13A Plug / Socket

Just had an intense conversation with a friend who is a time-served electrician ( retd.) about a 'strange' 13A socket.

I haven't seen the item but it may be what I knew as a D&S or D.N.S. socket?

He says he's never heard of them. Now I'm not sure.

Cannot find any reference to the on the net .

IIRC they were used to stop dreadful things like vacuum cleaners being plugged into clean supplies ?

What were they really called?

Dave

New one on me but I did find this

**LINK**

Dorman and Smith plug which used a fuse as the Live Pin.

Martin

I remember those. Very expensive. A lot of the old council houses in Poole had these. Arm and a leg to buy the fuses which kept blowing all the time. They were about £2.50 per fuse in the 1970s I think.

Certainly came across Dorman Smith plugs in my youth but only in an industrial environment I seem to recall.

Please excuse me if this is off-topic.

I recently removed a moulded-on pseudo-13A plug from an item of far-Eastern made computer equipment. (The plug did not have a fuse-holder so was illegal. ) I substituted a proper 13A plug. The pseudo-13A plug did, at least, have shrouded pins.

Thinking that I might as well salvage the pins to add to my scrap brass box, I applied a pair of pliers. To my surprise, the pins broke much more easily than I expected revealing that they were not brass but brass-plated die-casting alloy!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

I lived my childhood in Middlesbrough and can vaguely remember we had those as late as the early 70's

I can't remember exactly but seem to think they were only in the kitchen and we used them on larger appliances like washing machines, fridges etc.

.

I think I know the type the OP is asking about.

They look like a normal 13 amp outlet except one of the pins is twisted at an angle and thus requires a special plug to go into the socket.

I forget what they are called but probably expensive due to smaller production runs I would guess.

Nick

edit :- They are called 'non standard 13 amp sockets' and are made in several fittings by different companies. MK being just one. Cannot find the 'twisted pin' ones though.

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Edited By Nick_G on 11/08/2015 10:42:28

Still used a lot in computer rooms. Earthed down to a separate clean earth for computer equipment use only - stops unautherised equipment being plugged in.

I agree with Nick_G & Saxalby. Came across them occasionally years ago when I used to repair computer printers. From what I remember, it was the Live pin (or possibly the Neutral) that was turned through 90deg.

Me and my mate lugged a huge boxload of Revell scalextric(my dad got it) down the street to his house then spent the entire morning constructing it in the bedroom/hallway area only to find his house plugs were different to mine(round vs square)

Pissed off hardly described it

We were too young to rewire a plug and in those days everyones dad was out until 6-7pm

So it was all dismantled and lugged back up the street 4 hours later

There are so many variations, a photo would be useful. As well as D&S I also remember the Wylex 15A ones with the pins (almost) in line (round earth) and the 5A and 2A round pin. The 2A plugs used two split pins - you could unscrew the top while they were plugged in!)

Neil

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That was back in 'the good old days' when Darwins theory of evolution was still allowed to eliminate those that possessed the 'stupid gene'

Nick

just a random selection of UK mains plugs

    John

Edited By john swift 1 on 11/08/2015 12:06:21

The screw in fuse in those D&S plugs could stay in the socket if it was loose. This happened to me when I was ten years old. Without thinking I grabbed it and found myself laying on the floor. Lucky I guess.

Bert

Probably worth sending that to trading standards, or did you 'personally import' it?

Neil

No, if I remember correctly, it was bought from an Amazon associate! The item concerned was the mains cable for the PSU for one of those caseless harnesses to connect a hard drive to a USB socket. We've actually had a few of them.

The pins broke off so easily that I could imagine a clumsy user ending up with a detached pin still in their wall socket. Caveat emptor indeed!!!

We also bought a KVM switch from another Amazon associate but had to return it because it came with a non-UK AC adaptor. (I tried a few Euro-to-13A adaptors but didn't consider any of them acceptable for 12/7 use!!! ) The associate concerned was operating from mainland Europe. The manufacturers of the KVM switch told us that all their UK agents supplied the equipment with an AC adaptor suitable for UK sockets. So we cancelled on Amazon's associate (goods not fit for purpose) and bought from a UK agent.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Very subtle, Ady

Neil