Not as much as your caps lock key

​only on a full moon, oops no that's werewolves :smirk:

So it's NOT something similar :laughing:

It was a nice story though :smiley:

​Funny you should say all this. Me and my partner bought one of these specifically for the USB ports, as we needed the plugs for other things. We'd only use it at night, to charge our phones. First night was fine without any problems. Second night, luckily before we went to sleep, the plug started sparking, crackling, flashing like a Christmas tree. Turned it off before any real damage was caused. We're yet to take it back, but have taken pictures of it which hopefully you can see the black marks (on USB end and on the main power cable). it's worth noting that all we had plugged in were 2 USB cables and 1 plug for a light, which is nothing different to the previous extension lead we used and have reverted back to. See pictures below.

will update if I hear back from them once taken it back.











[img]http://s16.postimg.org/5h5o2q8j5/20151222_230817.jpg[/img]

Lots in stock in the Reading store today. Bought one. Seems really well made. CE mark. RoHS compliant. Really heavy duty cable. Great value by the look of it.

I wouldn't have looked for this item in Home Bargains but for the post here. Many thanks.

Except for the USB? Given that the electronics are usually the weak point (even assuming a proper insulated switched DC/DC converter), they usually last about 10000h or just over a year... :-(

I might buy one and strip it down, then we might see this something like this happen...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-34902387

Im going back to sleep don't think I will buy this.play nicely kids Xmas will be here soon!

As neither of us have seen inside one neither know what is inside, you assume it's dangerous and I assume it's not. The labelling is all UK, specifically it is labelled as created for TJ Morris (Home bargains owner) with the CE mark and some British standards so if indeed dangerous as you suspect it may be you should warn the distributer?

So are you saying they have faked the ce / bs marks displayed on it? Or are you saying such marks are irrelevant and therefore don't apply to branded goods also made in China either?

You are not understanding the differences in design here.
A modern fridge may have electronics inside which could fail, mine doesn't, it is just a motor

a router has the physical space to design a proper PSU, it will have a manufacturers branding, they are not going to risk a court case by using a cheap backstreet-china design.

this extension is going to contain a capacitor, a resistor and a zener, (and the cheapest ones they could source) which is the basics of an mains dropper circuit. It's about as safe as a basket of snakes. Any of those overheat during a surge, it may catch fire.
Then you are relying on that plastic casing being fireproof which it may not be. Did you know that for many domestic consumer units, the plastic isn't even fireproof? A breaker overheats and they catch fire, regs are changing in Jan 2016.

Anyone leaving this on in their house is a mug, I'm half tempted to buy one just so I can prove what a pile of garbage has been built inside.

@tekmonkey, the freezer compressor motor sits in oil, nothing to go wrong. If I had a TV I would turn it off. If you imagine that Chinese built electronics, particulary ones built without an isolating transformer, are safe enough to leave on 24/7, then I'm glad I'm not your insurance company.

You should think about starting to lock your back door

Do you unplug your freezer when you aren't in? The TV?

Proving what exactly? I leave my back door open all the time, that doesn't mean I'm ignorant of the possibility that I could get burgled.

watch this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-b9k-0KfE

I subscribed!

thanks for the details on standby power use

You can get a pack of two four socket extensions from IKEA for £4.
They don't have switches though.

Got one. But the USB doesn't work! Its only 2x 1A and both inputs don't work!! Its also surge protected to 13A.

Edit: Found out its just poorly made. I bought another and that one works. buyer beware

But turning your light on looking for the plug socket to turn off every night probably costs the same! These are ok. Well worth the money but anything not surge protected should be off unless necessary. Your microwave & kettle use more in one boil than that a week!Heat added! :wink:

Ah, fair enough, I did mess up. Fair enough then so it's more like 75p a month, which does add up, time you throw all the different ones that might be left running.

Thank you and zzzz for correctly me. I'll delete my post, just in case someone thinks I'm right.

For my house, there's just me and my wife, but we have just as much gadgets making the meter tick. I try, but my wife has a habit of leaving everything on.

As zzzz rightly indicated, it's 50mah at 240v.

I might be wrong, you might be wrong, who cares :-)

The point I was trying to make is that the USB sockets consume electricity even when no devices are attached to them.

It might worth mentioning that it's much worse with laptop chargers. I would highly recommend turning the socket off, or taking the charger off the socket if it doesn't have a switch.

I have four children so there is six of us in the house, each with 2-3 devices at least (laptop, tablet, phone, toy helicopter,...etc) plus other devices all over the house like TV, Received, NAS, Router,...etc and it all adds up. So for us it makes a difference to switch a device off if not in use.

None in Consett Co Durham and you cannot source it online.

This one BS enough?

What's a B***Sh*t number?

Might be a silly question, but.... is this surge protected?

50ma at 240v surely ?

Several in the Hucknall branch - Wed 2nd Dec Midday.

EDIT:
Deleted my post - seems I'd made a silly mistake. Thanks to rafaey and zzzz for putting me on the right track! :smiley:

GOOD PRICE

ARE USB's CONSTANTLY VAMPING POWER?

I'll take my chances, picked one up on the way to work. Not pulled it apart yet as it has 12 triangle head screws holding it together and I don't have any of them here. Has the CE mark on and some BS numbers on the back.

nobody says it happens to everybody, but it does happen.

LOL

reasonable price

You've got to be kidding me, that USB power supply is going to be left switched on all the time, take this thing apart and you'll probably see a house fire waiting to happen.
Please don't buy this and leave it under a desk and forget about it, make sure it gets turned off at night (or ideally whenever you leave the room...)

LOL :smile:

I don't think you know what the word similar means.

It was a nice story though :smiley:

I recently bought something similar surge protected from B&Q for £8, it was on a promo, but it does not have the USB charging ports

On Sunday had them in Belle Vale.

Good product with cheap price. :wink:

They had some in Portishead store, but they are not with the electrical goods but actually with the xmas lights etc.

Some in Holderness ,Hull this afternoon.

Plenty in Home Bargains Harwich when I was there yesterday.

​i like how the 's' is lower case, though. obviously know how to turn the caps lock off....

Just bought one at local home bargains (Upper Boat, Pontypridd) and have run a few quick tests using Ampere app on Android. Getting 1.4 - 1.5A on single USB and approx 1A + 1.2A on 2 USB with decent leads.

I think we can be fairly sure: if it was surge protected, it would say "surge protected". They don't tend to keep quiet about that sort of thing - not that many of them are actually that much use; they just tend to lull people into a false sense of security: protection tends to be hit and miss, and unless you get one with some kind of visual indicator you also have no way of knowing whether they even have any protection left in them.

And the number of people who think they will protect their equipment from a lightning strike beggars belief...

Got 3 at Auldhouse Retail Park. For some reason they weren't with the electricals but beside the Xmas decorations. Not too many left.

If you look on the label on the bottom left if it says reg it's will be regular stock and in most stores if it says one its a one off so may not be in all stores

Items in Home Bargains depend on store size and categories instore... Chances are if its not been seen in 3/4 stores but has been bought in Alfreton that this is a line stocked by the bigger ones(superstores)

None in Cumbernauld

I called the Lancaster and Preston stores and they don't have it in....and are not aware of it. Is this national at some point?

Is there a direct link to this? Or is it in store only? I can't seem to find it on the site...

[img][/img]

very nice. HOT!

need to know the amps supplied to USB for this to be useful really?

if it's 0.5a (quite possible ) then it wont really charge many modern phones....

Hot

good find op, heat

individually switched an all! great deall!

also on a £50ish recent family shopping trip for same/simillar items at homebargains and B&M, i found home bargains the cheaper (B&M came out 14%, £5 dearer)