I used to live in the UK (also lived in the US and Europe), and I HATE the UK plugs. They are too large and too complex (fuse in every plug, this silly shutter, etc).
European plugs (especially German style) are far superior, and European two pin plugs never fall off sockets. That is only a problem with US plugs.
The shutter prevents someone (including children) shoving something metal into the live/hot. I have never heard of it failing. Newer US outlets (TR/tamper resistant) are way more finicky because of the optional ground pin. Sticking the little plastic covers over the outlet is a workaround.
The reason for a fuse is because of the high current capacity of ring circuits vs branch/radial. The fuse protects the power cable of appliances catching fire as they can’t handle the current available on the circuit .
Ring circuits are a thing due to minimizing copper usage when rebuilding after ww2.
TR: I know why they did it, but I'm not a fan of the tradeoff. I don't think making all the sockets worse is the solution, people with kids can just baby proof their place (I have a toddler, and we baby proofed our house).
Fuse: I'm not familiar with ring circuits and everything you mentioned, though I was aware it's for fires. Other places (and the UK as well in most apartments I had) have centralized fuse boxes. Is this still needed?
Either way, these are reasons for why things were done the way they were done, but reasons aside, the usability is inferior.
They still have a centralised box but each connection goes in a ring from the box and back to it again. This way you can use thinner wire for the same total capacity.
Sadly it carried on for far too long, my house built in the nineties has it.
UK central fuse boxes don't have a fuse/RCD per socket. For example, mine has common ones for the kitchen, downstairs sockets, upstairs sockets, and all lighting -separate ones only for the boiler and cooker.
The wiring system was designed during world war II when there was a copper shortage and someone calculated that it used less to use larger conductors to several sockets than to run smaller individual ones to each socket.
TR in the US makes sockets harder to use, but I have never heard anyone complain about TR in the UK, as the earth/ground pin is always present, and is physically longer than the live and neutral, so mechanically it is reliable and unnoticeable.
“Just baby proof” means remembering to keep those little plastic covers in place in every outlet. That doesn’t seem like superior usability.
> The shutter prevents someone (including children) shoving something metal into the live/hot.
Child protected schuko sockets exist and work just fine. We have them installed in our place and I never had an issue with them. Neither do things fall out, nor can you poke at them with a screwdriver.
Not only do they fall out, they also like to slide out part way, exposing the hot part of the plug while still being hot. In EU and these British ones, once it slides out a bit, it will lose contact before you can touch the metal.
Yeah, both UK and EU ones have the plastic coating on the base of the hot prongs to prevent this from happening. I really wish US plugs had this plastic coating.
I'd choose UK plugs over US plugs any day of the week, but I still think EU plugs are 10x better than UK.
Modern ANZ ones also have the plastic coating as well. It seems to be a more recent introduction though so there are still plenty of non-plastic-coated ones. Is this also the case for the UK/EU ones?
I, at least, try and dispose of any non-plastic-coated plugs though.
You can still find old lamps and stuff that don't have coated prongs, but I don't remember seeing a consumer electronic that's uncoated for at least a decade.
I can't imagine any 2 pin plug being as mechanically stable as a 3 pin. Certainly here in Asia I am regularly being driven bonkers by 2 pin plugs dropping out of sockets the moment a butterfly shakes its wings on the other side of the planet.
One common complaint I get from my newly arrived expat colleagues is that their PC gives them slight electric shocks when they use it. IANAE (I am not an electrician), but I assume that this is because of some capacitor voodoo in the PC's power supply. The problem is cured by grounding the assembly.
The British plug/socket embodies the British ethos: nanny state, 'cannot be too careful' etc. In British parlance it is 'belt and braces'. But yes I agree it may be overkill.
> I can't imagine any 2 pin plug being as mechanically stable as a 3 pin.
In absolute terms, yes. But in 30 years I have never seen a 2-pins europlug fall from a socket on its own. I still prefer the French plugs with the Earth pin (and I quite like the British one as well), but europlugs are fine and really not comparable to American plugs.
I can see it happening on some very old and very used ungrounded sockets. But with modern recessed sockets yeah not going to be issue. Which actually is an other great design of those plugs.
Yes, the schuko seems to be a nice in-between of the compactness of the US plug and the mechanical robustness of the British plug and the bonus is that it can still take the Europlug. They definitely could have made it a bit smaller but it's good enough.
I find the British plug tends to end up feeling more compact in the wall over US plugs because it's perpendicular on the wall by default, making it easier to hide sockets behind appliances etc.
Very true, I do dislike the way that US plugs stick out. I've been buying these 1ft extension cables that have a flat plug that only sticks out maybe 0.5in at most, perfect for outlets that are right behind furniture or appliances.