European 2 pin plug - Change to UK/Irish?

yop

Guys
Got 2 appliances there from pixmania, one a tv and the other a power washer. Both have them 2 round pins and I got the converter plug. Problem is now that one of them converters is broken, can I just cut off the old plug and replace with a 3 pin UK/Irish plug?

Thanks

M cebee

cut off the 'unfused plugs' and replace with the appropriate 3a/13a plugs


here the plug-fuse basically protects the 'power- cord'

yop

M cebee wrote: »

cut off the 'unfused plugs' and replace with the appropriate 3a/13a plugs


here the plug-fuse basically protects the 'power- cord'

Ok so I can just replace it with any UK/Irish fused plug? I have a good few of them at home, just dont want damage the appliances!

Solair

Yes, you can without any problem at all. Electrically, the Irish and continental systems are identical i.e. both 220-230V 50Hz.

The reason that our plugs have fuses is because of ring-circuits i.e. the sockets in your house can be fed from a 32A breaker (this is more common in the UK than in Ireland, but it's not that unusual in Ireland and is allowed in the regs)

The fuse in the plug simply protects the appliance cord from overloading, doing the same job as a 16A breaker on the continent.

Ring circuits do not exist outside of the UK and Ireland (and a few other places that use the same plugs as us) On the continent and in most of the world, there are no fused plugs. Instead, the appliances are designed to be able to cope with faults up to the rating of a typical circuit i.e. 16Amps in Europe / Australia / NZ etc and 15Amps in the United States / Canada.

All appliances sold in the EU can function quite happily using continental plugs and sockets.

Fitting an Irish plug actually only exposes the appliance to a maximum of 13amps and it's advisable to fit a 3amp fuse if it's a very small appliance which had a flat 2-pin European plug. If it's a normal "schuko" 16amp plug i.e. the larger round earthed / european plugs, fit a 13 amp fuse.

So, it's absolutely no problem to replace the plug. If anything, the UK/Irish system is slightly safer in terms of the fault loads it will expose appliance cords to, when the correct fused plugs are used.

The only thing you should never do is jam a European plug directly into an Irish / UK standard socket. There's always the possibility that the circuit is being fed from a 32A ring, so your appliance cord is at serious risk of fire should there be a major fault.

Always use a fused adaptor, or change the plug.

This wiki article explains all about European plugs : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuko (Grounded)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europlug (ungrounded)

M cebee

they shouldn't be shipped with these plugs really

the schuko won't earth with the 13amps here

and the europlug pins are not designed for the 13amp

users may discard the supplied adapter i would think, as well as the fusing issue obviously

Solair

M cebee wrote: »

they shouldn't be shipped with these plugs really

the schuko won't earth with the 13amps here

and the europlug pins are not designed for the 13amp

users may discard the supplied adapter i would think, as well as the fusing issue obviously

They can be legally supplied with a permanently fitted adaptor plug that can only be removed with the use of a tool



If the plug is cut off and removed, and replaced by a BS1363 plug (i.e. Irish/UK standard) it is absolutely no different from any appliance sold here.

If the schuko plug is used with a proper adaptor, it will earth and work perfectly safely.



That's a fully earthed, proper adaptor, for Schuko (CEE 7/7) to BS1363.

Schuko cannot be inserted into a BS1363 socket, and the pins will not fit the terminals on the socket, they are too fat to fit. The smaller flat Europlug will fit, but only if someone tampers with the shutter.

If you buy something online from a continental supplier, they don't have to fit Irish/UK plugs as you are basically importing the item.

From an electrical / safety point of view, appliances sold in any EU country will work safely in any other. There are just a few "odd ball" countries which do not use CEE 7/7 plugs. Ireland, the UK, Malta and Cyprus use BS1363, other than that, Italy and Denmark are the only other two strange ones that use their own respective standards. (Outside of the EU, the Swiss have their own strange standard too)

They're all very safe systems, provided you don't misuse them, bypass their safety features or do not use proper adaptors.

CEE 7/7 is the de facto standard across continental Europe and in many other places too.

M cebee

sorry ya .i'm not familiar with those adapters

Solair

M cebee wrote: »

sorry ya .i'm not familiar with those adapters

The EU or national Governments really should regulate adaptors better though. There are a lot of completely inappropriate adaptors on the market.

E.g. I regularly see non-grounding adaptors which seem to be designed to accept Swiss, Danish and Italian plugs, rather than the *much* more common CEE 7/7 plug used everywhere else.

These will accept CEE 7/7 but won't connect the grounding contacts!!

We should have safe, approved adaptors which go from CEE 7/7 to BS1363 and that comply fully with the relevant standards for both systems.

Likewise, there should be similar arrangements for adaptors that connect to Italian or Danish systems.

It's not like there are so many combinations of sockets / plugs in the EU that it is difficult to regulate!

M cebee

if memory serves i've cut off plenty of euro/schuko plugs

don't recall seeing those particular adapters

yop

Both the TV and power washer came with them white adaptors, one is banjoed. I will be cutting off the plug and putting on a 3 pin plug now tonite

Thanks for that lads.