This is the UK and electricals are regulated, can you be more specific about your concerns?

what's that monstrosity? lol

Would you really trust an electrical component that cost you £1.17 not to set your house on fire?

Some things aren't worth skimping on, and with extension leads being dubious in terms of safety at the best of times, I wouldn't touch this with a very well insulated barge pole.

None anywhere

Annoyingly they put the switches on the front. Which means some plugs like some power adaptors wont fit, as they will be obstructed by the wall.

The south, maybe (as usual) but zilch in the north

Barnsley has stock

this is worth no more than 1.17. thank you OP.

Fire brigade does not recommend having these block type extensions due to overheating and firerisk. Recommend replacing all with the long strip type.

**** ugly disaster that thing is

Agreed. If you get a home safety check from the Fire Service (which is free and everyone is entitled to) then they'll advise you to bin these sort of things. Not worth the risk.

I agree with you about regulation. Too many fannies spouting pish, as usual. If it is cheap it must be crap!! Music to the ears of anyone in sales. To some of these eejits the dearer it is, the better it is. Send them to Currys for a super duper HDMI cable, bargain at 50 quid! Beam me up Scotty.

​to say you have never met a "Fire brigade Officer" maybe says more about your lack of meeting any Firefighter as they are known, or call themselves.

But after attending fires caused by such products, though not recently because of the phasing out of them, the evidence is there in the damage caused.

No disrespect. I do not live in England!

Been a long time since I've seen a 3 way!

Got last one in Durham store. Socket orientation for the plugs should be rotated 180°. Nowt fits.

Works ok if you use the none switched adapter I had been using as an extension block to make a decent gap from the wall. This defeats the object of course

Still have the protection of one 13amp fuse but just don't be silly trying to overload it with several high load devices like heaters, hair dryers, power tools, kettles turned on at the same time.

Heat added. Just managed to reserve one.

In stock in leeds

Hi,

The main reason the brigade disapproves of these is the design, the use can pull and lever the adaptor away from the wall, as it pulls the electrical contact area reduces leading to overheating, i.e. someone uses an item attached at the top then the side etc, which gradually pulls the plug away from the wall.
http://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/guides-and-advice/electrical-items/overloading-sockets/

They say:
Use a multi-way bar extension lead rather than a block adaptor, as this will put less strain on the wall socket. Some block adaptors do not have a fuse, which increases the risk of overloading and fire.

I say:
No modern block adapter should be without a fuse. Maybe Chinese type adapters but Logik is a recognised brand in the uk.
They do not mention anything about reduced contact area.
If anything is hanging half out of the socket, the electrical contact area may be reduced!
What they should be mentioning is that the actual pins are now shielded. Some plugs I`ve seen are not. This exposes live contacts if the plugs/adapters are hanging half out of the wall socket

The site is not a fire brigade site, just one I stuck in for reference, we are generally told to tell people to avoid these types of adaptors as they pose a greater risk, the specifics you would have to get from fire safety. Personally I have seen one overheat where it has been levered out of the wall, I don't think it matters in this aspect if it fused or not as the overheating happens between the pin contacts of the adaptor and the wall socket.

The reason these type of adapters are not recommended is because of the dangers of electrical arching.
Due to the design of these it increases the chance of arching as the extra weight can cause the adapter to pull partially out of the socket, electricity can then arch between the intermittently connected plug contacts and over time generate huge amounts of heat.
Electrical arching WILL NOT cause overload protection to kick in!

Thanks that's the word I was looking for arcing.

The plain fact of the matter is actually the normal uk plug (top) and the socket are not in most cases well enough designed to take a full load of 13 amps and the likelyhood of it being near to 13 amps increases when there are multiple connections. There is only one manufacturer of plugs and sockets who I would personally recommend and that is MK. They no longer exist as a company although the plugs and sockets of that brand are still manufactured to that standard. Even then, plugs drawing the full 13 amps for extended periods should be regularly inspected and such things as storage heaters should be directly wired in. Most people would be not be using these adapters for such high powered devices. There are fewer nowadays anyway.
The ridiculous change to 13 amp or 3 amp fuses has meant that everything with a current consumption of over 3 amps has to be fitted with 13 amp flex. Fitting a few of those to such an adapter will probably drag it out of the wall!
Is that the fault of the adapter?
There are too many blanket rules nowadays, which simply say no. The reasoning is not as clear as is made out.

It's arcing, not arching.

Happy New Year :smile::smile: