Extension Lead Fire..

[Spark123]

Hands up anyone who has found a wind up extension lead rated for 5A with a 13A fuse in the plug when doing a portable appliance test

 

[JohnW2]

Hands up anyone who has found a wind up extension lead rated for 5A with a 13A fuse in the plug when doing a portable appliance test

Given that there are (usually multiple) 13A sockets at one end and a plug with an easily changed fuse at the other, I'm actually surprised that they are allowed to produce cable reels which are not rated for at least 13A continuous use.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I'm supprised this one in article actually caught on fire and burnt house down though, I would have expected the PVC to go all dripy and the conductors to migrate into each other and take out the fuse before that happened , unless the reel was right ontop of something flamable, or very easily combustable

There's now at least one alternative report which says it was the T/D itself that was the cause of the fire:

http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?z4903532379&z=1250248784

 

[ban-all-sheds]

There are a number of ways to stop this happening and the first done in this case by BBC is education.

The instructions will tell you not to run heavy loads with it wound up.

If people aren't prepared to read instructions how much more can be done?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Given that there are (usually multiple) 13A sockets at one end and a plug with an easily changed fuse at the other, I'm actually surprised that they are allowed to produce cable reels which are not rated for at least 13A continuous use.

The item will carry a label stating the current it is rated at.

If people ignore that and put too large a fuse in that's their fault, not the maker's.

 

[JohnW2]

The item will carry a label stating the current it is rated at. If people ignore that and put too large a fuse in that's their fault, not the maker's.

I wasn't suggesting that it was the fault of the makers - rather that the Nanny State might want to make the products more idiot-proof.

Given that people do daft things regardless of any education/warnings, it clearly makes sense to make the products as idiot-proof as possible - and 'banning'sub-13A cable reels might be seen as part of that.

If 'bursting into flames' is actually something which happens with a significant frequency, then maybe they should be manufactured of materials which are much less likely to do that. The most extreme 'idiot proofing', which would be pretty easy to implement, would probably be to design them so that they would only 'switch on' if the cable were completely unwound - but that would be inconvenient in many situations, and one has to ask whether the sensible majority should be inconvenienced because of a small minority of idiots.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I wasn't suggesting that it was the fault of the makers - rather that the Nanny State might want to make the products more idiot-proof.

Given that people do daft things regardless of any education/warnings, it clearly makes sense to make the products as idiot-proof as possible

Where do you draw the line?

The world is full of idiots - it's not possible to protect them against themselves 100%, and I'm not sure that any legislative or manufacturing effort should be expended to protect people from not reading the ****** instructions.

 

[JohnW2]

Where do you draw the line?
The world is full of idiots - it's not possible to protect them against themselves 100%, and I'm not sure that any legislative or manufacturing effort should be expended to protect people from not reading the ****** instructions.

Exactly - that's what I went on to say. The problem is that the line ideally needs to be drawn in different places for different people - which is impossible. Also, to be fair (and a bit more PC) the 'idiots' we are talking about may in some cases be people who, through no fault of their own (children, elderly, mental health disorder etc. etc..maybe just low IQ) will not be able to read and/or fully understand instructions. Those people really do need protecting from their own limitations - and I guess the majority have to accept some degree of inconvenience on that account.

Kind Regards, John