Plug adapter to UK 3 PIN Plug

I’m confused. You want to adapt a Schuko plug to use in the U.K. or vice-versa?

 I recently ordered a new Graham’s Hydra, which comes with a U.K. plug as a legal requirement. I live in Spain. I simply replaced the U.K. plug with a quality Schuko (3 wires into two pins, metal strip is the Earth, the other two in any order). My house is entirely radially-wired and fused at the wall board.

I don’t understand why you’re even thinking about using adaptors. Just use whatever plug is appropriate for the country you’re in, surely?   ????

Mike1951 posted:

I’m confused. You want to adapt a Schuko plug to use in the U.K. or vice-versa?

 I recently ordered a new Graham’s Hydra, which comes with a U.K. plug as a legal requirement. I live in Spain. I simply replaced the U.K. plug with a quality Schuko (3 wires into two pins, metal strip is the Earth, the other two in any order). My house is entirely radially-wired and fused at the wall board.

I don’t understand why you’re even thinking about using adaptors. Just use whatever plug is appropriate for the country you’re in, surely?   ????

This was the OP’s reason, when he considered the UK plug version:

 I could not get over the morons just fitting a £2 master plug, owner of SR said not worth their while I said why offer the option if you don't do it properly (for all except the UK plug the use in house designed plugs and then lashings of graphed on the connection).

And he said the cable is too thick to be able to fit any normal plug without modifying the plug. PResumably he considers the adapter approach to be better.

Richard Dane posted:

ChrisSU posted:

One way in which a UK plug could be though of as compromised is the fact that it has to be fused. This is because of the different way in which UK mains circuits are designed compared to European and others. Using an adapter, such as those designed for travel use, would avoid the use of a fuse, and therefore would be potentially dangerous on a UK mains circuit. They are intended for low powered appliances, not permanently placed items such as big Naim PSUs. 

I'm fairly sure that adaptors to allow use of non-UK plugs into UK sockets have to be fused, otherwise they would be potentially hazardous.

Depends where you buy them. I've bought loads at the airport for spur of the moment trips to Hong Kong (uses UK plugs) and none are fused. They only have to meet the regulations of the country they are sold in, not the regulations of the country they are used in.

To be fair, there are other 240v countries that use non fused plugs as standard and I've yet to notice rapid population decline resulting from electrical shock. 

I'm not in any way suggesting the OP does anything illegal or against code. Just pointing out that on a technical and safety level, it really matters not much. Regarding an adapter on a hifi mains lead though... don't do it! Absolute waste of a decent lead.

FZ, I can't comment on other countries - I don't know their electrical code - but in the UK, any such adaptor must be fused for safety.  UK circuits can have very high amperage so the flex on any connected device requires adequate fuse protection should the device have a fault where it starts drawing too much current.  It's better for the weak link to be a fuse rather than the flex. It stops nasty things happening as a consequence, usually fire..

Just to be clear my adapter is earthed and fitted with a 13A fuse,  i figured out the correct polarity and also complies with BS 1363/3. Connection is solid and tight.

ChrisSU posted:

For £600 you can have a Naim Powerline, complete with wobbly pins in the plug, apparently inspired by those in a bog standard cheapo plug, so you could be onto something here!!

Wobbliness or otherwise of pins in plug body has nothing to do with electrical connectivity, the wires being attached to the pins not the plug body - I assume the advantage is that flexibility of positioning of pins allows them to align perfectly with socket contacts and so make best possible electrical contact,  even where design tolerances of different sockets might otherwise make rigidly located pins align imperfectly.

But every plug-socket interface adds contact resistance and connection surfaces to deteriorate, with an adapter adfing another set.