AMERICAN Reacts to Why British PLUGS and OUTLETS are the BEST in the WORLD!!

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#british #britain #unitedkingdom #uk #americanreacts #UkvsUS #britishcomedy #london #jtreacts #reaction

[darkstarnh]

UK electrical engineer here. Load balancing is rarely a problem. A property will have multiple rings (think lounge, bedroom, kitchen, lighting etc) and very power hungry appliances like an oven will have a single spur of its own. Also, finding out if an appliance has blown a fuse or is not switched on is simple; it's built in to us to first ask 'is it switched on at the socket?' :) Keep up the good work JT.

[terrystewart]

One thing he missed out is, when the plug is plugged into the wall socket, the plug has a width of 2cm (3/4 inch) and that's all it sticks out from the wall. And as the cord comes out of the bottom, the outer face is flat. You can push furniture pretty close to that plug, without interfering with it in the slightest, which is useful if it's for something you want to leave plugged in like your TV, or side lamps or whatever. As the US plugs all have the cords coming straight out, there's a lot more sticking out of the wall, and not just the plug, but the cord for a bit before it bends down, so that option is out. That pretty much disproves his first disadvantage; UK plugs may look bigger, but they take up less space in practice.

His second disadvantage, load balancing, really isn't an issue, I've certainly never come across it. His last two are just silly. If the lamp doesn't come on, the first thing to do is check the wall socket if you're in the habit of switching it off from there. And stepping on the plug? Don't leave them lying around on the ground in the first place.

[toonbarmy]

I have worked construction and lived in the UK for 52 years and never encountered load balancing as a problem for our electrical outlets. Until the first time i saw this clip on another you-tube channel i never even knew there was such a thing. So it just is not an issue that i know of.

[richardmillican]

So.

The original UK plug was designed by an apprentice working for a company called "Ashley's" based in Ulverston in the north west of England.

The designer got only a bonus in his salary. And the plug was released on open patent.

I know this because the designer was named Robert Mark Millican.

My father.

[rocketn]

I'm an electrician, load balancing on a ring circuit is never ever an issue.

[lesallen]

One thing here in the uk we don’t generally unplug our plug and leave them on the floor to stand on. We just turn the outlet off. I’m 46 and have never stepped on a plug

[gaynorhead]

I am a 69 year old Brit and I can honestly say I have NEVER stood on a Type G plug as they can be switched off at the socket therefore they are invariably left plugged in the socket in the wall. Why anyone would leave them turned upright on the floor is frankly a mystery.
Edit: also when you are brought up using Type G plus turning on at the plug or the device you are plugging in is not an issue, as you don’t turn it off at the socket as a matter of course, only maybe when you are going away on holiday!

[AndrewLumsden]

In the UK they are only ever called sockets. An outlet is a shop selling goods direct from the manufacturer and cutting out the retailer.

[Shoomer]

After years of research and experimentation, I finally solved the standing on a plug problem. It's a foolproof overall safety system I call "Don't leave the bloody plug on the floor"

[DanielFerguson-lu]

You have to realise that the UK electricity supply to homes is at 230 volts, that is twice the power of that supplied in the US. That is why safety measures are important. But the extra power means faster & more powerful machines & devices can be used, i e heaters, washing machines etc. That is why we can have rapidly boiling kettles for our tea & coffee etc. Here in the UK there are items that have sealed plugs that cannot be opened but must be replaced complete with the cable. This is common for kettles & similar devices. Yes we do have surge protectors, but they may have a single switch for several outlets. What he says about overloading has never been a problem. You only step on one once, then you learn not to leave
them lying around. Its easy to check an outlet, just plug in something you know is working, then you can see if it's the outlet that's out or a main circuit trip. It's not hard. You trip the local switch when you plug the device in or remove it, it becomes automatic.

[summit]

I used to work aboard cruise ships that due to the markets they served ran both US and UK electrical systems.
I heard the onboard electricians to say they loved the US system because it never had enough power to hurt them, but they loved the UK system because it had the power to actually run stuff.

[ianjardine]

The cord orientation and robust plug also means you can plug something in the push furniture right up against it without worrying bout damaging anything.

[just_passing_through]

As a kid in the UK, everyone was taught in school how to wire a plug, and replace the fuse.Back in the day many appliances came with a bare wire and you had to add your own plug.
Having a fuse was huge advantage at the time these plugs were developed. Not so much nowadays but fuse boxes tended to be outside the house - on an external wall, inside the meter box where the electric company came to read to usage. With the fuse inside the plug, if you ever had something short out, that fuse would be the one to blow, rather than the one in the fuse box. You could then replace the fuse from the comfort of your arm chair, rather than venture outside in the dark, in the rain, with a flashlight held in your mouth while you used a screwdriver to undo the two screws which held the fuse wire in the ceramic fuse, cut a new length of the appropriate gauge fuse wire and place and screw that back into the fuse.

[BintyMcFrazzles]

Watching American's discovering something we've had for decades is like watching the first Neanderthals discover fire. 🤣😉

[Dingo-x]

I can't think of a single case where i've had a problem with the UK socket and plug system. Most learn from an early age about checking that the lamp, tv etc is turned on at the socket before switching on the appliance.

[rymental]

Accidently standing on a UK plug is so so much worse than Lego! 🤣🤣

[enemde]

GREAT SHIRT. Fellow Leeds fan here 👍⚽
I never noticed the " shocked face" before ! 😮
That is the standard plug of the UK. Everything has one on it.

[jeffwalker]

Another feature is that the fuses in our plugs have different ratings - generally 3A, 5A and 13A. Something like a table lamp will only have a 3A fuse, a hair drying will have a 13A fuse. This means if there is a surge, the 3A fuse will blow quite quickly, protecting the appliance it is feeding, which may be more sensitive to a surge. I believe our kitchen supply generally sits on it's own circuit and has extra capacity to account for heavy drain units like cookers, kettles, and washer/dryers (we tend to have the latter two in our kitchens and not a dedicated room).

In addition, in the UK we do not have sockets in the bathroom - apart from a two pin shaver socket. Also, if the bathroom light is turned on within the bathroom, we use a pull chord and not a switch. Sometimes the light switch may be on the outside of the bathroom.

As to the issue with plugs landing on their back, prongs upwards - if you think getting a shock from an outlet hurts, it is nothing like standing on a plug. Having said that, as we have isolation switches on all of our outlets, it is very rare that we would actually unplug an appliance, so the chances of them laying on the floor is minimal.

[londonkiltmanreview]

As a person who uses these plugs all the time I say the UK plug is one of the best not only for all its safety features this gentleman described but I like the factor that it is flush so you can plug it in and then push a sofa or a fridge or anything up against it.

Testing the ring circuit is relatively easy. We have this new and simple way of doing it. You plug into your main fuse board with a simple clip and then you have the testing machine plugged into that cable and then you walk around the house with an extension cable touching the plug sockets and it takes about six minutes, to do a two bedroom apartment!

[bryanbuttery]

My brother taught me how to wire a plug when I was about 10 and have never forgotten the way he showed me. When you have the plug open (pins facing away) you have 3 wires, brown (live), first 2 letters of brown are BR so bottom right, blue (neutral), first 2 letters of blue are BL so bottom left, then 3rd goes to the top.