Electric Hook Up Lead Plug - Is This A Problem?

[KD]

I would take that white towel/cloth back definitely as it seems to have turned orange ..

This made me smile

 

[kevenh]

I was taught the same when I was an apprentice but now it's frowned upon mainly by people who don't understand safety.

Was that taught for wiring a 3pin UK mains plug or the plug & socket we use for EHU?

The cable routes for the regular UK mains plug has different lengths.
The EHU connections are in a row.

 

[Lenny HB]

It has not been pulled hard to our knowledge,

I reckon it's been pulled hard looks to me like there are some marks on the outer sheath from when it was in the clamp.

I would cut a few inches off the cable and start again.
As said it should like you would be better to get someone who knows what they are doing to do it.

 

[TheBig1]

Now if it was me fixing the plug in the OP, I would cut off the stretched wires and remake the connections, ensuring the outer was clamped firmly as required. When a cable has been pulled hard enough to do as pictured, the inner copper strands would be thinner than expected so not sufficient for the rated load. You may later have a dead lead as the stretched part has overheated. You can get away with it so long as you are not relying on having the full 16amps available

 

[ctc]

Was that taught for wiring a 3pin UK mains plug or the plug & socket we use for EHU?

The cable routes for the regular UK mains plug has different lengths.
The EHU connections are in a row.

No matter what you're wiring the feed should fail safe first.

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[bigtwin]

Was that taught for wiring a 3pin UK mains plug or the plug & socket we use for EHU?

The cable routes for the regular UK mains plug has different lengths.
The EHU connections are in a row.

Irrespective of the positioning of the terminals the underlying rational remains. i.e. tgat the first wire to be dislodged should be the live wire and the last, the neutral.

No matter what you're wiring the feed should fail safe first.

Indeed.

Ian

 

[Mzracer]

No matter what you're wiring the feed should fail safe first.

I agree but 3 phase portable plugs (very similar design to EHU) that will see far worse abuse than a EHU system cannot have the feed fail first as there are still two feeds left !!

On EHU systems then well-applied workmanship and in particular, making sure all the connections are well made and tight and that the clamp is effective is the single most important thing for the less well-versed to do. And of course a good quality 2.5mm sq cross section cable.

Far more problems and safety issues will arise from poor-quality connections that result in high resistance and heat.

I have never had the clamp fail.

Last time I read BS 7671 I don't remember any emphasis on different core length but it has been a few years.

 

[kevenh]

Irrespective of the positioning of the terminals the underlying rational remains. i.e. tgat the first wire to be dislodged should be the live wire and the last, the neutral.



Indeed.

Ian

I understand the idea of the “different length cable” suggestion. I was intrigued about the course work. yy

 

[stuartholmes]

Hi all, many thanks to those who replied to my original question. Whilst everybody agreed that the orange sleeve needs to be in the clamp, there seemed to be a split opinion between squishing the rest inside the plug, and cutting down the inner wires. The first option seems to have worked fine, so I have gone with that.

I suspect 'squished inside' is where the wires all used to be & they just got pulled out of the grey gripper so you've probably returned it to the original state.
Although I'd personally have taken the opportunity to shorten the wires (to varied lengths as referred to by others) but if the grey clamp is now gripping the outer sheath firmly and when removing it from a socket you pull the plug by the plug not by the wire, you'll be fine.

 

[Widge]

Was that taught for wiring a 3pin UK mains plug or the plug & socket we use for EHU?

The cable routes for the regular UK mains plug has different lengths.
The EHU connections are in a row.

It dosent really matter what inline plug or socket it is, the principle is still the same, the live wire pulls out before the neutral or earth, but with a socket ensure that if the live pulls out, there isn't enough slack in the other wires to allow the live wire to actualy exit the socket casing.

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[kevenh]

It dosent really matter what inline plug or socket it is, the principle is still the same, the live wire pulls out before the neutral or earth, but with a socket ensure that if the live pulls out, there isn't enough slack in the other wires to allow the live wire to actualy exit the socket casing.

I understand the idea of the “different length cable” suggestion. I was intrigued about the course work.

 

[St3v3]

Irrespective of the positioning of the terminals the underlying rational remains. i.e. tgat the first wire to be dislodged should be the live wire and the last, the neutral.

At the socket end it would be better if the neutral was shortest.

It's a little far fetched, but possible for the loose live wire to touch the earth terminal. Should normally be OK, but if there is an earth fault somewhere you then have a voltage on anything connected to earth. Bad, very bad. Lol

 

[Widge]

At the socket end it would be better if the neutral was shortest.

It's a little far fetched, but possible for the loose live wire to touch the earth terminal. Should normally be OK, but if there is an earth fault somewhere you then have a voltage on anything connected to earth. Bad, very bad. Lol

I did have a long think about it before suggesting the same for the socket, but decided that it was better to have the live become disconnected and possibly short against the neutral or earth, hopefully blowing a fuse or tripping something out, than having the neutral disconnected that could possibly give the impression of no power and have somebody investigating discover that the equipment still has a live connection by sticking their hand on it, or even with a poorly insulated peice of equipment, discover the case is now live. But I may have missed something, and i am happy to be corrected if I am wrong.

 

[Widge]

I did have a long think about it before suggesting the same for the socket, but decided that it was better to have the live become disconnected and possibly short against the neutral or earth, hopefully blowing a fuse or tripping something out, than having the neutral disconnected that could possibly give the impression of no power and have somebody investigating discover that the equipment still has a live connection by sticking their hand on it, or even with a poorly insulated peice of equipment, discover the case is now live. But I may have missed something, and i am happy to be corrected if I am wrong.

Of course all this goes out the window if the socket is reversed as it can be in europe

 

[St3v3]

I did have a long think about it before suggesting the same for the socket, but decided that it was better to have the live become disconnected and possibly short against the neutral or earth, hopefully blowing a fuse or tripping something out, than having the neutral disconnected that could possibly give the impression of no power and have somebody investigating discover that the equipment still has a live connection by sticking their hand on it, or even with a poorly insulated peice of equipment, discover the case is now live. But I may have missed something, and i am happy to be corrected if I am wrong.

Agree that is another possible problem, but as with my example pretty unlikely.

We're all better off just checking the cables regularly I think

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