Electrical items years ago..

Gerard

Gerard

Gerard

Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
41,082
Location
Ireland
Just something that came to mind lately and after looking around I've really not seen an answer for it. Why was it years back when you bought a TV or something along those lines you always had to fit your own plug? Even my NES in the late 80's I had to wait on the old man coming home from work to put a plug onto it. Was it significantly cheaper for the companies to supply it without a plug or was there some other reason for it? :confused:
 
from what i know now its a safety thing and all plugs on new items are supposed to be molded to stop people blowing themselves up.
 
Cheaper yes, also could ship anywhere and add plug later, and now due to safety legislation all electrical products must be supplied with a fixed plug if they are for standard domestic usage.

EU making muppets not start house fires as often as before...
 
Makes sense, just came to mind as I was watching only fools and horses last night and putting a plug on an electric blanket was mentioned, just got me thinking that buying something electrical you had to always fit your own plug. :)
 
all this doesnt explain why they didnt use to put them on lol. i cant see it being much of a saving
 
Time consuming, now with nice moulded gubbins they are easily done, before some chap 'not in china' having to plug a million appliances, you would have to pay him, and indeed pay for the plugs. Big savings.
 
EU is the greatest enemy to natural selection :D.

I'm suprised it's not still standard practise as if you ever took an electrical item from the dump the plug is removed. Essentially shifting liability from the dump to you should you rewire it and plug it in. Would have thought most companies would love that(not that electrical items really produce much liability anymore).
 
Because back then most people had the intellect to fit a plug?

It would be a good way to implement natural selection I guess. :p
 
I still fit a lot of plugs at work, but it's not to domestic stuff. I was taught how to do it in science at school.
 
I worked on a Domestic Appliance factory and we were told it was because many accidents had happened in homes because of consumers putting their own plugs on.

True story:
My mate had worked in packing for about 2 years but was bought out to the lines for a while and put on assembling plugs to cables. There was plenty of stock and the line continued to work until they got to his boxes that he had continually made for 2 weeks. Within minutes plugs were blowing up in the test crib or just not working so the Snaggers took them apart to find that none of them had been wired correctly, and all the plugs were eventually checked and not one had been wired correctly. It wasn't as though he'd crossed blue with green, he'd just put the wires anywhere he felt like, some left loose and some with two wires in one hole. I was the Union Man but explained that even in his mid 40s he'd always taken household goods down to his Dad to put plugs on and nobody had trained him or checked his work.
They put him back in packing and even today he won't even change a fuse in a plug.
 
Sounds like a safety thing and someone certified had to do it which cost lots of money. I believe I can vaguely remember things not coming with a fitted plug but I was young. Now that all plugs are mass produced, injection molded ones this is no longer a problem.
 
Lima said:
I don't remember these strange times.....how long ago are we talking here???
Click to expand...

I'm 30 and I can only remember doing it occasionally. But even as a kid I wired plugs after my dad showed me how. And he only taught me by colour. As in blue / left, brown / right, green up top. It wasn't until I was much older that I knew about live and earth and that a live wire must be fused et cetera. Good thing I'm not colour blind or I'd possibly have burnt the house down.
 
^^Love it!
Recall many years ago a lad at school saying his father used nails for the fuse in an item where it continually blew. Safety first, nail wasn't going to blow ;)
 
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