The fuse carrier and ground pin do bulk it up quite a bit in comparison to Europlug (2pin) but when moulded on BS1363 is actually quite neat and comparable to schuko or NEMA plugs.

The rewireable variety can be a tad bulky! Although not that bad. At least you can get a grip on the things! Try removing Europlug or NEMA (2pin) if your fingers arn't too mobile! I know a few elderly french people who had to have all of their plugs (including the 2 pin ones) refitted with rewirable grounded plugs with handles on the back.

With the way access for the disabled legislation is going I seriously doubt that any move towards a "fiddly" plug would be accepted.

(Under building regs light switches here must be mounted between 900mm and 1200 mm from the ground, must be reachable from a wheelchair.. sockets generally go in at about 900mm for the same reason)

Also, unlike any other system I know of they're impossible to remove by tugging the flex/cable.

Schuko / French recessed plugs often semi-disappear into the recepticle when inserted (particularly the rewirable variety) and it's often a lot easier simply to yank the cable to pull the plug out than to actually grip the plug properly.

I've seen a lot of French cleaners yank the vacuum cleaner cable out of the socket rather than bend down too.

Try that with BS1363 and you'll get no where. The cable always emerges from the bottom of the plug so if you pull it'll just kinda half disengage with the outlet.

Anyway [Linked Image] They're just a good solid system! ...

Don't think I need to provide any futher argument to defend them :P


[This message has been edited by djk (edited 08-04-2003).]