Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Now Selling Updated World Travel Adapter Kit With Lower Price, No 30-Pin Cable
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It's the safest in the world. It's fused so if something does go wrong you will be safe at your end - unlike other fuses where there is one fuse so if one thing goes wrong everything goes wrong. It's more likely to cut power also to protect you from the electricity.
You cannot poke anything into the plugs without putting something in earth firdt making it safe for babies in the house ( the baby plugs, although you can buy them, cannot be certificated and can pose a risk).
They are also insulated so when you pull the plug out or push the plug in, if you got your hands touching the pins, you cannot push it in far enough to turn on the power as where power does start is insulated.
Only pain in the backside is when you drop them they always point in up and when you wake up in the middle of the night and step on one - lets say you will probobly wake next door also!
Safer though it may be, that has nothing to do with why UK plugs are the way that they are. The original purpose of sticking the fuse in the plug was to eliminate the need to wire up plugs to a central fuse board, thus reducing the amount of copper wiring required for a given building. (Copper being in short supply following WW2)
Last edited:
Although this is true it should be explained that if this standard hadn't come round then every uk home would have multi sockets with a 2/5/15 amp socket and due to differences in pin size and spacing it would be a mess.
well i cant say i know much about the outlets in asia. i must say i prefer apples solution (not saying it couldnt be more compact). once on a vacation to new york i dropped a similar one you show and it totally shattered and since it relies on springs and stuff its ruined
then i bought one of these and while its volume might be a bit bigger i would argue its more resistant and durable since there is no internal mechanism to break.
Now we do have proper consumer units in each house we could though in theory be more European and standardise. Although I do like my UK plugs
Considering everything Apple can do, I figure they could manage something durable and springless---it might even be sexy.
GREAT - the box no longer includes a cable, a cable that costs $21, and they lower the price by $10 - GREAT.
You hardly ever see un-switched sockets in the UK.
The Apple UK iPhone charger is very neat, and probably smaller than most other countries versions (except US) as it is wholly contained within a "standard" plug body.
Somebody who cared about electrical safety?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEfP1OKKz_Q&ab_channel=TomScott
Without weighing in on which design is safer, it is worth repeating that the 230v wired to every outlet in the UK domestic system demands the failsafe plug design used there. This voltage is found in U.S. homes as well, but is limited to circuits driving high-demand appliances such as electric ovens and clothes driers. The outlets and plugs on these circuits are not the same as the 110v outlets and plugs. They are much larger than an UK 230v outlet and probably equally difficult to short out accidentally.
Out of curiosity, did you try both of the similar-looking adaptors? One is a Europlug, and one is Schuko. Although they're practically identical, the dimensions are different. In particular, the Schuko's pins are larger and therefore it's less universal than the Europlug.
That's the model I've got, but without the USB section. I've only used the European sockets (I'm British) but I do find them very loose and wobbly compared to UK ones, and due to the cables coming straight out instead of down they're much easier to trip on.
Whilst I agree with the sentiment of the individual fuse it's very much outdated. It's design goes back to the days when the fusebox had a whole bunch of high rated circuit fuses which would take longer to blow and were a pain to replace. These days things are different, the electronic circuit breakers detect problems faster, trip faster, cover more safety aspects (earth leakage for example).
The design also leads to abuse - People over-rate the fuses (they'd only keep 13a ones as spares...) and i've seen people wrap broken fuses with silver foil as a temp fix.
In all honesty the design needs an update, the design goes back to the late 1940's. I'm all for the overall shape but it could be smaller and less painfull to step on ;p
heck, I'd be safer commuting to work in a M1A1 tank, should I take that as well?
Poor us here in the Netherlands suffering from our much compacter plugs exploding all the time.
Please.
Last edited:
Where does he say the plugs in the Netherlands explode? The point is clear, UK plugs are safer, that doesn't imply all the rest are dangerous.
The other thing is that it has Shielded pins so you can't Grab the live pin round the Plug.
Also the other genius thing is the design and wiring orders means if you pull out the wire the Positive comes out first, followed by neutral then the earth... in that order... super safe.
As for over-rating the fuses. No accounting for stupidity.
Do agree someone should come up with a real Worldwide design.
Only if we can globally standardise on voltage and frequency and/or ensure that all devices work globally... both unlikely
Well no. You don't have to standardise the Voltage. As it is most electronics operate 110-240v. And any standard worldwide unit would be designed with that in mind
You would have course have to make sure it works everywhere though.