effects but damn did my arm hurt as a result. It's kind of weird because I've had people down play and also worry too much about this story when I just see it as a dumb moment that I have to learn from. Great vid.
Yup, I think I was maybe only 7 or 8, but I still remember that tingly dead whole-arm feeling I got once while carelessly plugging in my trainset, even though it happened probably 45 years ago.
I don't know what you mean by 'worry too much', this is something that absolutely should not be possible and the fact that it still is seems like a huge problem to me.
@@simonvetter2420 "Lazy-Fare" (yes, i know what i did there) Capitalism, baby! We don't need no stinking regulations! surely consumers will choose to purchase only houses which have intrinsically safe receptables! oh. wait.
I had the same experience but my thumb was on the ground pin. To this day my right thumb, index, and middle don't quite move and feel the same as my left. It's very subtle but there.
@@simonvetter2420 It definitely isn't ideal, but I think there's just a sense of apathy when thinking about it since I know change isn't coming soon. Just kind of live with it.
The failure mode for worn-out UK outlets tends to be that they stop putting out electricity to the appliance. I've had that a few times. I've never had a situation where the plug becomes loose and starts falling out, though of course even it did, the insulated sleeves on the pins means that it wouldn't be dangerous. We do of course have two-pin outlets, in bathrooms. The pins there are positioned vertically, and I've never had a problem with them going loose either. Their shutter design is similar to what you demonstrated in this video.
Oh interesting I'd never heard of the 2-pronged ones! And here, as a fan of Techmoan, I would've considered myself familiar with all manner of British plugs...😋
@@dancoroian1 They are very specifically for electric razors (and, these days, maybe for electric toothbrushes?). They are typically next to, or built into, the bathroom miror, and they often have (or used to have - it's some years since I've seen one) a switch to choose between 120 and 240 volts output - so visiting Americas don't blow their electric razors! How many American visitors that use electric razors are expected to visit British houses, I don't know, but, even back in the 60s, lots of homes had them, and they are pretty standard in hotels and the more upmarket washrooms. I assume they are on a separate circuit to other sockets, with a smaller fuse/circuit breaker, so you couldn't use them for something else that draws more power and just happens to have a two-pin plug (two-pin plugs are rare in the UK, except of things like razors and toothbrushes - and sometimes hi-fi units, where they plug into the power supply of the main unit). On a side-note - in the UK, you will never find a washing machine in the bathroom - it is illegal to have a normal socket in a bathroom. This often baffles visitors from abroad, where washing machines are nearly always in the bathroom. My (Hungarian) mother-in-law, on her first visit was amazed to see our washing machine in the kitchen - "why isnt it in the bathroom?", she asked, "that's where they always go"!
@@paulhaynes8045 Meanwhile, here in the US, in my experience, the washing machine is usually in one of a few places: 1.) A closet or small room near the bedrooms. (Common in newer houses and many newer apartments/condos.) 2.) A laundry room or utility room in the basement. (Common in northern states where most houses have basements.) 3.) A closet or small room off/near the kitchen. (Common in houses without basements, and not unheard of in some with. Is sometimes a "mudroom" containing the back door to the house and some coat racks.) 4.) A shared, coin-operated laundry room down the hall from your apartment, or in your building's basement. (Common in older apartment/condo buildings, especially larger ones.) 5.) A laundromat down the street. (Common in older neighborhoods (esp. poor inner-city) where not every home has a functioning washing machine, and where older, smaller apartment buildings _don't_ have their own laundry rooms.)
@@paulhaynes8045 These shaver sockets (outlets) are supplied via an isolating transformer (whose primary winding is only powered while a plug is inserted) in lieu of RCD (GFCI) protection as with such a transformer there is no reference to earth (ground) and reduced risk of shock. As there is already this transformer, it's trivial to tap the winding at 120V to provide a 120V socket. To keep the transformer size & cost down, the conductor used for the windings is rather thin so that limits the current that can be drawn. With toothbrush chargers, there is a concern that certain shaver sockets are unsuitable for long-duration use due to the transformer getting too hot, something that was never a factor with shaver use, although I've never had a problem with mine. There is a rare species of 240V-only shaver socket that foregoes the isolating transformer (but usually have to be outside the bathroom as they cannot be installed in bathroom zone 2) - these would be absolutely fine for toothbrush chargers.
@@paulhaynes8045 UK shaver sockets in bathrooms contain an isolating transformer so you can't get a shock from them by touching the live pin and ground, via a metal tap for instance. The dual voltage thing is probably a consequence of that, since it's just another tap off the same transformer you might as well.
I taught industrial electrical safety for many years and I had an entire section on 120V shocks. Most Americans have experienced a 120V electrical shock (that is a process failure) and most Americans survive them. I postulated the reason for that is most people experience those shocks in a US manufactured home which is typically wood framing. So when they contact the live conductor they are standing on carpet or wood flooring on a wooden frame and the fault is through their feet. Grounding is terrible! I cautioned those working in industrial control cabinets and the like because the situation is very different. Working in a very well grounded electrical cabinet with steel everywhere on a hot summer day when you are sweating and your clothes are damp changes everything. Accidental contact with one hand while leaning on the steel cabinet can result in significant fault current across the chest. That scenario has a different ending.
I once got an unplesant 120v shock when I was installing a family members dishwasher. Turns out they turned off the wrong breaker, and the wires for a dishwasher are unshielded bare wires. Thankfully I was laying prone when I was reaching under to connect them, and I could feel it going into my hand and grounding into the tile through my elbow. It was hard to let go, and it gave me a good spook, but it was over in a matter of seconds, and I didn't wind up with any kind of burns or physical injury.
God I love this channel. Your style of being is so much like mine. It’s remarkable how often you’ll address exactly what I was just wondering about or thinking. I love your curiosity and enthusiasm. It’s just perfect. As I see you’ve already addressed, my whole life I’ve been frustrated by cords and bricks that won’t stay in the socket until you spread the blades to make the plug wider. Even that only helps to some extent. It wasn’t until your other video that I realized the problem is the socket not the cord or brick! So I replaced all my sockets. Double-benefit, they were all painted over and the new sockets looked amazing in comparison. I even got nice new plates that helped the whole room look a little classier. So, thanks! I’m shocked you’ve only been shocked by house current twice. When I was little I shocked myself many times. One time I put my hand into an empty socket on line to get into the Disney World Haunted Mansion. I’ve even done it recently when working on a power socket, even though the breaker was turned off. It turned out that the person who wired it took a weird shortcut that bridged two circuits. I never expected that! Thanks again I’m sure these shows are a ton of work, especially since you put so much effort into actual scientific method experiments. I really respect that. I work at the Thomas Edison Labs as a tourguide. We do a lot of study and classes. I haven’t yet checked the primary sources (that’s a task, since there’s such a huge volume), but I’ve often read that Edison chose 100 Volts for his bulbs and power grid specifically because it was unlikely to give you a fatal shock. And we’ve just kept it ever since. The reason this needs to be met with a little bit of skepticism is that, during the War of the Currents, he was trying to portray his grid and wiring as much less dangerous. Since there were prominent news stories of people being electrocuted by high-voltage AC power lines being haphazardly strung about, that was a good competitive message. Was he actually thinking about safety before the War? Maybe. Don’t know.
I always thought part of childhood was getting zapped at least once by a typical outlet. And you would learn to be really careful after that. It happened to me and was just part of growing up and a lesson you'd learn the hard way. And you learned!
Idk, I didn't have tp get shocked to believe and understand that electricity is dangerous. I don't understand how so many people got the idea to F around with power outlets as a kid...
@@LRM12o8I knew it was dangerous, but it took plugging in an old plug and not paying attention to my finger placement to truly understand you could get shocked without being plain dumb and sticking a random object in it.
I got up from bed an hour just ago and you already got me to watch 40 minutes of videos about wall sockets that I‘ve never even seen in the wild before bc they‘re literally from the other side of the planet. WELL DONE!
You are so right about 120 volts being safer then 240 volts. As a life long commercial sparky I have been shocked by 120, 208, 240, 277 & 5,000 volts from oil burner ignitors. Seemed to me that when voltage was doubled the intensity of shock was four fold.Fat & even taller people do better from being shocked due to higher body resistance. Have got a nice shock when only touching one 480 volt wire while soaking wet in a hot environment. Thanks for all the informative easy to understand U Tube vidios that you produced.
Worth noting that some UK outlets do require that all 3 pins are inserted at once for the shutters to open, rather than just the Earth/Ground pin, and yeah they can be a bit finicky if your angle is off.
I think you hit on something important about the whole shock thing. We, generally speaking, grew up being taught about outlet safety from young ages. I think most parents/adults even do some rudimentary supervision or practice handling plugs once they get of the ages that they are aware of plugs in the wall. I have recently done this, almost without thinking about it. It is almost like the other learned traits that we all carry on or pass along like holding a utensil, using scissors, and other innocuous everyday objects that when used in a manner other than intended could cause some harm. This is not a defense of our outlets, because they are bad, and I think most people agree they are bad, but we have adapted our teaching & learning techniques to adjust for it.
Agreed. I had vigilant parents so my upbringing contained a lot of 'Stop. Look at what you're doing. What happens if...' It certainly formed how I approach situations unconsciously as an adult. Of course they kept dangerous things out of reach and did the whole 'Hot, don't touch' thing as well when I was a toddler. Never from a fear standpoint, just learning to be safe.
When I was growing up, at one point, my father had an electrical inspector come by to make an assessment of our house before he did some electrical work. The inspector advised that the work Dad wanted to do would trigger an inspection that would require major electrical rework. I think Dad was intending on doing something a little more complicated than an outlet upgrade, but it wasn't much more than that. It might have been replacing an overhead fan and replacing some outlets. But whatever it was, it did include fixing some outlets and he didn't simplify the effort to just fixing the outlets after hearing the inspector's report.
Not sure where this was. Thankfully where I live I can do ANY electrical work on my own home, short of messing with the power main into the house, without an inspection. Though I usually hire an electrician if I need anything inside the breaker box done. Breaker boxes are full of unknown magic that kills you.
In the house I grew up in, we deliberately never let a licensed electrician inside. post and wrap spliced to two- and three-conductor Romex, grounded sockets that weren't, grounded sockets in the kitchen that were grounded to the pipes feeding the sink... next to one of the "grounded" sockets, about half the wall sockets were old non-polarized types, some push-button light switches, and a screw-in fuse panel that may have been installed before WW2.
@@TheSzalkowski That is the rule in Massachusetts. The owner of the home can do their own electrical work, but if someone else does it, they need to be licensed in the state. We also have many of our towns as "Right to Farm", where you can have a garden or (some?) livestock in your yard (chickens and rabbits I am sure are okay, no knowledge of other animals).
@@TheSzalkowski The unspoken rule where I live is essentially don't ask don't tell when it comes to permits and inspections. Unless you are changing the structure of the house itself, they don't want to hear from you.
It’s always interesting to hear how people describe how we get 120v and 240v from split phase systems. He’s close but not quite. It’s still a single phase.
It's mathematically equivalent to what one might think "two phase" should be, if that name weren't already taken by an obsolete system. I.e. two waveforms that are 120V to neutral nominal, and 180 degrees apart. It's just that rather than producing it with phase shifts, it is produced with center-tapping a single phase transformer and grounding the midpoint, to produce waveforms that are negatives of each other. In the ideal case of a perfect sine wave, it is mathematically equivalent to a 180 degree phase shift.
Hotels often have severely worn Outlets in any location accessible by guests. It is very hard to find outlets that are still usable in many Airports. Phones & Laptops are the main reason.
The loose plugs issue is mostly with wall-wart adaptors - not with corded plugs.. especially heavy ones will often fall out of a loose socket. It might also be more common for tourists who may be using a travel adaptor in front of a wall-wart adaptor adding to the weight and giving gravity more angular leverage against the socket.
"falling out" is a issue when you rent cheap apartment. I dealt with that being crazy engineer who found breakers (after I shorted wires with pliers) and replacing outlets to cheap new ones. This made HUGE difference. Before my TV power strip was even arcing during normal operation. Those may have been 20-30 yo. for what I could have known.
Although most British outlets only require something to be shoved in the earth/ground hole for the shutters to open, there are some which require both power pins to be inserted simultaneously, and even ones that require all 3 pins to open them (earth/ground first, then both power pins together) I believe the ones here that require only the two power pins to open them are no longer manufactured, and have been replaced by the type that requires all 3 pins to open And I believe European outlets have shutters that require both power pins to open
In the old days when equipment was not supplied with plugs it was possible (particulrly on the simpler power strips) to open the shutters with a key or screwdriver and just poke the bare wire ends into the socket to do a "quick test".
@@theturtlemoves3014 The MK sockets open on all three pins E & L & N. And their Metalclad range are double pole switched for safety. Seriously well built.
I've encountered plenty of loose sockets in airports and hotels where the plug falls out. The springs seem to wear out so that they don't hold the plug properly. This is more of a problem if you have something like a heavy 2 pin adapter plugged in (like older Apple MacBook adapters). Adding a ground pin to these plugs would solve this and make it stay in better Also, you're idea of putting shrink sleeves onto plugs in North America (from the previous video) is great. This should be something that should be required for new plugs and kits sold to retrofit to older plugs.
The feeling around for holes in the dark is something I do all the time. Especially for finding alignment. Though I live in the UK, so I usually fumble about poking holes on sockets until I find the vertical arranged in (which is the earth pin hole). Though it's less of an issue because a) shutters on all holes and b) sleeved L&N pins in the unlikely event a plug has become loose.
I fully agree with your "safer" argument. I don't know if you use 110V centre-tapped isolation transformers for site tools over there but we do over here (UK) for safety - I.e. It means that you're only likely to receive a 55V shock to earth unless you touch both live conductors. It can still kill you, but the risk is substantially lower.
While we don't have isolation transformers it's really just a temporary connection in place of the permanent grid connection....but that is the general concept, the set up for the North American power standards in residential homes effectively simulate a center tap transformer, an actual transformer out on the street provides 240v into the house and the neutral line which originates in the breaker box and is ultimately sent to ground effectively functions as the center tap and renders the 120v common in our outlets. It sounds more complicated than it is and I understand why most people have a hard time wrapping there head around it... check out 'kathylovesphysics' channel she has some excellent videos on how the North American grid is set up electrically, why it was done that way originally, and some of the benefits/issues.
As well said by alex, in NA this is 120V in reference to earth, not the 110V center-tapped transformer you've described. Safer implies it's somehow a bit safe in the beginning, which is not true at all. Less dangerous is more appropriate as it implies it's still dangerous and the risk is still here (as you said). Psychologically, this is like seing the glass half empty or half full, or using active/passive tense to make an emphasis. This is the kind of case where the subtext of semantics and choosing the right expression matters. Also his talk about the real danger of electricity and the circumstances for serious harm or death is a disgustingly dangerous speech. He really need to talk to professionals (both technicians and health workers) to fully get aware of the risks.
That is definitely NOT how our system works in the USA. We have the grounded (neutral) conductor and two 120 VAC that are 180 degrees out of phase. So, it is 120 V to ground and 240 V from hot to hot. That is how we get out dual voltage residential current. Commercial and industrial are typical;y done with 3-phase, but that is completely different.
In the US, the residential 120/240V system IS done using center-tapped transformers, i.e. the last transformer in the power distribution system that converts from 4KV (or whatever) down to 120/240V. Its center tap is bonded to ground at each building’s electrical service. I’ve never seen anyone do center-tap within the 120V, though. The use of GFCIs for outdoor circuits has been common for several decades now.
I live in Belgium, we use the same outlets as the French, which is a variation on the Schuko plugs used by the German and Dutch. I'm probably biased, but I think the Schuko and the French variation are the best designs. We have that same tamper-resistant shutter mechanism that doesn't require ground for it to work (unlike the British), the contacts aren't blades but round pins, having the ground pin at the top (French variation) has always been the standard so right angled plugs are the right way around, the outlets are recessed so unsleeved plugs with ground can't be touched while half-inserted deep enough to be live and ungrounded plugs are pretty much always sleeved for decades. Unlike the British we don't use ring-circuits so we don't have fuses in the plugs, and although they are a lot bulkier than the North American plugs, they are smaller and due to the round shape more elegant than the British plugs. Also we put the entire house on a 300mA GFCI, the 'wet' circuits on 30mA, and recently it has been mandated for new installations and rewires to have all user-interactive circuits spread across multiple 30mA GFCIs in the breaker box, so we don't have GFCI outlets.
Fully agreed, though I am used to Schuko (which is essentially the same, but grounding at the side instead of the extended pin). These plugs are great, especially considering the variety of Plugs that are compatible across the continent.
The French one is better, because it is polarized: you cannot plug it the other way. This may allow to have live and neutral on the same place (left or right)- I think the same is true for the UK
@@rizzulazzi Not really. For example, in Poland, the phase must be on the left side, in France and Belgium on the right. So it's only polarized if you don't visit other countries. And why would you care anyway, proper appliances(not chinese knof off brands) have double pole switches. Some places in France and Norway have 230 V between 2 phases and 133 V between 1 phase and ground.
We built our house and put in all TR outlets (they are code now, of course). I was so shocked by how much more secure they were than the outlets at our previous house, which was built in the 70s - they should probably be replaced
I had a 230v shock when I was young, in the UK. It was the early 70s, so not all sockets were as safe as they are now. Let me just say that it was PAINFUL. It certainly made me more cautious around mains sockets!
The "your plugs are falling out" is probably due to the fact that, at least from your footage it looks super easy to pull a NA plug. The EU plugs hold insanely well. If its a power strip you, 100% of the time, have to use two hands, one to hold the strip and the other to pull very strongly. If its a outlet you can use one hand but you still have to pull very hard. I would say its almost impossible to pull a plug with a cord on accident. You would have to pull with both hands and on the right angle plug there is 0 chance. You would break something before you managed to pull the plug with the cord. Compared to this your outlets seem super week.
Having stayed in hotels in the EU, I have to strongly disagree with you. You may be correct when the outlet is new and in good condition, and that is the same here. however your two prong outlets over there are just as prone to wearing out and becoming loose as our two prong outlets over here. No I'm not comparing to the giant three-prong UK plug, but those two round pins you have, old worn out outlets with those have trouble holding my travel charger just like outlets that are worn out at home.
I have also come across many a dodgy EU socket, including power strips, so they are far from perfect. That being said, they are still on average better at their job than NA sockets. And as for the UK/G-type aficionados out there: NO it is not better. Only different.
@@Green__one yeah but a charger is rarely grounded. so it doesnt take advantage of the full recepticle. and yes then you do have a similar problem to the american style. except the socket is still recessed and the charger prongs are sleaved and the tolerances are better.
@@Green__one Hotels may be a special case as people plug and pull and may even use nonstandard plugs. I have never seen a loose outlet myself. Some of my outlets are from the 60s.
The complaint about plugs falling out reminds me of my parent’s house, where an outlet in the bathroom won’t grip a plug at all. I had an outlet like that in my own home too when I moved it, but I got that replaced pretty quick and the new outlet is very tight. Seems that the more an outlet is used the contacts tend to get pried apart and loosen their grip, at least with older designs.
Sweden is mostly running on 3 phase 230V, which means phase to phase is 400VAC. Homes are fused 16-20A (3phase). Apartments are the exception and usually only have a single phaase. In regular homes, stoves are what is commonly ran on 3 phase. Heating can be 1 or 2 phase. And we also commonly wire with neutrals. Ex. 5 conductors, L1,L2,L3,N and PE. There is lots of opportunities to get shocked :)
When I was a kid, the tamper resistant was the whole reason I’ve messed with the outlet because I didn’t know what it did😂 I actually figured out that you had to put pressure on both of the holes and I got a small shock. lol
I still think it's funny that around things like electricity or knives I've all but never gotten hurt, yet door handles, counters and other seemingly non-hazardous things have hit me so many times that if they were rolled into one I would be hwiteboi soup by now 😂😂😂
My last manager did a lot of impromptu electrical work at our store, and his favorite thing to do was to scare the hell out of new hires by replacing outlets or switches without cutting the power. "It's just 120V! Barely a tickle!" Magnificent bastard. Never had a bum outlet for long in that store, though!
I once replaced a ceiling fan thinking power was off at switch. Since I told sister in law to turn switch off…Never got shocked but surprised when completed and went to turn it on at switch- she failed to turn off switch But luckily fans ship with pull chains in off. So no spark when connected wires…
@@KE5ZZOAlways always check for yourself. I trust nobody else. Doing electric wprk at home, I simply put the fuses in my pockets. (Yes I have old time screw-fuses),
If you have some money to burn and a wall outlet that's partiuclarly bad about falling out, consider "Hospital Grade" outlets. They're quite a bit pricier, but are designed to grip the plug far more strongly than standard or even commercial grade outlets. This makes them relatively resistant to the plug getting pulled or sliding out, and they also wear harder. The main problem is, naturally, they're a lot harder to plug and unplug, and inattentive use (grabbing the cord) will cause more problems.
I love hospital grade outlets. They grip harder, because you don't want a life supporting device's plug to accidentally get pulled out due to gravity or carelessness. In the IT field, sometimes these (orange) outlets are used for VIP networking devices and servers.
@@soundsparkno. An inverted green triangle on the face of the receptacle outlet means isolated ground. Receptacle outlets come in many colors that don’t necessarily have meaning
For backstabbing outlets: check out the Leviton Decora Edge outlets and switches. They basically have a built in wago levers. No exposed screw terminals or stripped wires.
Thank you much for explaining how tamper resistant plugs work! I've been wondering this after installing them all over my house for my baby. I still use plug covers with them, but ya know.
The weird thing is that you still see those plastic covers sometimes in the UK, where they add absolutely nothing to the safety features already built into the socket.
Yeah, and in fact on older socket designs that only need the ground pin inserted to expose live and neutral, they're actually *more* dangerous than having empty sockets, because they can be inserted upside-down which exposes live and neutral.
@@jkeelsnc I've had to do that before lol A Western Digital NAS I needed to get set up had a type c europlug, and I didn't have an adapter so I just got a plastic prying tool and opened the protective latch and shoved it in, worked perfectly but janky as hell 😁
I got a 240V shock from a frayed wire as a kid. Went all the way through my chest. Not sure if I have internal scarring still, but definitely some external scars remain. But eh, I'm alive. It was an interesting experience at least
Code here now is to have AFCIs in bedrooms, but a lot of electricians dislike them because it doesn't take much to trip them. Plug in a mini fridge for example and have fun. Anything with a motor will supposedly trip them.
been at least shocked once by the plug, thought a lot more with live lightbulb sockets(you'd be surprised how often I've ran into lamps without lightbulbs at home and thrift stores),as it was particularly stuck in the socket of a power strip. Made contact with both blades and got pretty gnarly shock, though not the worst shock I've felt. The worse has been from leaky currents on fridge handles or light switches/the screw holding the covers.
Back stab and back wire are quite different. Hearing the un-wired outlets rattle when you move them around makes me think you’re holding back *wire* outlets. Those you insert a straight, stripped wire into a space between the side of the terminal and a plate that is held in by the terminal screw. You then tighten the screw pressing the wire between the plate and the terminal. It’s easily done and undone, the contact patch is huge compared to the little tooth inside a backstab, and it can accommodate different wire gauges. I’d never use backstabs, but back wire outlets makes life much much easier than having to make a j hook out of the wire, especially in a replacement scenario where space is tight and/or the existing wires are short. Back wire also makes it easier to fall in “the pit of success” as a coworker once put it - there’s a correct orientation to the hook so that tightening the screw pulls in the wire. Does everyone remember to do that? Absolutely not. Making it easier to do the right thing means people do it more often.
The back wire devices are quite handy and I would think it would have the similar quality as a properly wrapped screw connection (always screws me up though when I already curled the wire ends.) I agree the "back stab" pathetic little finger just trouble looking for an opportunity. In 20 years on the tools I've learned and found either a back stab or wago-style push connector failed leading to a service call. Wrapped screw connections and twisted wires with a marrette rarely fail.
Here in the Uk 'we' are (or were) taught to arrange the loop under the screw so that pulling on the wire tightens the screw (and thus when doing it up, the rotation tries to loosen it). This reduces the risk of the wire pulling out and floating about.
We remodeled our house back in 1991, and tamper-resistant outlets were already mandatory at that time... I believe. It's also possible that they became mandatory in 1997, but we chose to install tamper-resistant outlets regardless because they are safer, and the price difference was negligible even back then. I remember my parents and grandma saying that these outlets were a bit more challenging to use than the old ones. You had to wiggle them a little, but you get used to it really quickly
re: plugs falling out. I find a horrendous number of outlets around where the contacts are stretched and won't retain the plug well. I'm always surprised by that as I'll replace an outlet at the first hint of loose contacts. When we moved into this house 24 years ago, the last thing I did before we moved was replace every outlet and switch. It turned out to be much more of a job than I expected -- house wiring was all 12 AWG and "backstabbed" into the back of the receptacles/switches! wouldn't fit modern (14 AWG) outlets so I had to bend every wire and use the screws.
Y'know what? Maybe part of why I don't encounter this so much is because I live in Chicagoland and our outlets are usually sideways. That really changes the forces involved as far as how the receptacle holds onto the blades.
@@TechnologyConnextras And I wonder what the effect sideways plugs as on plugs with especially large thick sheathing since, yeah, it is effectively bending the internal copper in a J shape. It is better than the shape you get with the inverted standard way (upside-down where it also STICKS OUT), but at least it is in-line with the appliance and not bending sideways like it often what people do with, say, computer cable management.
Thanks for the open discussion. To specify my comment on the main channel, when you plug in the behemoth of an adapter with a full fleged and straight euro plug, gravity pulls it out from a worn out hotel/motel outlet (the lamp outlets are a lot more worse as you mentioned). I now usually bring some duck tape with me when I am on vacation in the states to fixate my plugs. 😉
The problem with the backstab connection is they are using spring tension to bite the wire. That does wear out over time, especially if you remove and reinsert wires several times. Wago lever nuts on the other hand, due to their design, press down on the wires without relying on tension. The force the wire puts back on the connection could never loosen it. Some contractor grade outlets have connections that look like backstab holes, but still use the screw to hole the wire down. Those are totally fine to use and way more convenient for sure. An inexperienced person might use the screw terminals incorrectly too, in which case backstab is maybe better. But if you don't know what you're doing, you shouldn't touch electrical. Source: Me, electrician by trade.
Leviton recently (as in like a few months ago) released their Edge line of receptacles and switches. They've got lever connectors (Like Wago) instead of screw terminals, and alignment notches for when multi-ganging receptacles/switches together. Freaken awesome, if a little expensive. $3.50 each 15amp receptacle, or $25 for a 10-pack.
The screw-terminals' holes do often look the same, but are always are at the edge, slightly offset from the screws. The easiest way to distinguish screw-clamp-terminals from the spring-tension-type is how wires slip out with slightest bit of tension until the screw is *tightened.* Many times in this last year I've had to replace an in-wall device (GFCI, duplex outlet, quad outlet, timer, modem, etc.) and found that the builder/installer had simply never tightened a screw-terminal (or loosened them on one side until the screw seized in the open/captive position), resulting in a bad connection which slowly burnt the device after a few years. Since I've not yet been told of any housefires from this ( and have only seen it cause charring at one specific commercial location that was/is seemingly cursed with electrical fires ) I presume that it's a relatively -benign- -safe (if destructive)- contained failure mode. (edit:).. that most people avoid. (Agree;) and still prefer the screw terminals, because it's far easier to replace/maintain, and makes a stronger connection (when actually tightened) compared to the spring type.
If you compare the quality and design of the backstab contacts versus Wago push-on connectors, you'll see why backstab connections are not recommended.
In Germany virtually all outlets use backstab contacts today, only very old outlets use screws. I always assumed that better touch protection is one of the main arguments besides easier installation.
Regarding attaching the wires to the receptacle by "backstabbing" vs. screwing them down. I used to help maintain a building for a club, and the main guy who did any wiring always used receptacles that allowed wires to be inserted straight in without being screwed down ("backstabbing"). We had frequently occurring GFCI trips all over the place until I got tired of it and rewired every receptacle by screwing down the wires. No more nuisance GFCI trips. Also, the Wago connectors are NOT the same. You have to flip a lever over to secure a Wago connector, where backstabbing only relies upon the spring tension friction of the connector.
Backstabbing outlets is terrible. Even when "properly" installed, I've seen several arc and burn up the outlet. Wago connections are only popular because they are FAST and require zero skill to install. They're for lazy people and people who do "production" work, which prioritizes speed over quality.
@@stevenemert837 There is both sorts of Wago connectors, the ones with the lever (221 and 222) as well as backstabbing ones (2273). Maybe the backstabbing contacts used in US outlets suck, but I've never had problems with them here. I've even come across a circuit breaker that used a backstabbing contact for the output side...
The thing I remember always literally falling off the wall all on its own was the super heavy 2 prong gigantic Sega Genesis AC adapter. You literally could not insert it and have it be flush. As soon as you let go, the thing would pivot and the top pins would be exposed. It was just too heavy. And the few mm thickness the wall plate had was enough for the bottom of the adapter to hinge inwards toward the wall. Eventually itd just fall out.
I moved away from Chicago recently, The outlets at my new place have been confusing me and I had no clue why. They aren't sideways. Thank you for inadvertently scratching that itch.
Got zapped by the a copper water supply line for a swamp cooler that was acting as a ground. Didn't know it was until I separated it with 2 wrenches at which point I became the shortest path. Luckily I had a pretty sizable imbalance in muscle at that point in time and my back was stronger so when my muscles forcibly flexed rather than getting stuck and cooking my arms went to the side at full force launching the wrenches and disconnecting me which I genuinely believe saved my life.
Got zapped by rogue wire in a kitchen under construction (240v eu). Hit my upper right arm, and it made arm punch forward. As i was walking quickly it didnt last long luckily.
The backstab connectors are not comparable to wago-style connectors for one major reason. A wago uses an active clamping mechanism which provides a large contact area that is strongly retained. Backstabs use spring pressure only against a small contact area which then generates heat when used heavily and can result in loosening over time. Recently some outlets have become available which use a lever locked clamp system similar to a wago, and those should be equally good.
No, Wago is the manufacturer, who makes push-in connectors, lever connectors and a lot of other things. The lever connectors has a lever (duh!) that pushes the spring down to allow the wire to be inserted. When the lever is folded down, the spring will both push the wire into full contact with the busbar and bite into the wire, preventing it from getting pulled out.
Yeah, Wago also makes pure push-in connectors without levers (so do a lot of other well-respected manufacturers, such as Ideal, too), and those are generally considered entirely safe (and code-compliant). However, there is a question of how well it is actually built, which can make a big difference. There is no guarantee that the push-in connections on the back of the outlets are built to the same design/standard internally that Wago/Ideal/etc use, which I suspect is often the problem. However, it should be noted that all of the outlets I've seen with those "backstab" connectors actually tell you in the instructions that you _should not use them when you are daisy-chaining to another outlet or electrical run._ You should only use them if the outlet is at the end of the wire by itself. This is because the contacts inside them are only rated for the same load as the outlet itself, not the outlet plus other things as well. The problem is that almost nobody actually reads the instructions when installing outlets, so they often don't realize that going in one outlet and then out to another while using those connectors is wrong. IMHO, I think that the "backstab" connections are probably fine and perfectly safe if used according to the directions (only used for a connection that ends at that outlet and does not go on to anything else), but it's when people (frequently) use them wrong to chain from one thing to another that you start running the real risk of fires, etc. (Even so, I just never use them on principle, because it really only takes a couple of seconds longer to use a screw connection that I know will definitely be adequate anyway (especially for the good outlets that have the newer insert-and-clamp screw terminals).)
One other advantage of a wago is that you can visually inspect how well the wire has engaged (the magic of clear plastic). It is much easier for a sloppy installer to think a backstab is in correctly when it just is not (granted, a sloppy installer can also skip looking at the connector to see if the wire is actually fully in ...)
The reason that you NEVER use the bak stab connector for an outlet is that they generally tend to fall out over time. My father and oldest brother were both electricians. When they did service calls for dead outlets, it was the back stab connector every time.
My house was built in 1983 and all of the 15 amp circuits going to outlets use backstab connections. I’ve had four of them fail since I moved into the house. And when they fail, they usually fail intermittently. It’s a miracle the house hasn’t burned down.
I enjoyed these 2 videos, very informative and you have good points that while it's not as safe as say the UK Standard, it's also not as lethal either so no incentive to change much. Love what you're doing , can't wait for more videos on both channels!
I think you're right about the "affordance". If it was as dangerous as all the critics seem to think it is I feel like there would be a bigger push to change the standard. But changing the standard would also be a problem in and of itself given not only that it's been in place for literally a hundred years or so, but that the US is a pretty massive country. An undertaking like that probably isn't worth the effort for an issue that is, relatively speaking, kind of minor.
NA electrical stuff is so wild, I think just making some industry standard plugs would help since outlets could be designed around those specific plugs (and possibly shrouded like the type F outlets we have over here), although making that backwards compatible would be an absolute nightmare.
That right there, backwards compatibility is the exact reason why here in NA we just have the mindset of... ehh its fine go with it. the problem being our electrical standard is very old and at this point is so widely adopted that any change either takes forever. or makes no waves. for instance the change from two prong wall outlets to three prong wall outlets took years and ive been in houses that still only had two. the other, in america we have started providing 20 amp service for most electrical runs. all the breakers in my fuse box are 20 amp, but none of the outlets in my walls are 20 amp. they theoretically should be since the circuit can handle 20 amps, but nope all of them are nema 5-15R. really a safety feature that i myself tend to do, when i replace outlets. i will replace the first outlet in a circuit run, with a GFCI making all the outlets after that one, GFCI protected, i like this because if say i was to touch the prongs i wont get a severe shock. in fact it happened once where i did slip and touch the live prong, and i didnt even feel anything. the outlet just suddenly went dead with a click. its not code to do that and theres often arguments to not doing that. but for me its never really been any issue and id much rather have a malfunctioning appliance or something get disconnected via a GFCI over having to pull 20amps to trip the breaker. That feels safer to me anyway.
@@compzac The 20 amp circuit just means that the wiring in the walls won't catch fire before the breaker trips. The outlet rated for 15 amps means that any load plugged into it can't draw more than 15 amps and remain in spec. Effectively, the 20 amp circuit allows you to plug in loads up to 20 amps between all the outlets in the circuit without problems, though you're still limited to only 15 amps per load. There's very few appliances that use the winky face 5-20 plug so having 20 amp outlets wouldn't make anything better
Different areas tend to have their own industry standards. It's like how the US has ANSI and Europe has ISO. North American electrical connectors are standardized under NEMA and all North American outlets and plugs meet that standard. If you come over here with a Euro plug, it won't fit.
my dad has this old plug tester which i think is hilarious and cool. it is a screwdriver. a flathead screwdriver in the handle of which is embedded a simple plug tester, as well as a blue LED to indicate the plug status. fun thing too, the handle is clear resin to let the LED light through, but side effect is that you can see all the electronics in there, which is always cool. But yeah, that is an actual scenario where you are SUPPOSED to stick a screwdriver into the socket :}
Also, it is pretty rare to be really well grounded while touching the plug. Only if you are holding the equipment that you plug in and it is faulty, or if you touch a radiator. Floors and walls are good insulators. For those who don't know electricity basics, you don't get shocked touching a live wire if you are not grounded. Most often you get shocked between fingers of the same hand and that is rather harmless, just scary.
Reminds me of the poor squirrel that we used to watch occasionally at work while on morning break he would run back and forth along the main power lines amusing himself and once in a while jump over the horizontal spreader to continue along the power line at the top of the pole above where the transformer for the entire plant is mounted.... one day it was raining particularly hard and the little squirrel was apparently really feeling frisky bounding down the power line 'playing' and for whatever reason decided to bound across the spreader from lines to line .... brilliant flash of light, extremely loud bang (the kind you can feel in your chest) every light in the plant flickered and no more squirrel.... gone in a 'blaze of glory'....
@@alexlail7481 This happened to one squirrel who was climbing on top of one of the (actually explosive, yes) fuses above the house transformer. Loud bang, falling squirrel, but later the squirrel got up and ran off. Expensive squirrel, at least for the local electric company, as they had to send out a guy with a ladder truck and new fuse..
@@noyb7920 that's more what I would have expected... but the plant I work at is at the end of a branch circuit in a former residential area and the service has been maxed out for decades on regular single phase power and the company I work for and the Power company are kind in a stand off ... if we need any more power the company will have to pay to update the branch line to supply 3 phase power and higher current... If any of the businesses ahead of us increase their needs the power company or that customer will need to pay 🤔.... anyway I believe I was told we have something like 3,000 Amp -4,000 amp service@ 480volts (I could be wrong) and I guess that would vaporize an unsuspecting squirrel....
@@alexlail7481 This is why power lines should have more clearance or be insulated(yes, covered aerial conductos have existed for over 60 years). Unfortunately power companies will choose the cheapest method until there is a law mandating safer design.
@@mernokimuvek I understand your point but its not quite that simple... there are many reasons why lines are usually bare and cost is definitely a factor but not the only one.
I honestly was curious to know the different types. I'm in Europe. The entire outlet is a hole + most "prongs" are plastic and only the tip is metal. The fact that it is a hole makes the entire edge of the plastic cable been supported by the "hole" and therefore it wears out less. I was curious to see if other places do it better
@@elpolaco7654 Oh that’s because I live in weird Denmark, where we have our very own version. Compatible, almost, but with an earth-pin on the plugs. We also have some plugs without the sleeved prongs, but the recessed plugs makes the “falling object”-danger for yanked plugs almost non-existing.
The biggest danger is in selecting the right mushrooms to understand the second half of the video where we are getting into things "tripping out". Just kidding, as always I love it. Yes even if "only" 120V more can be done! I am a survivor of using a knife to free toast from a Sunbeam Toastermatic (Lol I have 5 now) as a young kid when I figured the power was off to the element. the 1890's house had active and neutral reversed and the poor toastermatic (and knife) copped 240V! As a 10 year old I'd figured the element shouldn't be live but that outlet was wired backwards so some melting and sadly toastermatic destrucition occurred! The last house I rented had sockets from different eras in every orientation. Truly egalitarian!
My first home was build in the 50s and had no ground wires. The little work I had to do was always weird to me because of the quality of the wires. MUCH thicker gauge and solid copper with the extra thick fabric wrap over the insulating wrap to the wires, which made the wires that much more fun to manipulate (almost always had to use pliers to bend them.) In my current home (70s built) almost all the outlets are connected via that quick plug-in the back. We had an issue right after we painted a room (correctly removing all the wall plates) that afterwards occasionally the lights in ANOTHER room (the adjacent hallway) would not work. Turns out having jostled one of those outlets had exposed a weakened spring that was holding one of those wires and it was the last of a trunk line before being used to light the hallway. Replaced the outlet and fixed it. Since most of the rooms in this house have 2 breakers, one for outlets and one for lights, I don't have any clue why it's wired that way. By far not the worst wiring issues I've found, either; my favorite was a splice into a line running in the attic, they didn't use a box, or even cut the original wire, just cut back the insulation and wound the new wire around it and taped it up and called it a day. While it did work, and since the home had, magically, not burned down in the 40 years before I owned it, I can only assume it was 'safe-ish.' But I fixed it. Remember, and this probably applies to the quality of outlets in general: There is no solution more permanent than a temporary solution that works.
When studying for my General Class ham license back in 1999, I learned that our “120-volt” outlets are actually 340 volts peak-to-peak. That is to say the AC wave swings from 0 to +170, back to 0, then continues to -170, before returning to 0, completing the cycle. “120” is the root-mean-square (RMA) voltage, which describes the equivalent heating of a DC supply. RMS is 1/2 the square root of 2, or to put it another way, 70.7% of the peak voltage of one side.
Okay, regarding loose plugs - it just occurred to me that since my lived experience is mostly around Chicagoland where outlets tend to be sideways, that may be why I have so rarely encountered problematically loose plugs. In either vertical orientation, it's really only side-friction that's holding onto the blades. But when it's sideways, weight from the cord is sort of jamming the blades against the contacts. Perhaps we've been right all along... (though neutral should probably be on top)
@@TargetedMarket I don't know how you came to the conclusion that I'm used to new construction when I said I've lived in plenty of old places with old receptacles. Chicago wasn't built after electrification, y'know ;)
The only loose vertical plugs I've seen (outside of public spaces like airports) are with receptacles that are old enough they're probably out of code anyways. And my home was retrofitted with knob and tube wiring after it was built. To give a sense of how old it is
@@blakebrockhaus347 I doubt they're out of code. Electrical codes very frequently grandfather older stuff. But installing one of those loose outlets today hopefully is covered somewhere in the code.
Yes, they are less of a problem when mounted horizontally, but I recall some of the outlets at my grandparents' place having virtually no grip. One in particular had a table situated right by it at just the right height for a cord plugged into its lower outlet to rest on the table specifically so the plug wouldn't fall out of it. The outlet above it was deemed a lost cause, though I recall my brother trying to plug a radio into it by sitting the radio by the outlet and running the cord over the radio. (It didn't work for long, as the weight of the cable running down the other side of the radio was enough to pull it out over the course of a minute or so.)
That said, I'm not sure they needed to be out of code. My grandparents changed brands of outlets after learning how much of a problem those cheap outlets were. They were teenagers in the Great Depression, and even they splurged on better quality outlets - but not enough to replace any of the original outlets they'd bought. And I mean not any. The house which only had some of those outlets was their newer house, built on the same property as the first one. The original house they'd built only had the no grip outlets. Fortunately, it was barely livable in so many ways as soon as they were able to afford a redo they did, and we virtually never visited the older house. We certainly didn't use the electrical outlets apart from testing their grip, just to marvel at what our grandparents put up with.
@@edgrimm5862 ok, to be anally correct. They wouldn't be up to code if they were made today. Meaning they should probably be replaced anyways
@@TechnologyConnextras Where is Chicagoland? Do you actually refer to Chicago instead?
A note on your tangent, in my time on being an electrician, I've been shocked a few times:
At 24V DC I noticed I was being shocked, it was disconcerting but it really got scary when I noticed I couldn't let go.
At 48V DC I was mostly just embarrassed that it happened.
At 120V it's a jolt, sometimes accompanied by a muscle spasm, mostly get angry.
At 277V there are usually burns, it's VERY painful, I yelped and inadvertently jumped off the ladder.
In conclusion, people are usually shocked when they find out I'm not a very good electrician.
Not as shocked as you were.
@@ynotw57 Don't do this in Europe, you'll be welcomed by 400V ! (tree phase 240/400 not an industrial but an household thing you can encounter in 9Kw full electric range)
@@lapub. three phase? No thank you.
3 phase is the shit. been give my boss shit becouse they put split phase in at work @@ynotw57
You couldn't let go of 24V DC? As an automation technician I literally handle it every day, to feel 24V DC you would have to lick it with your tongue.
I got told those blanks were to keep the socket monsters in the wires. One of the highest quality lies I have ever been told.
yeah, they keep the angry pixies from getting out of the socket, lol.
It almost isn't even a lie. Electricity can be one hell of a dangerous monster.
That is a lie- they're there to contain the vapors.
I was told the plug would bite me. Don't put keys in the outlet. I didn't need to be told I found out the hard way. At four years old I got bit at the electricity bug. Funny thing I made my own extension cords not long after. I Always told people I been playing with electricity since I was four. Few bites along the way. 73
The blanks can be dangerous to remove though when you need to remove one.
As overprotective parent, who happened to be an electrician, I put a GFCI in line with the circuit for my daughters bedroom. It actually saved her from a shock when she played with a nightlight (on a tamper resistant outlet). She got a very light shock before the GFCI tripped a millisecond later, possibly saving her from a severe shock. I would HIGHLY advise GFCI protection for children's rooms.
RCD protection should be on every circuit with user-accessible outlets. 30mA RCDs like that have been legally required in Germany since 2007, and it's getting more and more common to put a 10mA RCD on bathroom circuits.
@@ska042 You're gonna confuse the yankees with your euro talk, lol. They now require ACFI circuit protection almost everywhere, but only GFCI (RCD) protection in wet areas, or basements. Code hasn't expanded GFCI protection in decades, except to only recently expand to 220v devices outdoors. An overprotective homeowner can add GFCI protection anywhere he wants though (though nuisance tripping is common).
@@ska042 You can't substitute good practice. Don't ever touch the prongs when even close to the receptacle, and you won't ever have a problem.
We added a ground conductor to our circuits because no amount of good practice could prevent electrocution from wiring faults (we needed a separate ground from neutral because of the cases where the neutral conductor loses its ground connection, resulting in that neutral going hot if something was plugged in).
We added GFCIs to wet areas because no amount of good practice could stop water from splashing when using it, which could get in the receptacle, possibly exposing power to the outside of it.
We don't need GFCIs on every receptacle circuit because there are no problems it can solve that good practice can't solve better (in dry areas). Plus, they're more expensive and prone to false trips.
Arc fault breakers are even worse, since they only trip _after_ the arc happened, and arcs usually only happen when somebody is plugging or unplugging something that draws a high inrush current. If the idea is to prevent house fires, it doesn't do a good job because it doesn't prevent arcs from happening. Not only that, but if you were plugging in an aforementioned device, you will trip the breaker when there was no threat posed, forcing you to go and reset it every time. If these breakers are on whole circuits rather than individual receptacles, then you would end up cutting power to everything on the circuit because of a little arc. I hope you have a UPS for your computer(s).
@@RAndrewNeal "You can't substitute good practice. Don't ever touch the prongs when even close to the receptacle" is funny because that's pretty much made impossible by many good plug/receptacle designs around the world, so that good practice has already been replaced, or at least made mostly irrelevant.
The "false trip" thing almost always comes down to semi-defective or mis-designed devices. When adding RCDs you notice these things that previously slipped through. Personally I haven't had a false trip for the last 10 or 15 years having only lived in places with RCDs in the breaker panel, like 90% of the people in this country, but I guess YMMV.
An RCD limits the damaging potential of a shock if it does happen - and let's be real, that will never stop happening even in places that aren't wet, no matter how much we advocate for "good practice", so that alone is enough to justify it in my book. A shock is still very dangerous, but on a circuit with an RCD you've got a much better chance. RCDs also catch defective devices that may be potentially dangerous but don't let large currents flow to ground instantly, which would trip a normal breaker.
I have no opinion about arc fault breakers, never seen one in person to be honest. They're very uncommon here.
@@RAndrewNeal OK, good luck educating toddlers on "good practice."
My thoughts on the whole "plugs falling out thing": Visitors from other countries and continents are likely to encounter US-style plugs in hotels. My personal experience has been that I've only encountered dangerously loose outlets in hotels where the outlets get the most use and abuse.
The bedside/desk lamps that have an outlet with square black plastic trim are always the absolute worst, I've never encountered a single one that wasn't incredibly loose even in new hotels so I'm inclined to think they're really that bad from the factory.
I second that. I’m in hotels and on planes all the time for work and they wear out so fast that they are almost universally worn out whenever you try to use them. On a hotel bedside table, if a plug stays in an outlet well enough to even maintain an electrical connection, it’s cause for celebration.
I think it's a combination of "two prongs feel less secure than three prongs" (understandable since there are fewer points where the plug is gripped by the socket) and maybe that hotel sockets are likely to be the type that accept all conceivable plugs and therefore have much wider tolerances.
He said about the hotels in the video.
I think it might also be down to the use of travel adaptors. The extra mass, bulk and sometimes poor design of adaptors (many "universal" ones have rotating flat prongs designed for both US and AU/NZ sockets, the latter of which don't have different widths for the live and neutral pins) combined with a heavier plug can make it more prone to pulling away from the wall when jostled.
The real pro tip is to use commercial outlets in places you frequently use. 9/10 outlets get used a handful of times you own the home. You plug in a lamp when you move in, unplug it when redoing the floors, again when you buy new furniture, and again when you move out.
But everyone has a couple outlets that get constant use, you plug in the vacuum to the same outlets because the cord reaches the most places. The iron/hair dryer gets used in the same position. Those are the ones that wear out.
The commercial grade ones cost maybe 300% more, which sounds shocking (zing) until you realize it's an extra $2 or so. And has beefier metal clamps to hold your plug in. You don't need to replace all your outlets, just the ones you frequently use. We've all got a select handful, so the total cost to have better outlets is likely < $10.
Not only are they more heavy duty, but they’re also so much easier to install nicely because they have those plates on the screws that mean you don’t have to hook the wires and you don’t have to pushwire.
The outlets I mess with the most aren't even part of the house. One is an eight-outlet power strip, and the other is one of those blocks that covers the outlet and splits the two outlets into six. So I'm not sure where that leaves me.
screw it, go full hospital grade lol
Midline receptacles everywhere. One hospital grade on the shelf. As soon as one of the cheaper ones wears out, replace it with the good one. And then put a new hospital grade receptacle back on the shelf on the shelf... 35 years in this house and hospital grade #3 is still on the shelf. The 2 I replaced are not the ones I thought they would be.
@@stevethepocket Yup, the one I plug and unplug the most is on my computer's UPS, on the side _without_ battery backup. My UPS sits on my desk, behind my monitor ... and is the easiest-to-reach place to plug in a fan or a vacuum cleaner in that room.
A likely former champion is a few sockets over on the same UPS -- where my phone charger stays plugged in 99.99% of the time. I don't unplug it anywhere near as often since I got a new phone with a longer-lasting battery ... and left aftermarket chargers in my car and at my dad's house.
To me (a Canadian), the “plugs always falling out” issue is very real for one specific kind of plug: cheap phone chargers. Their blades tend to not be oriented, they often have a swiveling design, and I tend to use my phone while it is plugged in, which makes it one of the few cords that get tugged. Since those phone chargers are cheaper than an adapter, I imagine that most tourists do what I do when going abroad and buy a local phone charger, only to be faced with the frustration of them always falling out, especially in those hotel desktop receptacles that you mentioned.
American here, You are 100% correct!
If you mean the ones they sell in convenience stores for entirely too much money, and are just two prongs and a USB port, absolutely. Not only are they not oriented, they tend to have smaller blades anyway. Combine that with the hotel receptacles that are already loose from being used more than normal, and yeah, they almost always fall out.
I can totally agree, for most cases. granted i am a little different in that i tend to try and avoid using my phone while charging. i just would when its plugged in not jostle and wear out the USB connector on the phone prematurely. but in the case of i am using it. the way i avoid the problem, i use longer cables and if say im not near a wall i will buy the chargers that come with a plug and wire, something where instead of the charger being a wall wart you jam directly into the wall its got a cord with a standard plug. That or i just use portable power banks for when im charging while moving around the house, and will plug those into the wall warts since. well you aint gonna use them when they are charging.
but i think the whole plugs falling out of the wall thing kinda stems from wall warts, especially the older big chonky boys that weighed like a pound, i do remember those often pulling loose and in some cases becoming a great advertisement for replacing an outlet when they would refuse to actually stay in the wall and just flop right back out again.
@@OtakuUnitedStudiothey are all 2 prong. I've never seen a 3 prong USB charger.
yeah, Been to a lot of public places where people use outlets a lot... Colleges, lounges, because it's only one screw, The plate and sockets are literally falling out. And I also agree with the international adapters. Sometimes when I order items online, they come with the wrong plug (usually a europlug) and yeah. europlug adapters fall out. cuz they're cheap. they're not meant for normal use. and i will only use them until I get a replacement.
When I was an infant, my mother discovered that putting blanks in outlets made me want to play with them, but if she left them empty, I would completely ignore them. I was a strange child.
oh same. there's a bunch of outlets everywhere. they're boring. but now they have STUFF IN THEM? gotta see what that's about!
I, too pried blanks out of outlets - with a screwdriver (the European ones need a special tool to remove from the recessed plug). I got a stern talking to and my parents then removed most of the visible ones and I ignored the outlets since.
My oldest was the same. I just never used them with my other kids and they just ignore them.
Having been shocked both in the US and in Peru, I can say that the shock from the higher voltage is worse because I genuinely thought I was going to die for maybe a minute afterwards. The shock in the US just surprised me and effectively woke me up because I got it when I had just woken up so all it really did was remove my need for a morning cup of coffee. The one in Peru instantly blasted me physically all the way across the bathroom and made my heart flutter.
"Baristas hate him! Wake up cheaply with this crazy trick!"
I’ve been hit by 277V before and it’s not even close to what 120V feels like. We were removing some lay in lighting and a 277V neutral that lost its path to ground fell and landed on my hand, which grounded to the ceiling grid. Took me a few minutes to recover after that one, nowadays I would recommend anyone who gets hit by 240V+ or even 120 just if they feel bad to go to the ER and get an EKG done.
I’ve worked with voltages from 480/277, up to 69,000V. The medium and high voltage stuff is always scary, but everyone knows if you get hit with it you’re dead. Everyone takes caution, tests their gloves and sticks, doesn’t go “hands on” primary until it’s been tested dead and **grounded**.
I would guess more people die working on 480V than medium voltage. Everyone takes it casually until something goes wrong
I've been shocked by 120 probably about 10 times now. It really isn't that bad. One time my skin got a little burned and the worst one caused some minor nerve damage in my hand. I respect 120 and I fear anything higher.
Once when I was old enough to know better I happened to be sitting against the wall by a 120V outlet that had its socket guard chipped so you could get significantly more finger in what should've just been a slot. After a few minutes of idly feeling around it the thing bit me (bit of a hot buzzing sting) and I stopped messing with it, but it was mild enough that nobody in the group I was with noticed that I'd gotten shocked.
@@MrSamsamsammylet alone, there is 480V in every three phase supplied house but medium voltage is always somewhere in the street behind locked doors.
Pro tip: if you're wanting to cleanly and quickly cut through plastic, use an ultrasonic knife. We use them in our lab all the time and it turns plastic into butter and makes for wonderfully clean cuts.
They’re so expensive tho :( like $300
Guess those are fancier versions of sonic screwdrivers.
Just an FYI, the staples used in construction stable-guns, for things like installing insulation or vapor barriers (or a myriad of other uses), fit between the two slots of a standard outlet very nicely. And produce some spectacular sparks. Don't ask me how I learned this... lol
Too bad you said not to ask… I bet it is an interesting story!
Paper clips make spectacular sparks as well. A friend showed me this in seventh grade English class.
@@davidroddini1512Well I'll just say that after that incident, the dog was always afraid of lightning. His 'rump' is where the staple landed. :)
Yikes! Especially considering most staple guns are made of metal, including the handles...
@@chitlitlah This must be why so many school outlets have scorch marks.
Talking of changing the outlets reminded me of a hack that everyone should do. When you paint a room, take off the light switch faceplate and put a label on the back of it specifying the paint color of the room. That way in 5 years when you want to touch up the room, you'll know what color to order.
Brilliant! 😃
Well that's bloody brilliant
Assuming the company you bought the paint from hasn't completely changed their color selection to force you to repaint the whole room.
Or just keep the paint tin and label it? You should take off light switch and socket face plates anyway when decorating (or at least loosen them enough to paint underneath them), then replace them when the paint has hardened. It looks SO much better than trying to paint round them.
@@paulhaynes8045 youl end up with random paint cans in your garage and the labels fade over time.
I was about 7 when I learned which breaker was for my bedroom. Much later in my 30s I visited my parents and they remarked how all the outlets in my childhood bedroom had scorch marks. I went and looked and was amazed that I was still alive. I was one of those kids that at about 13 years old my favorite toy was a 7.5kV neon sign transformer that I would make Jacobs ladders out of. I only got bit a few times by that. It felt like getting dunked in ice water, if you were wondering. No, I never told my mom.
Reminds me of when I blew my hearing out of one ear for 30 minutes
this is insane lmfao
Mehdi (Electroboom) nearly died from a Jacob's Ladder. I think it was his 1 million subscriber special where he built it. Of course the most likely way for tinkerers to die is by playing with a microwave transformer, incredibly useful for many projects but also incredibly dangerous.
One cause of the scorch marks is also from people yanking plugs out by pulling the cord instead of at the plug. It creates weakness in the connection inside the plug and eventually you get a fantastic arc when you send power through it one time. My mother-in-law used to pull out cords this way and blew several outlets.
I wired the high tension from the TV set in my room up to the metal venetian blinds. My friend from school still talks about it to this day. Yes, I did get between the HT and ground. Once. The reason the TV survived that abuse is because it was a BW Valve TV set.
You've hit on the reason most folks HATE the TR outlets, they prevent easy, legitimate access.
Also, I prefer the conversational style of this video.
As a grown-ass adult of forty years, I LOATHE TR outlets. It’s a fight _any_ time I want to plug something in. It’s never the same angle or amount of force twice in a row, even with the same device. I have very limited outlets in my kitchen and often have to swap things in and out. TR outlets make it take ten times longer than it actually should, every single time, because I have to stand there just fighting the damn outlet to let the plug in.
One other advantage of TR receptacles is that dirt is far less likely to get into them. When I installed backsplashes in our kitchen the original ivory receptacles looked dirty next to the primarily white tile so I bought a box of white TR receptacles to replace them with. Most of the receptacles I removed can be re-used but a couple (especially the one near the stove) were so full of "kitchen deposits" that they were disgusting and went straight into the E waste.
Paraphrased:
Odo: You'd stab an outlet in the back?
Garek: Well it's the safest way, isn't it?
Plain, simple Garek
I also think that for people not from the US, airports are one of the first places they might endeavor to plug something in...and those outlets have been used and abused to a degree where I find stuff is constantly falling right out especially stuff that sticks out far and weighs a bunch, like say, a 5v USB power supply with a UK-US adapter on the end. I agree that for US home it's essentially a non-issue or a easily remedied one, it's a clear issue in places that have large throughput!
those airport outlets shouldn't even be used they're so bad, I'm pretty sure that is a feature for them so people don't use electricity. I'm sure that saves them all of 50k/yr a CEO can use to gas up his yaught's smaller yaught for one weekend.
The USB ports are 90% just plain unconnected (don't plug anything other than a battery charger into a public USB btw).
yeah, this ^ every airport plug I've tried to use is beat to shit and barely grabs the prongs at all
I lived in an OLD house as a kid.
Screw-in plug fuses, post and wrap wiring in most of the house, push-button light switches still in a few rooms.
Some of the outlets were quite worn, and to be able to make electrical contact when plugging in things we had to bend the prongs on the plug inward a bit.
-
When we started getting enough household income to do so, we replaced those loose outlets and all but one set of the push-button light switches (because you had to find JUST the right dwell point to have an electrical connection).
Yeah, that song is so right. I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger.
The UK-US adapters really don't help as the weight is much further away from the wall. I struggled to keep my phone charger seated when charging in the US
@@railotaku Yah, in that case, you might be better off getting a US-pronged charger of decent-enough quality.
I lived in both the Netherlands and in NYC, and I do recognize the complaint about the loose plugs, even with new plugs and sockets. European plugs feel a lot more secure and I think it's because the plug in the EU is not just held in place by the pins, but also a significant amount of plastic. This makes EU plugs feel a lot more secure. Again, not always, because of course not. Especially "Type F" feels really solid.
Yeah, our European Shuko connectors feels a lot secure because they are, vastly superior :)
@@Robinlarsson83 Still somebody say that UK-s are better because they are polarized but Shuko don't kill your legs when you step on them at night.
Also that polarization don't give any benefits on safety for safety there is ground.
@@Robinlarsson83 It all depends. I live in Canada, and there are different grades of outlets and plugs. In homes, we typically only see three types of outlets the first being these 15A (or 20 A) NEMA receptacles, second for our clothes dryer, a dual-voltage device and third, a stove or range plug, looks similar to the dryer one and has similarities to the UK standard where it's this big bulky device that you don't want to accidentally step on. The bigger range and dryer receptacles and plugs also require quite a bit of force to insert and disconnect. That said, the smaller 15 and 20 Ampere receptacles have different grades. The most basic is the residential grade then you can go up to spec and commercial and then there are specialized versions for different environments. Anything above Residential is something I would put in my house if it ever came to making that choice. There is one NEMA standard set that even blows most Euro-plugs out of the water and that's the locking type. Mostly seen in commercial and some industrial settings as well as theatre, this standard will not feel insecure in the least. Also, depending on the plug and receptacle type, they are often double or even 5x the price of the standard ones. Around here (Canada), most people would see these being used on their generators.
Sometimes they hold too well and you really gotta pull on the plug to get it out
My physics teacher taught me, a long time ago, always keep one hand behind your back when when working on a live circuit.
Thank you, Mr. Lutey!
I was told that too.
I'm going to be honest as an electrician it doesn't really help. You really do need both hands to manipulate a receptacle especially with 12 gauge wire. I suppose it can be applicable in a panel as most tasks can be accomplished with 1 hand.
@@jacewhite8540 Would you really be installing the receptacle when it's live?
@@majorramsey3k depends on situation, new construction no, service call probably, hotel remodel definitely.
I'll typically but one hand down the back of my pants (palm facing out, thumb outside) and use it to hold onto the waistband. I don't let go until I've completed whatever I'm working on. (I am not an electrician.)
Hi, a European here. I also did a few stupid things with outlets and ceiling lights. I got 230V through my hand (just two fingers on one hand touching the wires) and then I also got zapped from one hand to the other. The second instance shocked me through the heart and I just shook it off. I guess I was - one - lucky as hell and - two - zapped for a really short time. I never really got shocked just by touching one wire. Meaning I was never properly grounded, I guess (except for punitive measures from my parents). What I mean by these anecdotes is that even 230V won't kill you right away on every touch. And while by pure numbers it should be twice as bad, in my head, they're really in the same ballpark as far as safety goes. It's not 22kV (typical mid-range power lines in my country) which will fry you instantly, and neither is it a 9V battery which tingles the tongue.
@@phillipbanes5484 You know, stringing together English words does not make the result English.
To answer the part that was comprehensible: "A European" similarly to "an American" designates an inhabitant of said continent. Try Cambridge dictionary. And scroll down to a noun definition. You can tell a noun by the article in front of it.
I've encountered some really loose wall receptacles in hotels in the US. I assume it's because they used the cheapest possible receptacles and they're having things plugged in and removed very frequently. When I moved into my grandparents' house in 2005 (with original 1954 receptacles) there were several that were very loose. So of course I just replaced them all. But yeah, I don't think I've ever encountered loose ones in a house that was less than forty years old. And I've never seen loose ones in a commercial building outside of a hotel.
Yep. I assume it is visitors to the US staying in hotels that typically have _extremely_ crappy outlets that are often loose or might not even work at all.
I had a modern, freshly renovated apartment with brand new outlets. Every single one was loose from the manufacturer.
My house was built in the mid-2000s, and most of the outlets were already loose when I moved in in 2019. They were all really cheap and only had back connectors that wouldn't release, which made replacing them a lot of fun.
@@Javaritto Unless you buy "commercial grade", outlets (and switches) have been junk since the 1990s.
Yes when i lived stateside, I worked doing Motel maintenance for 2 yrs, when i first started almost ALL the outlets were incredibly loose. A lot of the issue is also the cleaning staff using them... every day the vacuum gets plugged in and out probably quite violently. First thing I got the owner to authorize was me replacing EVERY single one of the outlets. I replaced with commercial grade.
I remember getting shocked as a kid, around the same age with the same experience. Fumbling around in the dark to plug in a charger at night and was trying to touch the wall to find the holes while guiding in the plug. Wouldn't be surprised if that is the most common reason people get shocked
This is why most places with 240V and regulations have plug standards that have the back half of the pins shrouded in plastic, or the entire socket is recessed e.g. Schuko and the like.
@@Broken_Yugo too bad a lot of things, especially cheap chargers from China, don't follow that rule. When I was a child I got shocked doing basically the same thing, except it was a lamp. It being a Type C Euro charger did nothing.
I've been shocked twice. Once, as a kid, while paying no attention whatsoever, plugging something into an extension cord. I was being ham-fisted, grabbed the plug, and touched both blades with my finger. It got my attention! But that's it. No harm done, and lesson learned ... for about ten years.
Then, I was trying to plug a big wall wart transformer into a power strip, behind a desk, where I couldn't see the plug. I was having trouble finding the alignment and didn't realize how close my fingers were to the blades. When it found the socket, I brushed the pins for a brief moment, and learned the lesson again. Cage rattled for a moment, but otherwise perfectly OK.
And that hasn't happened since, knock wood. So yeah: We learn to be careful, and the reminder is usually just momentarily unpleasant.
I was plugging in an NS brick into a power strip here in Aus, and must have had my finger between live and neutral (in physics we learn negative and positive). Even back then I usually turn off the outlet before plugging things in, mostly to avoid the prongs being burnt as the oxygen combusts (arcing I think). I currently have a power strip which has switches for each outlet, and I honestly have no idea why that isn't the standard.
@@JACKHARRINGTON probably cost
I have actually seen a foreign object in outlet issue in my home. We had a nightlight with some jewelry hangers directly above it. A chain necklace fell and landed on the exposed outlet pins, and apparently exploded. Apparently it was high enough resistance that it did not trigger the breaker. Fortunately other than a traumatized 4 year old, there was no damage.
more likely, it failed so quickly, it did not trigger he breaker. breakers take a full 60th of a second to start to trip, while a fuse (which is what the jewelry turned into) can fail within a 120th of a second. it's why some high energy applications still use fuses.
The outlets near my desk at work were always black due to wiseguys sabotaging my plugs with conductive material. I just ignored it and they eventually lost interest in that particular stunt.
Scary 😮
Removal of conductive material above outlets is a best practice and policy in care facilities. A couple awareness pushes in the last 20 or so years. Some older fixtures like wall lights or fans have conductive pull cords (or sections of) often installed directly over outlets. These outlets are often behind heads of beds or furniture.
@@kenbrown2808 A breaker can still trip in milliseconds. That was a higher impedance fault.
@@mernokimuvek no. it takes a full cycle for a magnetic trip breaker to trigger. and longer for a thermal trip. as long as the fuse has the interrupting capacity to stop the fault, a fuse will blow faster than a breaker can trip every time.
I worked in hotel maintenance in Boston for a while. I think your assumption about the people from other countries saying outlets fall out is correct. I had to fix a ton of outlets with the issue that you described, and a lot of outlets to the point of not working at all because they were so loose. I will note though, I have also seen the same issue in older homes as well but that's probably less common because you can obviously just easily replace the outlets, which is not the case with hotel furniture.
The people from other countries also go to hotels in other countries than the US. In the 240V country I live in, hotel socket aren't loose, whether it's because of the socket design or the hotel maintenance (maybe by regulation ?), I really don't know…
Maybe a bit of both
@@nit_ British plugs don't fall out because, well they just aren't going to. Euro plugs (I happen to be in Iceland right now and so experiencing euro plugs) aren't going to fall out - they have that plastic bit taking all the strain but I've seen the two-prong euro plugs that got sloppy in some sockets because they do not have the plastic surround to retain them. US plugs rely on the grip on the pins to hold them in and so it's easy to see why they fail. My 1925 house in the US is full of sloppy sockets that I'm swapping out one by one.
@@nit_ Those 240v are built solid, wish we had those. I'd say probably more design and definitely regulation. Most larger hotels (especially in major cities) renovate the entire hotel every 7-11 yrs typically. Which includes brand new outlets. So the fact that outlets don't last more than a few years is probably a big red flag. They also do the American thing and get the cheapest outlets you can get. You'd be amazed how poorly some of the fanciest hotels are made. Very MicMansion like.
@@davidjohnston4240Just for comparison, the right-angled US plugs are less prone to fall out. Another plus for them.
@@james.mccormackI did a lot of travelling in the US a few years back and it seems that many of the more remote hotels/motels get sold downmarket from time to time (or perhaps just rebranded or refranchised) and only get very modest renovations.
Lol when you mentioned the outlets getting paint on them I remembered when I bought my house. We were painting a couple of bedrooms and my wife had her cousin and his girlfriend come over to help. Turns out neither of them had any idea what they were doing because not only did they not take the outlet covers off or use any painters tape, they literally just rolled over the entire live outlet. So we then had to remove the outlets, paint behind the covers, and replace them all.
I've seen too many outlets with paint on them.
Now our outlets usually have removable parts to the face plate, so you can remove the cover before painting and then replace it afterwards. If you get a little paint on the very edge of the outlet you won't see it after the cover is back on.
However I still see outlets with paint dripped all over the cover...
Must be landlords.
When I bought my current house, the painters they'd hired to make everything that awful ugly beige for selling the house had painted over almost every single outlet in the whole place. And not just a little, either, like to the point that some of the outlets were completely unusable from how much paint had gotten into the holes. I had to cut around and pry the covers up with a boxknife and replace every single one besides the one in the bathroom. Awful! Dunno what the heck they were thinking.
@@animeartist888 thats a shame, and it's not even hard to do it right... a quick turn of the screwdriver to remove the faceplate, then a 2-3" piece of tape over the faces is all you need
I think it's a thing with hotels and older homes. My inlaws kitchen plugs would literally fall out and had zero grip on the actual blades. Yes the plug in the wall got very warm and one got very hot to the touch (and quite regularly was used for a crock pot and toasters). We recently went thorough and replaced all the outlets with new ones and no more over heating problems. I'll ask my FIL if he saved any of the old floppy plugs and I could send it to you if you wanted to hold one for yourself 😅
re: "120v can also kill you", I can't help but think about the repair guy at my old apartment who came and replaced one of my outlets without turning off the power to the outlet. there was an amount of swearing that occurred, but he kept insisting it was easier for him to just do it that way instead of walking around the side of the building to flip the breaker. truly a legend.
I used to do this without swearing.
Then I moved to a place with 240V outlets. Tried to replace an outlet without turning the power off ONCE, there was lots of swearing and never did it again.
120 tingles. 240 *hurts*
@@Spiker985Studios Dude, I've been shocked by 24 volt before where it really, seriously hurt. for days. As much as the voltage is part of the equation so are the amps involved. Nothing tingly about it, just not comfy when your hand is quickly turned into a heater.
@@RedPorch As anyone who has ever had a shock off a 12v car battery will concur! Far nastier than a 240v household shock.
I often don't turn the power off when replacing or reconnecting things. Ok, you get the odd shock (or more likely just knock the circuit out), but it's so much easier when you know something is working (or not) BEFORE you put it all back together!
The European Type F extension coords have quite interesting tamper resistance mechanism: actually there's only single flap which rotates when the plug is inserted and there's a spring which restores the closed orientation when the plug is removed. If you press only one of the holes the flap does not rotate.
Im fact, if you press only one side of the flap, it gets caught on a ledge and can't be pushed away . Both pins pushing at the same time lets it slide or rotate past the ledge with some degree of ease .
These sliders are the same for all the double banana sockets in Europe, not just the German Schuko , and they come in two designs: Sliding and Rotating .
@@johndododoe1411rotating shutters are used by the UK sockets i mentioned above
@@TheChipmunk2008 nobody can see what comment you're referring to with the "I mentioned above"
@@rm_steele I can see it. You just have to scroll down 22 pages from this post. I don't know how you missed it.
@@johndododoe1411 They work for all Sockets as due to some marvel they managed to create (somewhat) interoperable plug and socket designs over the years. I say somewaht, as sometimes you might get power, but the protective earth might be left out, which might become an issue. For sockets there is a list of types they are named, I didn´t even find out where those names came from, if it was some kind of ISO or whatever. US Sockets are considered Type a or B (with ground). For European plugs we start with Type C, which is the round prong equivalent to type A and considered what is supposed to work everywhere in Europe, it is just the two round prongs, no ground. the plug usually is flat, not the round base plate shape and it seems this one is the base for all standards acrosss Europe. Just add different types and arrangements of ground pins and you get either type E, Type F (that is the actual Schuko Socket) and Type K. And if they are not recessed but flush with the wall, you may even add in the Swiss type J or the italian Type L which are not round to begin with. but the L and N prongs are for all of those close enough to fit. Another thing, when it comes to plugs, you commonly find two types around here. the euro plug without ground or hybrid plugs, which at first glance look and work like a Schuko plug, but they have a hole and contacts for the Type E ground pin as well. actually you could say three types, there is the contour plug, which is a larger version of the Euro plug. it has two prongs, but it has a round base plate with space for whatever ground you may encounter. the difference is the flat one is rated to 2.5 A, the contoured one up to 10 A.
As mentioned, the UK sockets require the earth pin to be inserted to open the shutters for the live and neutral pins, however MK makes/made an even safer variety where the earth pin must be inserted first, and then both live and neutral pins must be inserted simultaneously, making it almost impossible to defeat, even to insert a europlug (although this is dangerous anyway).
Yes! Came here to say this, glad I scanned the comments first. As a Brit I find plugs and sockets around the world, and especially the USA, terrifying.
I too came to mention the MK design but would also like to add that the BS 4573 Shaver socket has this type of shutter. As it is the only non-grounded receptacle allowed in the UK it must have a shutter design that opens only when the two pins are present.
@@DrGreenGiantEuro plugs are all sleeved, so it's really not that bad
@@RedHair651 lol this make me laugh, thank you!
in Australia we also have plugs that come in a 2 and 3 prong versions and we have the same shutter system on some outlets (mostly used outside to prevent moisture). our plugs also come with a bit of plastic around the prongs (to prevent something from touching them if they somehow get bumped a bit out of the outlet). our plugs are also designed in a way where its most convenient to put them in and out of sockets while holding far away from the pins. they also come in side ways flavours as well which are my favourite. probably not the best plug out there but it would end up high on a list id imagine.
Just a note on 2 prong activated shutters, we have had them on UK socket outlets for some considerable time. They are less common than the earth pin activated variety though. A further note on the plug in 'child proofing' socket covers that are also available here in the UK, they come complete (all plastic moulded) with all 3 pins. The earth pin is the standard shape and size for any other type of mains plug, but the live and neutral pins are somewhat shorter. This is all self defeating, because now the shutter safety mechanism is opened by the earth pin and the two shorter plastc live and neutral pins can be easily bent away from the socket exposing the potentially live portion of the outlet.
Don't buy them, they are more dangerous than just leaving the socket as it is.
From the UK also.
I have 2 prong activated shutters in my flat, which did slightly confuse me when I first moved it. I thought my sockets were damaged, then I realised they were just were just working in a different way.
I am sure that there were safety campaigns to encourage people not use the socket covers for the very reasons you have explained. They are still legal to buy and sell but seem to be potentially dangerous (for the UK socket type)
@@d4nd31oYour plugs are giant.
@@d4nd31o You can buy covers for that but it doesn't tend to be a common problem.
In most of Europe, the Schuko plugs are installed next to each other sideways, this makes the right angle plug issue go away. Given that the plugs are symmetrical, you can also install the right angle plugs either down or up, whichever is more convenient.
also most of the right angle plugs are made so that they can sit ontop of eacother as well. if you stick in the bottom one first then the top one so that the cord goes over the bottom one.
This is the German style. I have never seen it in Finland. It requires more work as you have to wire both sockets.
Same in the AU/NZ design. We also have switches on the sockets and sleeved pins. Only thing we don't have is the gates, but the live elements are pretty deep so it's an effort getting anything commonly conductive in them.
The funny thing is, I've been shocked before, but never from putzing with an outlet. It was always me doing dumb stuff with electronics that I'd either forgotten to unplug or was stupidly disregarding. The worst I ever got was from an old lightswitch that turned out to be improperly grounded. (Metal faceplate, metal box, built in the 50s) I remember that was literally the first thing my step-dad fixed after he moved in.
futzing not putzing
Worst shock I've ever gotten was from disassembly the family's first digital camera after we replaced it because it had problems, I was handling it with the battery inserted because I wanted to see what would happen turning it on when half disassembled (spoiler, the screen had white stripes on it and nothing worked anymore) when I got a ridiculous shock which I guess came from the flash capacitors, my hand was kinda numb and weird feeling for HOURS after it happened.
@@GGoAwayy futzing with electricity makes you a putz.
I've been shocked from an outlet before, but not a North American outlet. My family in India has an international converter outlet with every possible plug face on the planet in one connector and at 240V and it's not that hard to shock yourself on one of those
My first electric shock, as a young child, was on the plug. Every subsequent one I can think of was something like insufficient shielding on a power supply, or assuming that a little incandescent indicator lamp would be low voltage instead of mains.
I've gotten shocks from 120 AC outlets a number of times and other than a surprise, it's never been a problem. The earliest I remember was unplugging an old power tool as a kid and the plug was actually broken, so when I grabbed it to pull it, I essentially grabbed both leads. Made me jump, but that was it. So - in that sense - unless you have heart issue or similar - accidently grabbing the terminals on a live 120V plug is mostly harmless. But - if you do something that makes you unable to let go of the live power, it's not going to end well.
Enjoy these outlet discussions. One thing to of course keep in mind is that there is always a cost benefit calculation to be done. The cost of a change to the US outlet standard, in any way that would break compatibility would be enormous. Thus the problem addressed would have to be a severe one. I learned about these the hard way at a very young age when trying to plug in a lamp behind some furniture, I must have touched the conductor with my fingers and got a painful 120v shock. Something I remember 40 years later and have been careful to never repeat. It hurt, but as in most of these cases the actual injury was minor. There isn't an epidemic of folks killed by this scenario, it has to be quite rare. It's also mitigated in more dangerous (potentially wet) locations by GFCI. As an aside, I recently was on a trip to the UK, and had the same issue with a sagging connection wanting to come loose in a London hotel. The issue was having to use an adapter to connect to that large Apple power supply putting a lot of weight on the connection. Frankly, the old design of putting the transformer brick in the middle of the power connection is better than hanging right on the plug, for that very reason. At home this is solved with a power strip, on the road that can be more difficult. Thanks again.
Backwards compatibility can be solved with adaptors as needed, and if adopting a Schoko outlet-plug, it also will be compatible with most European appliances.
Yeah those Apple power bricks are the worst for it with the US plug.
It's something I was unprepared for while travelling the other way, as I'd only used them with the UK and EU ends attached. But since I had the travel kit I attached the US end. At first I was quite pleased with it being a genuine flush square when folded up, it legitimately saved space in my messenger bag.
Then, it started falling out of every socket in every bus, bus station, train, and some pals' houses, every 30-60 minutes. I'm not surprised your US to UK adapter had the same problem, the prongs in those can be weaker even when new. (And maybe the adapter wasn't new!)
I have been shocked probably at least a dozen times from 110V -- none intentionally, although I did once work for an electrician who would test wires with a quick tap of two fingers to determine if they were hot. Getting shocked across two fingers on the same hand is much safer (e.g. less dangerous) than having your entire body be the circuit.
I am now a big fan of non-contact voltage testers and I use one constantly when doing any electrical work. Just because you have a breaker turned off doesn't mean some dummy didn't put wires for a different circuit in the same box.
different circuit in the same box is the dumbest thing I've come across, learnt it about it the hard way.
That "quick test" had been done in Germany, too. With (back than) 230V. No normal person would do it today anymore, we have even at least easy testers for the line, which has an large resistor between the small lamp and the contact, you might or might not touch for grounding. (Maybe its for smaller voltages, at a 240V line it works without and many dont even have the metal cap anymore.)
I am said Dummy! - And I shocked myself, even though I KNEW it was wired that way, because I wired it! - Kitchen 20A counter circuit, and overhead lighting circuit....same box...
non-contact testers don't always work but fluke makes good testers where you only have to have one of the leads touch a live wire and it starts beeping. (T90, T110, T130, T150)
The most dangerous part of this is that you have either 0V or 240V between the two hot wires from different circuits.
Had a moment as a teen where I was definitely not paying as much attention as I should've as I was trying to plug in an appliance to a power strip. (Edit because I forgot it originally but I am in America.) Using the ol' dangerous tech of using my fingers as guides to find the holes and as i found them, i closed my fingers against the blades and shocked my right arm. Had no lasting effects but damn did my arm hurt as a result.
It's kind of weird because I've had people down play and also worry too much about this story when I just see it as a dumb moment that I have to learn from. Great vid.
Yup, I think I was maybe only 7 or 8, but I still remember that tingly dead whole-arm feeling I got once while carelessly plugging in my trainset, even though it happened probably 45 years ago.
I don't know what you mean by 'worry too much', this is something that absolutely should not be possible and the fact that it still is seems like a huge problem to me.
@@simonvetter2420 "Lazy-Fare" (yes, i know what i did there) Capitalism, baby! We don't need no stinking regulations! surely consumers will choose to purchase only houses which have intrinsically safe receptables!
oh. wait.
I had the same experience but my thumb was on the ground pin. To this day my right thumb, index, and middle don't quite move and feel the same as my left. It's very subtle but there.
@@simonvetter2420 It definitely isn't ideal, but I think there's just a sense of apathy when thinking about it since I know change isn't coming soon. Just kind of live with it.
The failure mode for worn-out UK outlets tends to be that they stop putting out electricity to the appliance. I've had that a few times. I've never had a situation where the plug becomes loose and starts falling out, though of course even it did, the insulated sleeves on the pins means that it wouldn't be dangerous.
We do of course have two-pin outlets, in bathrooms. The pins there are positioned vertically, and I've never had a problem with them going loose either. Their shutter design is similar to what you demonstrated in this video.
Oh interesting I'd never heard of the 2-pronged ones! And here, as a fan of Techmoan, I would've considered myself familiar with all manner of British plugs...😋
@@dancoroian1 They are very specifically for electric razors (and, these days, maybe for electric toothbrushes?). They are typically next to, or built into, the bathroom miror, and they often have (or used to have - it's some years since I've seen one) a switch to choose between 120 and 240 volts output - so visiting Americas don't blow their electric razors! How many American visitors that use electric razors are expected to visit British houses, I don't know, but, even back in the 60s, lots of homes had them, and they are pretty standard in hotels and the more upmarket washrooms. I assume they are on a separate circuit to other sockets, with a smaller fuse/circuit breaker, so you couldn't use them for something else that draws more power and just happens to have a two-pin plug (two-pin plugs are rare in the UK, except of things like razors and toothbrushes - and sometimes hi-fi units, where they plug into the power supply of the main unit). On a side-note - in the UK, you will never find a washing machine in the bathroom - it is illegal to have a normal socket in a bathroom. This often baffles visitors from abroad, where washing machines are nearly always in the bathroom. My (Hungarian) mother-in-law, on her first visit was amazed to see our washing machine in the kitchen - "why isnt it in the bathroom?", she asked, "that's where they always go"!
@@paulhaynes8045 Meanwhile, here in the US, in my experience, the washing machine is usually in one of a few places:
1.) A closet or small room near the bedrooms. (Common in newer houses and many newer apartments/condos.)
2.) A laundry room or utility room in the basement. (Common in northern states where most houses have basements.)
3.) A closet or small room off/near the kitchen. (Common in houses without basements, and not unheard of in some with. Is sometimes a "mudroom" containing the back door to the house and some coat racks.)
4.) A shared, coin-operated laundry room down the hall from your apartment, or in your building's basement. (Common in older apartment/condo buildings, especially larger ones.)
5.) A laundromat down the street. (Common in older neighborhoods (esp. poor inner-city) where not every home has a functioning washing machine, and where older, smaller apartment buildings _don't_ have their own laundry rooms.)
@@paulhaynes8045 These shaver sockets (outlets) are supplied via an isolating transformer (whose primary winding is only powered while a plug is inserted) in lieu of RCD (GFCI) protection as with such a transformer there is no reference to earth (ground) and reduced risk of shock. As there is already this transformer, it's trivial to tap the winding at 120V to provide a 120V socket.
To keep the transformer size & cost down, the conductor used for the windings is rather thin so that limits the current that can be drawn. With toothbrush chargers, there is a concern that certain shaver sockets are unsuitable for long-duration use due to the transformer getting too hot, something that was never a factor with shaver use, although I've never had a problem with mine. There is a rare species of 240V-only shaver socket that foregoes the isolating transformer (but usually have to be outside the bathroom as they cannot be installed in bathroom zone 2) - these would be absolutely fine for toothbrush chargers.
@@paulhaynes8045 UK shaver sockets in bathrooms contain an isolating transformer so you can't get a shock from them by touching the live pin and ground, via a metal tap for instance. The dual voltage thing is probably a consequence of that, since it's just another tap off the same transformer you might as well.
I taught industrial electrical safety for many years and I had an entire section on 120V shocks. Most Americans have experienced a 120V electrical shock (that is a process failure) and most Americans survive them. I postulated the reason for that is most people experience those shocks in a US manufactured home which is typically wood framing. So when they contact the live conductor they are standing on carpet or wood flooring on a wooden frame and the fault is through their feet. Grounding is terrible! I cautioned those working in industrial control cabinets and the like because the situation is very different. Working in a very well grounded electrical cabinet with steel everywhere on a hot summer day when you are sweating and your clothes are damp changes everything. Accidental contact with one hand while leaning on the steel cabinet can result in significant fault current across the chest. That scenario has a different ending.
I once got an unplesant 120v shock when I was installing a family members dishwasher. Turns out they turned off the wrong breaker, and the wires for a dishwasher are unshielded bare wires.
Thankfully I was laying prone when I was reaching under to connect them, and I could feel it going into my hand and grounding into the tile through my elbow.
It was hard to let go, and it gave me a good spook, but it was over in a matter of seconds, and I didn't wind up with any kind of burns or physical injury.
For all we know, fumbling that powerstrip in the dark and getting shocked is why we have all this excellent nerd content today.
God I love this channel. Your style of being is so much like mine. It’s remarkable how often you’ll address exactly what I was just wondering about or thinking. I love your curiosity and enthusiasm. It’s just perfect.
As I see you’ve already addressed, my whole life I’ve been frustrated by cords and bricks that won’t stay in the socket until you spread the blades to make the plug wider. Even that only helps to some extent. It wasn’t until your other video that I realized the problem is the socket not the cord or brick! So I replaced all my sockets. Double-benefit, they were all painted over and the new sockets looked amazing in comparison. I even got nice new plates that helped the whole room look a little classier. So, thanks!
I’m shocked you’ve only been shocked by house current twice. When I was little I shocked myself many times. One time I put my hand into an empty socket on line to get into the Disney World Haunted Mansion. I’ve even done it recently when working on a power socket, even though the breaker was turned off. It turned out that the person who wired it took a weird shortcut that bridged two circuits. I never expected that!
Thanks again I’m sure these shows are a ton of work, especially since you put so much effort into actual scientific method experiments. I really respect that.
I work at the Thomas Edison Labs as a tourguide. We do a lot of study and classes. I haven’t yet checked the primary sources (that’s a task, since there’s such a huge volume), but I’ve often read that Edison chose 100 Volts for his bulbs and power grid specifically because it was unlikely to give you a fatal shock. And we’ve just kept it ever since. The reason this needs to be met with a little bit of skepticism is that, during the War of the Currents, he was trying to portray his grid and wiring as much less dangerous. Since there were prominent news stories of people being electrocuted by high-voltage AC power lines being haphazardly strung about, that was a good competitive message. Was he actually thinking about safety before the War? Maybe. Don’t know.
Totally agree about the channel. A simple thought "I wonder why" turns into weeks of research and a video, plus a follow up video, and another.
I always thought part of childhood was getting zapped at least once by a typical outlet. And you would learn to be really careful after that. It happened to me and was just part of growing up and a lesson you'd learn the hard way. And you learned!
Idk, I didn't have tp get shocked to believe and understand that electricity is dangerous. I don't understand how so many people got the idea to F around with power outlets as a kid...
@@LRM12o8I knew it was dangerous, but it took plugging in an old plug and not paying attention to my finger placement to truly understand you could get shocked without being
plain dumb and sticking a random object in it.
I got up from bed an hour just ago and you already got me to watch 40 minutes of videos about wall sockets that I‘ve never even seen in the wild before bc they‘re literally from the other side of the planet.
WELL DONE!
You are so right about 120 volts being safer then 240 volts. As a life long commercial sparky I have been shocked by 120, 208, 240, 277 & 5,000 volts from oil burner ignitors. Seemed to me that when voltage was doubled the intensity of shock was four fold.Fat & even taller people do better from being shocked due to higher body resistance. Have got a nice shock when only touching one 480 volt wire while soaking wet in a hot environment. Thanks for all the informative easy to understand U Tube vidios that you produced.
Worth noting that some UK outlets do require that all 3 pins are inserted at once for the shutters to open, rather than just the Earth/Ground pin, and yeah they can be a bit finicky if your angle is off.
They can also be felt in more safely as you can get the ground pin in before any of the other pins enter the plug.
I think you hit on something important about the whole shock thing. We, generally speaking, grew up being taught about outlet safety from young ages. I think most parents/adults even do some rudimentary supervision or practice handling plugs once they get of the ages that they are aware of plugs in the wall. I have recently done this, almost without thinking about it. It is almost like the other learned traits that we all carry on or pass along like holding a utensil, using scissors, and other innocuous everyday objects that when used in a manner other than intended could cause some harm. This is not a defense of our outlets, because they are bad, and I think most people agree they are bad, but we have adapted our teaching & learning techniques to adjust for it.
Agreed. I had vigilant parents so my upbringing contained a lot of 'Stop. Look at what you're doing. What happens if...' It certainly formed how I approach situations unconsciously as an adult. Of course they kept dangerous things out of reach and did the whole 'Hot, don't touch' thing as well when I was a toddler. Never from a fear standpoint, just learning to be safe.
When I was growing up, at one point, my father had an electrical inspector come by to make an assessment of our house before he did some electrical work. The inspector advised that the work Dad wanted to do would trigger an inspection that would require major electrical rework. I think Dad was intending on doing something a little more complicated than an outlet upgrade, but it wasn't much more than that. It might have been replacing an overhead fan and replacing some outlets. But whatever it was, it did include fixing some outlets and he didn't simplify the effort to just fixing the outlets after hearing the inspector's report.
Not sure where this was. Thankfully where I live I can do ANY electrical work on my own home, short of messing with the power main into the house, without an inspection. Though I usually hire an electrician if I need anything inside the breaker box done.
Breaker boxes are full of unknown magic that kills you.
@@Kycirion Where do you live that you can do anything in the house without an inspection?
In the house I grew up in, we deliberately never let a licensed electrician inside.
post and wrap spliced to two- and three-conductor Romex, grounded sockets that weren't, grounded sockets in the kitchen that were grounded to the pipes feeding the sink... next to one of the "grounded" sockets, about half the wall sockets were old non-polarized types, some push-button light switches, and a screw-in fuse panel that may have been installed before WW2.
@@TheSzalkowski That is the rule in Massachusetts. The owner of the home can do their own electrical work, but if someone else does it, they need to be licensed in the state.
We also have many of our towns as "Right to Farm", where you can have a garden or (some?) livestock in your yard (chickens and rabbits I am sure are okay, no knowledge of other animals).
@@TheSzalkowski The unspoken rule where I live is essentially don't ask don't tell when it comes to permits and inspections. Unless you are changing the structure of the house itself, they don't want to hear from you.
It’s always interesting to hear how people describe how we get 120v and 240v from split phase systems.
He’s close but not quite. It’s still a single phase.
It's mathematically equivalent to what one might think "two phase" should be, if that name weren't already taken by an obsolete system. I.e. two waveforms that are 120V to neutral nominal, and 180 degrees apart.
It's just that rather than producing it with phase shifts, it is produced with center-tapping a single phase transformer and grounding the midpoint, to produce waveforms that are negatives of each other. In the ideal case of a perfect sine wave, it is mathematically equivalent to a 180 degree phase shift.
Hotels often have severely worn Outlets in any location accessible by guests. It is very hard to find outlets that are still usable in many Airports. Phones & Laptops are the main reason.
The loose plugs issue is mostly with wall-wart adaptors - not with corded plugs.. especially heavy ones will often fall out of a loose socket. It might also be more common for tourists who may be using a travel adaptor in front of a wall-wart adaptor adding to the weight and giving gravity more angular leverage against the socket.
Travel adaptor is a pain when in funny outlet countries, yes!
"falling out" is a issue when you rent cheap apartment. I dealt with that being crazy engineer who found breakers (after I shorted wires with pliers) and replacing outlets to cheap new ones. This made HUGE difference. Before my TV power strip was even arcing during normal operation. Those may have been 20-30 yo. for what I could have known.
Although most British outlets only require something to be shoved in the earth/ground hole for the shutters to open, there are some which require both power pins to be inserted simultaneously, and even ones that require all 3 pins to open them (earth/ground first, then both power pins together)
I believe the ones here that require only the two power pins to open them are no longer manufactured, and have been replaced by the type that requires all 3 pins to open
And I believe European outlets have shutters that require both power pins to open
In the old days when equipment was not supplied with plugs it was possible (particulrly on the simpler power strips) to open the shutters with a key or screwdriver and just poke the bare wire ends into the socket to do a "quick test".
The UK sockets that open the shutter with the L+N pins are manufactured by MK
@@theturtlemoves3014 The MK sockets open on all three pins E & L & N. And their Metalclad range are double pole switched for safety. Seriously well built.
I've encountered plenty of loose sockets in airports and hotels where the plug falls out. The springs seem to wear out so that they don't hold the plug properly. This is more of a problem if you have something like a heavy 2 pin adapter plugged in (like older Apple MacBook adapters). Adding a ground pin to these plugs would solve this and make it stay in better
Also, you're idea of putting shrink sleeves onto plugs in North America (from the previous video) is great. This should be something that should be required for new plugs and kits sold to retrofit to older plugs.
Its quite tricky to defeat it, and quite tricky to use it properly if you aren't a world class body builder.
The feeling around for holes in the dark is something I do all the time. Especially for finding alignment. Though I live in the UK, so I usually fumble about poking holes on sockets until I find the vertical arranged in (which is the earth pin hole). Though it's less of an issue because a) shutters on all holes and b) sleeved L&N pins in the unlikely event a plug has become loose.
I fully agree with your "safer" argument. I don't know if you use 110V centre-tapped isolation transformers for site tools over there but we do over here (UK) for safety - I.e. It means that you're only likely to receive a 55V shock to earth unless you touch both live conductors. It can still kill you, but the risk is substantially lower.
While we don't have isolation transformers it's really just a temporary connection in place of the permanent grid connection....but that is the general concept, the set up for the North American power standards in residential homes effectively simulate a center tap transformer, an actual transformer out on the street provides 240v into the house and the neutral line which originates in the breaker box and is ultimately sent to ground effectively functions as the center tap and renders the 120v common in our outlets. It sounds more complicated than it is and I understand why most people have a hard time wrapping there head around it... check out 'kathylovesphysics' channel she has some excellent videos on how the North American grid is set up electrically, why it was done that way originally, and some of the benefits/issues.
As well said by alex, in NA this is 120V in reference to earth, not the 110V center-tapped transformer you've described.
Safer implies it's somehow a bit safe in the beginning, which is not true at all. Less dangerous is more appropriate as it implies it's still dangerous and the risk is still here (as you said). Psychologically, this is like seing the glass half empty or half full, or using active/passive tense to make an emphasis. This is the kind of case where the subtext of semantics and choosing the right expression matters.
Also his talk about the real danger of electricity and the circumstances for serious harm or death is a disgustingly dangerous speech. He really need to talk to professionals (both technicians and health workers) to fully get aware of the risks.
That is definitely NOT how our system works in the USA. We have the grounded (neutral) conductor and two 120 VAC that are 180 degrees out of phase. So, it is 120 V to ground and 240 V from hot to hot. That is how we get out dual voltage residential current. Commercial and industrial are typical;y done with 3-phase, but that is completely different.
In the US, the residential 120/240V system IS done using center-tapped transformers, i.e. the last transformer in the power distribution system that converts from 4KV (or whatever) down to 120/240V. Its center tap is bonded to ground at each building’s electrical service. I’ve never seen anyone do center-tap within the 120V, though. The use of GFCIs for outdoor circuits has been common for several decades now.
I live in Belgium, we use the same outlets as the French, which is a variation on the Schuko plugs used by the German and Dutch. I'm probably biased, but I think the Schuko and the French variation are the best designs. We have that same tamper-resistant shutter mechanism that doesn't require ground for it to work (unlike the British), the contacts aren't blades but round pins, having the ground pin at the top (French variation) has always been the standard so right angled plugs are the right way around, the outlets are recessed so unsleeved plugs with ground can't be touched while half-inserted deep enough to be live and ungrounded plugs are pretty much always sleeved for decades. Unlike the British we don't use ring-circuits so we don't have fuses in the plugs, and although they are a lot bulkier than the North American plugs, they are smaller and due to the round shape more elegant than the British plugs.
Also we put the entire house on a 300mA GFCI, the 'wet' circuits on 30mA, and recently it has been mandated for new installations and rewires to have all user-interactive circuits spread across multiple 30mA GFCIs in the breaker box, so we don't have GFCI outlets.
Fully agreed, though I am used to Schuko (which is essentially the same, but grounding at the side instead of the extended pin). These plugs are great, especially considering the variety of Plugs that are compatible across the continent.
The French one is better, because it is polarized: you cannot plug it the other way. This may allow to have live and neutral on the same place (left or right)- I think the same is true for the UK
@@rizzulazzi Problem is there isn't any code around that, and there isn't always a true neutral anyways (depending on 3x400V+N or 3x230V net).
@@rizzulazzi Not really. For example, in Poland, the phase must be on the left side, in France and Belgium on the right. So it's only polarized if you don't visit other countries. And why would you care anyway, proper appliances(not chinese knof off brands) have double pole switches. Some places in France and Norway have 230 V between 2 phases and 133 V between 1 phase and ground.
We built our house and put in all TR outlets (they are code now, of course). I was so shocked by how much more secure they were than the outlets at our previous house, which was built in the 70s - they should probably be replaced
Seen loose outlets far more often in motels and extended stay locations. Hotels generally are on the nicer side of things like that.
I had a 230v shock when I was young, in the UK. It was the early 70s, so not all sockets were as safe as they are now. Let me just say that it was PAINFUL. It certainly made me more cautious around mains sockets!
You haven't lived until you've worked around 600v. 😳
@@TheEDFLegacyyep our CNCs are both 480 and 600v. Fun stuff
Yes they where . They have had shutters since 1947. Pre 1980s plugs however where not required to be sheathed
In your reply you literally mentioned a reason why they were not as safe. Why did you feel the need to be wrong AND stupid?
would have been 240v back in the 70’s, believe it was during the 80’s they lowered it to 230v
The "your plugs are falling out" is probably due to the fact that, at least from your footage it looks super easy to pull a NA plug. The EU plugs hold insanely well. If its a power strip you, 100% of the time, have to use two hands, one to hold the strip and the other to pull very strongly. If its a outlet you can use one hand but you still have to pull very hard. I would say its almost impossible to pull a plug with a cord on accident. You would have to pull with both hands and on the right angle plug there is 0 chance. You would break something before you managed to pull the plug with the cord. Compared to this your outlets seem super week.
Having stayed in hotels in the EU, I have to strongly disagree with you. You may be correct when the outlet is new and in good condition, and that is the same here. however your two prong outlets over there are just as prone to wearing out and becoming loose as our two prong outlets over here. No I'm not comparing to the giant three-prong UK plug, but those two round pins you have, old worn out outlets with those have trouble holding my travel charger just like outlets that are worn out at home.
I have also come across many a dodgy EU socket, including power strips, so they are far from perfect.
That being said, they are still on average better at their job than NA sockets. And as for the UK/G-type aficionados out there: NO it is not better. Only different.
@@Green__one yeah but a charger is rarely grounded. so it doesnt take advantage of the full recepticle. and yes then you do have a similar problem to the american style. except the socket is still recessed and the charger prongs are sleaved and the tolerances are better.
@@Green__one Hotels may be a special case as people plug and pull and may even use nonstandard plugs. I have never seen a loose outlet myself. Some of my outlets are from the 60s.
@@Peron1-MC I'm talking about the full 2 prong receptacle. Those are almost non-existent in north-america, but very common in the EU.
The complaint about plugs falling out reminds me of my parent’s house, where an outlet in the bathroom won’t grip a plug at all. I had an outlet like that in my own home too when I moved it, but I got that replaced pretty quick and the new outlet is very tight. Seems that the more an outlet is used the contacts tend to get pried apart and loosen their grip, at least with older designs.
Sweden is mostly running on 3 phase 230V, which means phase to phase is 400VAC. Homes are fused 16-20A (3phase). Apartments are the exception and usually only have a single phaase. In regular homes, stoves are what is commonly ran on 3 phase. Heating can be 1 or 2 phase. And we also commonly wire with neutrals. Ex. 5 conductors, L1,L2,L3,N and PE. There is lots of opportunities to get shocked :)
When I was a kid, the tamper resistant was the whole reason I’ve messed with the outlet because I didn’t know what it did😂 I actually figured out that you had to put pressure on both of the holes and I got a small shock. lol
I still think it's funny that around things like electricity or knives I've all but never gotten hurt, yet door handles, counters and other seemingly non-hazardous things have hit me so many times that if they were rolled into one I would be hwiteboi soup by now 😂😂😂
My last manager did a lot of impromptu electrical work at our store, and his favorite thing to do was to scare the hell out of new hires by replacing outlets or switches without cutting the power.
"It's just 120V! Barely a tickle!"
Magnificent bastard. Never had a bum outlet for long in that store, though!
I once replaced a ceiling fan thinking power was off at switch. Since I told sister in law to turn switch off…Never got shocked but surprised when completed and went to turn it on at switch- she failed to turn off switch But luckily fans ship with pull chains in off. So no spark when connected wires…
@@KE5ZZOAlways always check for yourself. I trust nobody else. Doing electric wprk at home, I simply put the fuses in my pockets. (Yes I have old time screw-fuses),
@@ivarnordlkken8082 another reason I am glad she is an ex-sil
If you have some money to burn and a wall outlet that's partiuclarly bad about falling out, consider "Hospital Grade" outlets.
They're quite a bit pricier, but are designed to grip the plug far more strongly than standard or even commercial grade outlets.
This makes them relatively resistant to the plug getting pulled or sliding out, and they also wear harder.
The main problem is, naturally, they're a lot harder to plug and unplug, and inattentive use (grabbing the cord) will cause more problems.
I love hospital grade outlets. They grip harder, because you don't want a life supporting device's plug to accidentally get pulled out due to gravity or carelessness. In the IT field, sometimes these (orange) outlets are used for VIP networking devices and servers.
Mission and especially life-critical equipment should use twist-lock plugs!@@redmatrix
@@redmatrix Doesn't orange also mean it has a separate ground wire from the yoke of the outlet to ideally reduce electrical noise?
@@soundsparkno. An inverted green triangle on the face of the receptacle outlet means isolated ground. Receptacle outlets come in many colors that don’t necessarily have meaning
For backstabbing outlets: check out the Leviton Decora Edge outlets and switches. They basically have a built in wago levers. No exposed screw terminals or stripped wires.
Just saw that style for the first time & heard it’s the new industry trend now coming from multiple manufacturers
Thank you much for explaining how tamper resistant plugs work! I've been wondering this after installing them all over my house for my baby. I still use plug covers with them, but ya know.
The weird thing is that you still see those plastic covers sometimes in the UK, where they add absolutely nothing to the safety features already built into the socket.
Yeah, and in fact on older socket designs that only need the ground pin inserted to expose live and neutral, they're actually *more* dangerous than having empty sockets, because they can be inserted upside-down which exposes live and neutral.
@@jkeelsnc I've had to do that before lol
A Western Digital NAS I needed to get set up had a type c europlug, and I didn't have an adapter so I just got a plastic prying tool and opened the protective latch and shoved it in, worked perfectly but janky as hell 😁
I got a 240V shock from a frayed wire as a kid. Went all the way through my chest. Not sure if I have internal scarring still, but definitely some external scars remain. But eh, I'm alive.
It was an interesting experience at least
I too did what you did as a kid and tried to guide a plug into a socket in the dark by feel. It was 220V though as I was in Europe. 🙂
Code here now is to have AFCIs in bedrooms, but a lot of electricians dislike them because it doesn't take much to trip them. Plug in a mini fridge for example and have fun. Anything with a motor will supposedly trip them.
been at least shocked once by the plug, thought a lot more with live lightbulb sockets(you'd be surprised how often I've ran into lamps without lightbulbs at home and thrift stores),as it was particularly stuck in the socket of a power strip. Made contact with both blades and got pretty gnarly shock, though not the worst shock I've felt. The worse has been from leaky currents on fridge handles or light switches/the screw holding the covers.
Back stab and back wire are quite different. Hearing the un-wired outlets rattle when you move them around makes me think you’re holding back *wire* outlets. Those you insert a straight, stripped wire into a space between the side of the terminal and a plate that is held in by the terminal screw. You then tighten the screw pressing the wire between the plate and the terminal. It’s easily done and undone, the contact patch is huge compared to the little tooth inside a backstab, and it can accommodate different wire gauges. I’d never use backstabs, but back wire outlets makes life much much easier than having to make a j hook out of the wire, especially in a replacement scenario where space is tight and/or the existing wires are short. Back wire also makes it easier to fall in “the pit of success” as a coworker once put it - there’s a correct orientation to the hook so that tightening the screw pulls in the wire. Does everyone remember to do that? Absolutely not. Making it easier to do the right thing means people do it more often.
The back wire devices are quite handy and I would think it would have the similar quality as a properly wrapped screw connection (always screws me up though when I already curled the wire ends.) I agree the "back stab" pathetic little finger just trouble looking for an opportunity. In 20 years on the tools I've learned and found either a back stab or wago-style push connector failed leading to a service call. Wrapped screw connections and twisted wires with a marrette rarely fail.
Hopefully, the new Leviton wago-style outlets will phase out this problem in the coming decade.
Here in the Uk 'we' are (or were) taught to arrange the loop under the screw so that pulling on the wire tightens the screw (and thus when doing it up, the rotation tries to loosen it). This reduces the risk of the wire pulling out and floating about.
We remodeled our house back in 1991, and tamper-resistant outlets were already mandatory at that time... I believe. It's also possible that they became mandatory in 1997, but we chose to install tamper-resistant outlets regardless because they are safer, and the price difference was negligible even back then. I remember my parents and grandma saying that these outlets were a bit more challenging to use than the old ones. You had to wiggle them a little, but you get used to it really quickly
Oh I forgot to say! I am from Finland.
re: plugs falling out. I find a horrendous number of outlets around where the contacts are stretched and won't retain the plug well. I'm always surprised by that as I'll replace an outlet at the first hint of loose contacts. When we moved into this house 24 years ago, the last thing I did before we moved was replace every outlet and switch. It turned out to be much more of a job than I expected -- house wiring was all 12 AWG and "backstabbed" into the back of the receptacles/switches! wouldn't fit modern (14 AWG) outlets so I had to bend every wire and use the screws.
Most landlords won't replace outlets just for being loose.
I have replaced at least two dozen outlets over the years in places where I've lived, due to them being horribly loose. Yeah. 🔌
Y'know what? Maybe part of why I don't encounter this so much is because I live in Chicagoland and our outlets are usually sideways. That really changes the forces involved as far as how the receptacle holds onto the blades.
Honestly it's probably for the best, I've seen several of the backstabbed ones fail because the wires fallout
@@TechnologyConnextras And I wonder what the effect sideways plugs as on plugs with especially large thick sheathing since, yeah, it is effectively bending the internal copper in a J shape. It is better than the shape you get with the inverted standard way (upside-down where it also STICKS OUT), but at least it is in-line with the appliance and not bending sideways like it often what people do with, say, computer cable management.
Thanks for the open discussion. To specify my comment on the main channel, when you plug in the behemoth of an adapter with a full fleged and straight euro plug, gravity pulls it out from a worn out hotel/motel outlet (the lamp outlets are a lot more worse as you mentioned). I now usually bring some duck tape with me when I am on vacation in the states to fixate my plugs. 😉
Type N is my favorite plug & socket. Compact, recessed, grounded, asymmetrical, and insulated.
The problem with the backstab connection is they are using spring tension to bite the wire. That does wear out over time, especially if you remove and reinsert wires several times.
Wago lever nuts on the other hand, due to their design, press down on the wires without relying on tension. The force the wire puts back on the connection could never loosen it.
Some contractor grade outlets have connections that look like backstab holes, but still use the screw to hole the wire down. Those are totally fine to use and way more convenient for sure.
An inexperienced person might use the screw terminals incorrectly too, in which case backstab is maybe better. But if you don't know what you're doing, you shouldn't touch electrical.
Source: Me, electrician by trade.
Leviton recently (as in like a few months ago) released their Edge line of receptacles and switches. They've got lever connectors (Like Wago) instead of screw terminals, and alignment notches for when multi-ganging receptacles/switches together.
Freaken awesome, if a little expensive.
$3.50 each 15amp receptacle, or $25 for a 10-pack.
In Finland we have mostly switched from screw terminals (exept for the cheap stuff) to ones where you just push the wire in.
Screw terminals have more metal-to-metal contact with the wire. Backstab method has very little. Less contact = more resistance = more heat.
The screw-terminals' holes do often look the same, but are always are at the edge, slightly offset from the screws.
The easiest way to distinguish screw-clamp-terminals from the spring-tension-type is how wires slip out with slightest bit of tension until the screw is *tightened.*
Many times in this last year I've had to replace an in-wall device (GFCI, duplex outlet, quad outlet, timer, modem, etc.) and found that the builder/installer had simply never tightened a screw-terminal (or loosened them on one side until the screw seized in the open/captive position), resulting in a bad connection which slowly burnt the device after a few years.
Since I've not yet been told of any housefires from this ( and have only seen it cause charring at one specific commercial location that was/is seemingly cursed with electrical fires ) I presume that it's a relatively -benign- -safe (if destructive)- contained failure mode. (edit:).. that most people avoid.
(Agree;) and still prefer the screw terminals, because it's far easier to replace/maintain, and makes a stronger connection (when actually tightened) compared to the spring type.
If you compare the quality and design of the backstab contacts versus Wago push-on connectors, you'll see why backstab connections are not recommended.
In Germany virtually all outlets use backstab contacts today, only very old outlets use screws. I always assumed that better touch protection is one of the main arguments besides easier installation.
Regarding attaching the wires to the receptacle by "backstabbing" vs. screwing them down. I used to help maintain a building for a club, and the main guy who did any wiring always used receptacles that allowed wires to be inserted straight in without being screwed down ("backstabbing"). We had frequently occurring GFCI trips all over the place until I got tired of it and rewired every receptacle by screwing down the wires. No more nuisance GFCI trips.
Also, the Wago connectors are NOT the same. You have to flip a lever over to secure a Wago connector, where backstabbing only relies upon the spring tension friction of the connector.
Backstabbing outlets is terrible. Even when "properly" installed, I've seen several arc and burn up the outlet.
Wago connections are only popular because they are FAST and require zero skill to install. They're for lazy people and people who do "production" work, which prioritizes speed over quality.
@@stevenemert837 There is both sorts of Wago connectors, the ones with the lever (221 and 222) as well as backstabbing ones (2273). Maybe the backstabbing contacts used in US outlets suck, but I've never had problems with them here. I've even come across a circuit breaker that used a backstabbing contact for the output side...
They now make NA style outlets with wago style levers built in.
The thing I remember always literally falling off the wall all on its own was the super heavy 2 prong gigantic Sega Genesis AC adapter. You literally could not insert it and have it be flush. As soon as you let go, the thing would pivot and the top pins would be exposed. It was just too heavy. And the few mm thickness the wall plate had was enough for the bottom of the adapter to hinge inwards toward the wall. Eventually itd just fall out.
I didn't have a Sega, but I know the type. Can't remember ATM what it was but I definitely had something that a power bar solved this for.
I moved away from Chicago recently, The outlets at my new place have been confusing me and I had no clue why. They aren't sideways. Thank you for inadvertently scratching that itch.
"I think we can agree with that" is a dangerous phrase in any situation and with any subject matter
Got zapped by the a copper water supply line for a swamp cooler that was acting as a ground. Didn't know it was until I separated it with 2 wrenches at which point I became the shortest path. Luckily I had a pretty sizable imbalance in muscle at that point in time and my back was stronger so when my muscles forcibly flexed rather than getting stuck and cooking my arms went to the side at full force launching the wrenches and disconnecting me which I genuinely believe saved my life.
Got zapped by rogue wire in a kitchen under construction (240v eu). Hit my upper right arm, and it made arm punch forward. As i was walking quickly it didnt last long luckily.
That's the most dangerous kind of configuration as the current would be passing along your arms and through your heart.
Sounds like somebody bootlegged a ground.
The backstab connectors are not comparable to wago-style connectors for one major reason. A wago uses an active clamping mechanism which provides a large contact area that is strongly retained. Backstabs use spring pressure only against a small contact area which then generates heat when used heavily and can result in loosening over time.
Recently some outlets have become available which use a lever locked clamp system similar to a wago, and those should be equally good.
No, Wago is the manufacturer, who makes push-in connectors, lever connectors and a lot of other things.
The lever connectors has a lever (duh!) that pushes the spring down to allow the wire to be inserted. When the lever is folded down, the spring will both push the wire into full contact with the busbar and bite into the wire, preventing it from getting pulled out.
@@johanmetreus1268Wago is just the trade term for all push-in style joints in the US. Similar to Kleenex.
Yeah, Wago also makes pure push-in connectors without levers (so do a lot of other well-respected manufacturers, such as Ideal, too), and those are generally considered entirely safe (and code-compliant). However, there is a question of how well it is actually built, which can make a big difference. There is no guarantee that the push-in connections on the back of the outlets are built to the same design/standard internally that Wago/Ideal/etc use, which I suspect is often the problem.
However, it should be noted that all of the outlets I've seen with those "backstab" connectors actually tell you in the instructions that you _should not use them when you are daisy-chaining to another outlet or electrical run._ You should only use them if the outlet is at the end of the wire by itself. This is because the contacts inside them are only rated for the same load as the outlet itself, not the outlet plus other things as well. The problem is that almost nobody actually reads the instructions when installing outlets, so they often don't realize that going in one outlet and then out to another while using those connectors is wrong.
IMHO, I think that the "backstab" connections are probably fine and perfectly safe if used according to the directions (only used for a connection that ends at that outlet and does not go on to anything else), but it's when people (frequently) use them wrong to chain from one thing to another that you start running the real risk of fires, etc. (Even so, I just never use them on principle, because it really only takes a couple of seconds longer to use a screw connection that I know will definitely be adequate anyway (especially for the good outlets that have the newer insert-and-clamp screw terminals).)
One other advantage of a wago is that you can visually inspect how well the wire has engaged (the magic of clear plastic). It is much easier for a sloppy installer to think a backstab is in correctly when it just is not (granted, a sloppy installer can also skip looking at the connector to see if the wire is actually fully in ...)
The reason that you NEVER use the bak stab connector for an outlet is that they generally tend to fall out over time. My father and oldest brother were both electricians. When they did service calls for dead outlets, it was the back stab connector every time.
My house was built in 1983 and all of the 15 amp circuits going to outlets use backstab connections. I’ve had four of them fail since I moved into the house. And when they fail, they usually fail intermittently. It’s a miracle the house hasn’t burned down.
I enjoyed these 2 videos, very informative and you have good points that while it's not as safe as say the UK Standard, it's also not as lethal either so no incentive to change much. Love what you're doing , can't wait for more videos on both channels!
I think you're right about the "affordance". If it was as dangerous as all the critics seem to think it is I feel like there would be a bigger push to change the standard. But changing the standard would also be a problem in and of itself given not only that it's been in place for literally a hundred years or so, but that the US is a pretty massive country. An undertaking like that probably isn't worth the effort for an issue that is, relatively speaking, kind of minor.
NA electrical stuff is so wild, I think just making some industry standard plugs would help since outlets could be designed around those specific plugs (and possibly shrouded like the type F outlets we have over here), although making that backwards compatible would be an absolute nightmare.
xkcd 927
That right there, backwards compatibility is the exact reason why here in NA we just have the mindset of... ehh its fine go with it. the problem being our electrical standard is very old and at this point is so widely adopted that any change either takes forever. or makes no waves. for instance the change from two prong wall outlets to three prong wall outlets took years and ive been in houses that still only had two.
the other, in america we have started providing 20 amp service for most electrical runs. all the breakers in my fuse box are 20 amp, but none of the outlets in my walls are 20 amp. they theoretically should be since the circuit can handle 20 amps, but nope all of them are nema 5-15R.
really a safety feature that i myself tend to do, when i replace outlets. i will replace the first outlet in a circuit run, with a GFCI making all the outlets after that one, GFCI protected, i like this because if say i was to touch the prongs i wont get a severe shock. in fact it happened once where i did slip and touch the live prong, and i didnt even feel anything. the outlet just suddenly went dead with a click. its not code to do that and theres often arguments to not doing that. but for me its never really been any issue and id much rather have a malfunctioning appliance or something get disconnected via a GFCI over having to pull 20amps to trip the breaker. That feels safer to me anyway.
@@compzac The 20 amp circuit just means that the wiring in the walls won't catch fire before the breaker trips. The outlet rated for 15 amps means that any load plugged into it can't draw more than 15 amps and remain in spec. Effectively, the 20 amp circuit allows you to plug in loads up to 20 amps between all the outlets in the circuit without problems, though you're still limited to only 15 amps per load. There's very few appliances that use the winky face 5-20 plug so having 20 amp outlets wouldn't make anything better
Different areas tend to have their own industry standards. It's like how the US has ANSI and Europe has ISO. North American electrical connectors are standardized under NEMA and all North American outlets and plugs meet that standard. If you come over here with a Euro plug, it won't fit.
@@BangersAndMash98 This is a moot point when the new standard is mandated.
my dad has this old plug tester which i think is hilarious and cool. it is a screwdriver. a flathead screwdriver in the handle of which is embedded a simple plug tester, as well as a blue LED to indicate the plug status. fun thing too, the handle is clear resin to let the LED light through, but side effect is that you can see all the electronics in there, which is always cool. But yeah, that is an actual scenario where you are SUPPOSED to stick a screwdriver into the socket :}
I have one too, they're for testing which hole if any is live and neither outdated nor unsafe ;)
This explains why I occasionally run into outlets that I thought were not functioning because no matter how hard I pushed a plug it didn't go in.
Both of these videos are on UA-cam Trending! Congratulations!!! Very well deserved. Fantastic content.
Also, it is pretty rare to be really well grounded while touching the plug. Only if you are holding the equipment that you plug in and it is faulty, or if you touch a radiator. Floors and walls are good insulators. For those who don't know electricity basics, you don't get shocked touching a live wire if you are not grounded. Most often you get shocked between fingers of the same hand and that is rather harmless, just scary.
Reminds me of the poor squirrel that we used to watch occasionally at work while on morning break he would run back and forth along the main power lines amusing himself and once in a while jump over the horizontal spreader to continue along the power line at the top of the pole above where the transformer for the entire plant is mounted.... one day it was raining particularly hard and the little squirrel was apparently really feeling frisky bounding down the power line 'playing' and for whatever reason decided to bound across the spreader from lines to line .... brilliant flash of light, extremely loud bang (the kind you can feel in your chest) every light in the plant flickered and no more squirrel.... gone in a 'blaze of glory'....
@@alexlail7481 This happened to one squirrel who was climbing on top of one of the (actually explosive, yes) fuses above the house transformer. Loud bang, falling squirrel, but later the squirrel got up and ran off. Expensive squirrel, at least for the local electric company, as they had to send out a guy with a ladder truck and new fuse..
@@noyb7920 that's more what I would have expected... but the plant I work at is at the end of a branch circuit in a former residential area and the service has been maxed out for decades on regular single phase power and the company I work for and the Power company are kind in a stand off ... if we need any more power the company will have to pay to update the branch line to supply 3 phase power and higher current... If any of the businesses ahead of us increase their needs the power company or that customer will need to pay 🤔.... anyway I believe I was told we have something like 3,000 Amp -4,000 amp service@ 480volts (I could be wrong) and I guess that would vaporize an unsuspecting squirrel....
@@alexlail7481 This is why power lines should have more clearance or be insulated(yes, covered aerial conductos have existed for over 60 years). Unfortunately power companies will choose the cheapest method until there is a law mandating safer design.
@@mernokimuvek I understand your point but its not quite that simple... there are many reasons why lines are usually bare and cost is definitely a factor but not the only one.
I honestly was curious to know the different types.
I'm in Europe. The entire outlet is a hole + most "prongs" are plastic and only the tip is metal.
The fact that it is a hole makes the entire edge of the plastic cable been supported by the "hole" and therefore it wears out less.
I was curious to see if other places do it better
Exactly the European recessed plugs and sleeved contacts seem very much safer. But with 230 volts that is pretty much a necessity.
For me 16 A prongs are all metal here. Never seen sleeved contacts on a CEE7/7 plug.
@@elpolaco7654 Oh that’s because I live in weird Denmark, where we have our very own version. Compatible, almost, but with an earth-pin on the plugs.
We also have some plugs without the sleeved prongs, but the recessed plugs makes the “falling object”-danger for yanked plugs almost non-existing.
The biggest danger is in selecting the right mushrooms to understand the second half of the video where we are getting into things "tripping out". Just kidding, as always I love it. Yes even if "only" 120V more can be done! I am a survivor of using a knife to free toast from a Sunbeam Toastermatic (Lol I have 5 now) as a young kid when I figured the power was off to the element. the 1890's house had active and neutral reversed and the poor toastermatic (and knife) copped 240V! As a 10 year old I'd figured the element shouldn't be live but that outlet was wired backwards so some melting and sadly toastermatic destrucition occurred! The last house I rented had sockets from different eras in every orientation. Truly egalitarian!
😂
My first home was build in the 50s and had no ground wires. The little work I had to do was always weird to me because of the quality of the wires. MUCH thicker gauge and solid copper with the extra thick fabric wrap over the insulating wrap to the wires, which made the wires that much more fun to manipulate (almost always had to use pliers to bend them.)
In my current home (70s built) almost all the outlets are connected via that quick plug-in the back. We had an issue right after we painted a room (correctly removing all the wall plates) that afterwards occasionally the lights in ANOTHER room (the adjacent hallway) would not work. Turns out having jostled one of those outlets had exposed a weakened spring that was holding one of those wires and it was the last of a trunk line before being used to light the hallway.
Replaced the outlet and fixed it.
Since most of the rooms in this house have 2 breakers, one for outlets and one for lights, I don't have any clue why it's wired that way. By far not the worst wiring issues I've found, either; my favorite was a splice into a line running in the attic, they didn't use a box, or even cut the original wire, just cut back the insulation and wound the new wire around it and taped it up and called it a day. While it did work, and since the home had, magically, not burned down in the 40 years before I owned it, I can only assume it was 'safe-ish.' But I fixed it.
Remember, and this probably applies to the quality of outlets in general: There is no solution more permanent than a temporary solution that works.
When studying for my General Class ham license back in 1999, I learned that our “120-volt” outlets are actually 340 volts peak-to-peak. That is to say the AC wave swings from 0 to +170, back to 0, then continues to -170, before returning to 0, completing the cycle. “120” is the root-mean-square (RMA) voltage, which describes the equivalent heating of a DC supply. RMS is 1/2 the square root of 2, or to put it another way, 70.7% of the peak voltage of one side.