At a local flea market I recently grabbed an electric kettle for ?5. It doesn't have any markings, except for the connector, which says "A.E.I. Peterborough Made In England".
As I do with any used appliance I started with opening the plug. To be greeted by the following sight:


Direct import obviously...
I corrected it a little...


I'm pretty sure this was a homebrew import, since the red wire inside the Schuko plug was considerably shorter than the black and green, suggesting a BS 1363 plug.

{ Edited to move images to ECN server }


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 05-16-2006).]

They Must have been, 'coloured blind'.
They were lucky they didn't transpose
as well!!

Trust you finally had a nice cuppa!

My best guess would be somebody tried to "Austrianize" it, and back then red was ground by Austrian standards. Since that still leaves you with a black neutral and green phase (as opposed to black phase and grey neutral) I decided it would be wiser to put everything back to UK standards.

The kettle was a replacement for my most likely equally old orange and white plastic kettle from Germany. The element was scaled badly, so I tried putting in vinegar, sticking to the isntructions still stuck to the bottom of the kettle. Afterwards I had gotten rid of the lime, but apparently the plating of the element started coming off too and it looked rusty... besides I suddenly realized the orange plastic probably contained cadmium, so it retired. For some time I used a new €10 kettle, but it broke after roughly 6 months, and since the entire guts were just a big lump of PVC it was impossible to fix. Glad I got this one now!

I am someone else who can appreciate the value of a good kettle. I have gone as far as bringing one back to the states with me, the last time I went to Scotland. The 240 volt 3Kw kettles boil much faster than the wimpy 1Ks we get over here I got a nice Hinari for 10 a Pound note. I am hoping it lasts a while.

[This message has been edited by IanR (edited 05-16-2006).]

Couldn't whoever did this have restripped the wire and just made the red shorter for the Schuko's ground terminal?

The black looks too long to have been just taken from a BS1363 plug and reconnected "as is." Mind you, I've seen some people wire BS1363 with the neutral looped halfway up the side toward the earth and then back down again, all jammed in tightly so the cover fits!

A.E.I. is Associated Electrical Industries. They've been around a long time:

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/freshwater/histaei.htm



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 05-16-2006).]

That's one of the tiniest Schuko plugs I've ever seen, so the black and green aren't really long. They're both the same length, maybe 2.5cm max, probably shorter.
Cutting the red would have been real hack work, the ground is supposed to be the same length as phase and neutral or even longer. Possible though.
Restripping is unlikely, there is a rubber collar on the cloth cord which looks original and non-removable. I think there are even indents from a different strain relief.

The plug definitely didn't look like professional work at all.

Yesterday I thoroughly cleaned the kettle and today we had several cups of tea from it at school.
I have no idea about the wattage since there is no nameplate.

That kettle was built to last!
I assume it's 1960ies, judging by the old cord.
Inside there's hardly anything that could break... that entire thing consists of plug, cord, connector and heating element.
The "old" kettle was a "Made in China" crap with automatic shutoff when the water boiled, dry-run protection, indicator light and whatever rubbish. Pretty soon the flimsy switch failed...

Ah, O.K. I couldn't make out that it still had the original rubber binding on the end; I thought that might just have been taped. It looks as though he may have just shortened the green a little then?

You're dead right about these old kettles versus the new ones. It's not long ago that I finally retired an old Russell-Hobbs kettle which had been in just about continuous use for almost 40 years, albeit with a couple of replacement elements (it had finally started to leak at the seams). These days you're lucky if the cheap plastic "jug kettle" for £9.95 lasts a month past the 1-year warranty, and you can forget about replacing the element, because it can't be done.

Any chance of pic of the actual kettle, by the way?

Here's a 1966 ad for British kettles:




[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 05-16-2006).]

Yes, that's possible.

If I remember to drag a camera to school, I can take a picture, right now the kettle is in my locker.

In the meantime I can say it looks exactly like the 4 pint model on the bottom right. From a Continental point of view I'd say mine holds around 1 litre, maybe a little more. Stainless steel kettle with black handles. Apart from one little scratch it still looks like brand new after I wiped it with a wet cloth.

Well, I'm not sure whether the cheap kettle even survived six months. I guess the girl who bought it was just too lazy to return it... wasn't much of her own money in it... we had split the €10 over 16 people when we bought it.

Strange --- Perhaps someone replaced the cord and didn't follow old UK colour codes.

Oddly enough Ragnar,
There is a whole Code of Practice here in New Zealand for the Sale of Second-hand Electrical Appliances.
The name of which escapes me (ECP 53??).
If I ever go to a junk sale here, I take test gear with me.
I even tested out a range for a guy locally here at a clearing sale, it gave the lowest Insulation Resistance test I've ever seen.
I might be on the Black-list of Garage Sale vendors.
I think they've all been warned, "Just look out if anyone brings that idiot Trump here, if he turns up, close down your Garage sale and Run!!!.
Don't let him ask you any questions, it just helps him".

I don't think there's any kind of code for used stuff here, or at least nobody knows and it's not enforced.

Years ago I posted pictures of a table lamp here...
I got it at a flea market and the plug was falling apart, hot wires were sticking out of the plug and the socket was a US ES26. Besides I think SPT-1 zip cord isn't quite legal around here...
At another flea market I got a nasty shock off a record player (never managed to find the fault though, got the player for free afterwards).
So, since that kettle actually had a Schuko plug on it _nobody_ would have cared.
At the very same flea market I saw a slide projector missing all the guts, live wiring dangling loosely inside the fiberboard (=wood) casing, most likely shortening... flea markets are basically outlaw space, like middle eastern bazars.

As a slightly blasphemic German proverb says... help yourself, then God will help you!
(Note: applied to everyday problems I don't even consider it blasphemic - if there is some superior entity like God it's definitely not to be bothered with small problems)

They tried imposing a load of restrictions on second-hand electrical goods here. Some charity shops and such like were apparently given so much hassle by their local Trading Standards Dept. that they adopted a policy of not selling electrical equipment anymore.

I think there's supposed to be some sort of legal get-out if stuff is sold as a "Collector's item, not for use" or something along those lines. I've not heard anything more about it for several years.

My view is that if somebody tries to sell an item as "perfect working order" then yes, he has a responsibility to make sure it works and is reasonably safe.

If somebody wants to by an item as "untested, can't vouch for its safety," then its his responsibility to have it checked out and the government should mind its own business. We have far too many restrictive laws as it is without adding more. Caveat emptor.

Hm... a few years ago I bought a slide projector offered as "in perfect working condition, I tested it myself!"
The rubber cord was frayed beyond belief, I could see the bare tinned copper sticking out. Bought it anyway since I knew I could easily replace the cord but...
BTW, the seller was a police man...

Why didn't you just use a new plug while you were at it instead of re-using that old dinosaur?

What's that white stuff I see around the pins. Corrosion?

Also, what does that black female connector look like from the front, by the way?

Makes it look like an extension cord - all the kettle connectors I've seen are flat plastic, some with two grounding strips on the flat edges to scrape against the metal casing of the appliance inlet.

Now that's where you'd have a comeback if he'd told you it was perfect when it clearly wasn't (although if it was something as obvious as that, I'm sure that if it went to court it could be argued that it should have been obvious to you that it wasn't).

If some of the health-&-safety nuts got their way though, there would be laws preventing you from buying such an item even if you were told "It's not safe, needs work" and you were happy to buy it in that condition nevertheless.
My guess would be that it's the type which has two round pins for power plus a rectangular one for the earth connection.

They replaced the 2-pin-plus-sliding-side-earth type and were very common on British kettles in the 1950s/60s/70s before the more modern IEC-type connector started to takeover.

They're actually very close to the design of a danish plug / socket.

'Cuz that would have required to get up and dig around in boxes to find a better one... I don't really have a stock of new plugs and the salvaged ones are spread all over the place. So... why bother.
The pins are a little worn (to put it mildly) but near the tip where they go into the receptacle they still look ok. The plug was definitely borderline to getting trashed though.

Yes, Paul is perfectly right. Two round pins and a rectangular ground pin on top (rather flat, not bulky like the BS1363 pins). The entire connector (male+female) is _really_ long, so you'd consider unplugging it before putting the kettle away... it's awkward to fit in my locker.

Here's one of the older connectors with side earth contact and integral switch. Notice that the earth wire passes through the body and is secured by a terminal outside.

This socket would have been from one of the small kettles, or perhaps the old-style hotplate which used a similar connector. Despite the bulky construction compared to modern types, it's rather conservatively rated at 6 amps.

Aaaand now... presenting the kettle itself!

Just for fun I test fitted a BS 1363 plug two days ago - perfect fit, no need for squeezing. The black could be a little shorter, but it definitely isn't too long to fit. The red is extremely short though, barely extends into the terminal.

Ahh yes, the scraping Earth connection.
The IEC connector took care of that idea.
Kettles over here had much the same thing until about 1992, Reyrolle plugs with the scraping earth contact were banned in 1998, even though they are still used in industrial places for welders (3 phase 400V).
It became illegal to own or sell them in 2000.

Except for the outside earth screw terminal the old connector looks remarkably similar to that used in Continental Europe well into the 1970s. Originally intended for hot appliances like hotplates, irons, toasters, heaters,... it was used for virtually anything, particularly vacuum cleaners but also floor polishers and a load of other appliances (I think I've even seen an oscilloscope with such a connector). 5mm pin diameter, pin spacing 20mm.

I've seen that on plenty of old appliances in Ireland. In fact, I think we have an old Nilfisk Vacuum cleaner that has one.

It was definitely common on things like hot plates, grills, sandwich toasters etc.

I have never seen the version above, with the external earth cable though. The examples I have seen here, had a normal internal earth and two scraping contacts on the edge of the socket. The 'plug' was recessed in the appliance, or shrouded. Similar kind of set up to schuko, just smaller.

And also, an old (1970s) vacuum with two blade pins at arranged at a 45 degree angle i.e. / / but in the same configuration as above.

I have also seen appliances with what looks very much like a "Europlug" CEE 7/16 fitting.

The IEC 'kettle lead' that we find on the back of PCs etc seems to have replaced all of these fittings.

Interestingly, I had a Bosch fridge-freezer which had an IEC plug on the back! It was contained in a connection box on the back. To remove the plug you had to open the screws and open a door on the box.

I can only assume they must have done it this way to allow for easy localisation with the correct cables for 'weird countries'

That's the old UK kettle lead (Also used here) :



Oddly enough, it seems to mate with CEE 7/7 and CEE 7/16 plugs! It's weird how often that same pin configuration got used!

The live and neutral terminals are the two round holes, and the earth is the rectangular hole at the bottom. The other round hole is just a screw for holding the thing together.

These seem to have disappeared by the late 1970s and were very much associated with non-automatic kettles i.e. the type that would just boil until they boiled dry! It was common enough to walk into your kitchen only to find the entire room filled with steam and the wall paper peeling off !!!

I think they may have had some kind of safety cut out, but they certainly didn't seem to have the usual auto-switch off once boiled.

That was used by Electrolux.

The two round pin connector with scraping earth contact was common here for flip down side toasters, irons, electric jugs and frypans. However, I've never seen one with a switch before.
The other purpose I've used them for is plugging in the occasional European appliance; the pins are the same spacing but the grip isn't the best.

Dave,
The older kettles over here had a mechanical device that would eject the plug, if the element went over a given temperature (as would happen if the kettle actually boiled dry).
This device was built into the element itself, it wasn't part of the kettle body.
This was also back when you could actually replace the element in a kettle, instead of throwing the thing out and buying another one.

Oddly enough,
If I recall correctly, the Nilfisk/Tellus vacuum cleaners had a 2 pin "plug" on them as well using vertically orientated pins ie: | |
One thing I never understood was how a metal bodied vacuum cleaner could get away with not being earthed, OK so the motor was double-insulated, but some cleaners had RFI capacitors that were connected to the frame of the appliance, what say one of them decides to go short circuit?

The pins of the UK kettle connector seem to be 5mm in diameter rather than 4.8 (Schuko) but that's not much of a difference.

I don't think they actually fitted any kind of safety cutout unless there's something like a thermocouple inside the element which shuts off power at say above 120 degrees.

The IEC hot appliances connector is slightly different, it'll fit a computer, but a computer lead won't fit a hot appliance since it lacks the side notch between the line and neutral terminals.

I have to correct my last posting, the old "iron connector" had 6.5mm pins, not 5mm (measuring the holes of the female connector is easier but gives false reading). Pretty easy to tell why Schuko plugs don't fit too well. I even have an adaptor which converts an iron lead to an ungrounded extension lead (6.5mm pins and 4mm holes).

Some slide projectors had a predecessor to the IEC plug with parallel flat pins and scraping earth contacts.

Switched iron connectors were fairly common for vacuum cleaners without an integral switch, heat dishes and other appliances. Replacements are hard to find but still in production. I'd like to know why it has been phased out, perhaps due to the overall size and the fairly large holes.