American vs European Power Sockets: What's The Difference?

Today I'm taking a look at a standard power socket from North America and a Schuko one from Europe! We'll be comparing them and showing how they're wired up, as well as their respective wall boxes.

If you're interested in this sort of stuff, you may want to check out this page on my website, where I'm working on documenting electrical items from all over the world:

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[REWYRED]

Our north American versions are nice as mentioned there are those tabs you can "split" the receptacle. You rarely break the neutral side but you can break the hot and have a "split switched" where one half is constant power and the other is switched, common in living rooms and areas where you may want to plug in a lamp but control it from the entrance to a room, yet still have the outlet powered for a phone charger etc. They can also be "split" and wired to provide two circuits, common in kitchens, areas where you want to plug in two high power appliances.
The ones you see here are cheap "residental grade". There are "commercial specification", "industrial specification" and "Hospital" grade receptacles availible that are far more robust than you see here, availible with screw clamp terminals for solid and stranded wire as is now found in commercial and industrial installations.

[hereintranzit]

North American household electrical system runs on 110/120V, 60Hz with A, B plug&socket type whether Europe and including Russia runs on 220/240V, 50Hz with C, E, F plug&socket type.

[politicalhorizon]

Great vid! 😊. I went to your website. It's really neat and interesting.

[SavedGaming_Official]

The fact I live in the U.S. and 2 out of the couple of homes I have lived in have for some odd reason had the switches on the wall connected to the outlet being Only for the outlet and I actually prefer having it that way xD. I always would turn off an extension cord before plugging anything in because sometimes the outlet would wanna try and shock you not latley though but I feel like why aren't all houses like this the only time you should have an almost always active outlet is in a restaurant whre you have lots of people coming in who might need to charge their phone.

[SimonBauer]

the us sockets and plugs look like Toys. schuko is just better.

[cymrb]

There are US outlets with screwless connections also but they are more expensive so usually DIYers are the ones who install them while professional electricians install ones with screws. But screw connections always have metal connectors on them like you showed on second Eruopean outlet with screw connectors. I never seen connectors with just screws like what you showed.

[__Man__]

The American plug needs to be deepened.

[amyjojinkerson-bo]

2 screws for American iss for switches and 220 volt stove and dryer

[JYKDutchYT]

6:32 the one on the left is an inside socket and the one on the right is an outside one.

[TheRealLavelo]

At my grandma's house we have European outlets, but at my house, we have American ones

[SockyNoob]

Very interesting video. I checked your website too, surprised you know of our (United States) recent mandate of tamper protected outlets.

[okaro]

The way te US outlets are standardized is amazing. In Europe everyone is different One has to be very careful when connecting them in order to make it correct. On the other hand on American outlets if you remove the cover you have live parts directly exposed. inside.

[adam]

The US box you showed is considered an outdoor or well-location box.

[thorstenjaspert]

The only disadvantage of the Schuko System is that the the polarization is not warranted. The phase can be on on the left or right pole and the nutreutral one as well. A lot of firms instal L on the left an neutral on the right. There is no common rule for it. All in all the Bush Jaeger socket is much save than the us one.

[kirbyyasha]

Nice video. A lot of US sockets when contractors install them they tend to wrap them in electrical tape too. Adding a tad bit more protection. Also if the install uses solid steel conduit, then a ground/earth lead may be absent as the box itself is grounded. US sockets are very sketchy though. Basically no changes since made.

[Pidalin]

I hate German sockets as a Czech, we use French sockets and it is mostly compatible, but sometimes it's not when you have some older product made in Germany that doesn't have hole for grounding pin or vice versa our old plugs din't have those 2 holes for German style grounding, it's ridiculous that even neighbor countries can't have the same sockets. Good thing about German sockets is that you can put it vice versa, but on other hand, it's a safety risk and since we are obsessed by safety rules here, we adopted more safe French sockets back in Czechoslovak days. And phase should be always in left, but since these German style sockets are symetric, it's easy to do it vice versa, that's why I think French sockets are safer.
I also noticed that some German products like vacuum cleaners, even when it has metal body, it has just 2 pin not grounded wiring! Why? We always think about Germany as very safe hi-tech country with good safety standards, but our Czech products are actually safer. When I replaced cable in my Karcher cleaner (because my father damaged it), I grounded it because that's how it should be, I am surprised that such metal body not grounded german vacuum cleaner is even legal here.

[happy_srl]

great video 👍 I also like the lighting!

[alphaLONE]

Very informative! I've found a difference between your sockets and mine (in wall, Belgium) : we could take the screws off the chassis after popping the frame off the face plate, and it's needed to remove the face plate off the socket assembly (or is it? I've just never done it without removing the chassis 😅)

[UKsystems]

One thing that is worth knowing most European countries use double pole circuit protection this is simply due to the polarity not being there and it doesn’t exactly add additional levels of safety

[Mladjasmilic]

This is German socket.

Similar is French, which has better ground connection and is polarized (no live-neutral swap is possible).
There is a common plug which fits both.

But I think that the Swiss system is the best.