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Comment by jraph | Hacker News Reader

> cumbersome over-designed

It's a pain they are not the same as the rest of Europe, but what is cumbersome and over-designed about UK plugs?

Follow up question, why Swiss plug needed to be so close to the rest of Europe, but different anyway? (same distance between the 2 pins, but the pins are a bit thinner and the ground is in the opposite way).

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> It's a pain they are not the same as the rest of Europe, but what is cumbersome and over-designed about UK plugs?

The size is definitely cumbersome. Look how much bigger they are than US/EU/AU plugs, basically any other countries plugs.

I'd call having a fuse in the plug itself over-designed.

> Follow up question, why Swiss plug needed to be so close to the rest of Europe, but different anyway?

I have the same question about AU plugs. Literally the same as the US plugs (newer ones that don't have one side larger at least), just at an angle.

The size is cumbersome, but folding plugs are available for devices like phone chargers - the dummy earth pin is retractable, so the overall size of the charger is essentially the same as a US or EU charger.

>I'd call having a fuse in the plug itself over-designed.

I wouldn't. A UK mains circuit typically has a 32A breaker. Pulling that much current through an appliance that's designed for a fraction of an amp or a cable that's designed for 3A is obviously a very hazardous fault condition. Some appliances have a built-in fuse, but many don't and that still doesn't offer the same level of protection as a suitably-sized fuse in the plug.

> The size is cumbersome, but folding plugs are available for devices like phone chargers - the dummy earth pin is retractable, so the overall size of the charger is essentially the same as a US or EU charger.

How much does a folding plug fold? Look how minimal this[0] is, I've never seen any UK plug anywhere close to that size.

> I wouldn't

Any reason the fuse couldn't go in the socket instead?

[0] https://i0.wp.com/www.cablesgo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/0...

> Any reason the fuse couldn't go in the socket instead?

Because changing the fuse in a socket just because you're unplugging a lamp and plugging in a kettle would be very stupid. With the fuse in the plug, you have the correct fuse in every plug.

For one thing, AU 2-prong plugs have a much more physically secure connection than equivalent US plugs. The angled prongs mean there’s no rotational axis about which the plug can fall out. Of course it also means the prongs can’t really fold away for storage.

> I'd call having a fuse in the plug itself over-designed.

Personally, I'm quite happy that all my lower power devices with relatively thin power cables are protected by a 3A fuse. There's no risk of causing those cables to catch fire if there's a fault that draws 20A, which isn't enough to blow the 32A breaker on that ring.

How much difference it makes in practice though? Pretty sure that if I short the power at the device end of a 5A cable, the 32A breaker would blow before the cable caught fire. But I'm happy not to depend on that.

I've never had issues in the US/AU/EU, so I really question how useful it is compared to the amount of incidents it is actually offering protection against.

Seems to me it's somewhat like having an additional seatbelt for your head, which might protect against whiplash but isn't justified by the inconvenience.

The fuse in the plug is necessary to protect the wiring on ring circuits.

The fuse in the plug was chosen to protect wiring on ring circuits. They could also have put the fuse in the wall socket. After all, they already put switches on them. Of course then you would have to go with the screw-in fuse design that was used in circuit breakers back then, instead of the fuse design in UK plugs.

Other countries get by just fine without it.

Other countries don't use ring circuits to the extend the British do. We just rate every outlet to the specs of the wire in the wall, but the British have a 30A ring that serves multiple 13A outlets. As a consequence they need to protect the outlets (and device wires) from overcurrent somewhere in the circuit.

Believe it has to with lowering the cost of rebuilding after the war.

British plugs are big but they are flat (cable runs parallel to wall), which actually makes them less cumbersome than EU ones because you only need a small gap between wall and furniture/whatever.

A very significant fraction of Schuko plugs is also 90-degree angled, though. Angled is neat for furniture, but straight-out is better for unplugging and high-density power strips.

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