Great video. I discovered a few of these in an office a while ago. The self tapping screws used to hold the case together had stripped the posts. Result: when the appliance plug was pulled it took the top half of the adapter case with it. The bottom half remained in the socket, along with the pins which were now exposed. This product must win an award for the highest number of dangerous failure modes.
In addition to being a shock hazard, that adapter is also a fire hazard. The lack of a crimped or other mechanically bonded contact means that over time, the resistance will go up and the adapter will be arcing internally when connected to high current loads. Over time the plastic housing will deform and melt, and eventually it could catch fire.
I just had an "Oh sh*t!" moment watching this video when I realised where I'd seen an identical death-daptor to that. My girlfriend is now complaining that she can't charge her electric toothbrush because I have dismantled and binned the same p*ss poor adaptor as in the video.
It's just poorly assembled, those screws should go through clamps (hence there are holes), so that socket contacts are attached to the lower part with pins.
As I had an identical death adaptor waiting for me to look inside it, I took at apart whilst watching this video... Exactly the same inside.. Surely they should have put the screws through the contacts... I think I might have to plug a 10A load into it just so that I can watch the thing melt... Cheers BigClive!!!
Hi Mr. +TheChipmunk2008 ... I just spent 20 mins in the shed running 11.6Amps through the death-daptor (fan heater), but the reaction was rather unexciting... After 20 mins, the death-daptor was getting rather hot, but no spectacular failure I'm afraid... Just a bit hot and a smell like the plastic was just starting to think about melting... Maybe if I'd left it for an hour or two... but I got bored, so I'm afraid no video for melting the death-daptor. Cheers!!
Thanks +bigclivedotcom - Upon post-mortem inspection, it seems that the plastic around the screw holding the live terminal was just starting to melt... I should have given it another hour or two, but I grew bored of standing around in the shed. Cheers!!
+bigclivedotcom I know nothing about this stuff, but I have an adapter which I'm 99.9% sure is the same as this one (arrived with my OnePlus One import from a cheap Chinese seller on Amazon). Provided I'm not stupid enough to plug things in to it incorrectly, is it safe for me to use it, or should I throw it away immediately? Also, I have a slightly different question. Would it not be possible to sue some of these companies selling dangerous equipment? Even if they didn't actually cause any damage, it must be very easy to prove they'e selling dangerous equipment that puts their customers in serious danger. Apart from the money (dunno if you'd even get any without being harmed by it), I would think if people started to at least threaten legal action on a large scale it would stop a lot of these companies doing this stuff, would it not?
+XTheGamingBossX I'd suggest only using a decent pin converter bought from a high profile local supermarket. There's no point suing Chinese suppliers. The only person who would win would be a lawyer, mainly with your cash.
I love the phrase death-dapter. Well I don't know why I have never opened one myself as I have about 15 of them, but thankyou for showing us what's inside, they are even worse than I could have ever imagined :(
Thanks for making these videos. I have learned so much about 'electrickery' and circuits by watching your excellent videos. You also manage to make it entertaining and interesting. Many many thanks.
and then my parents continue to use the 2 pin wall outlet to stuff with the plug same to what was in the video (the appliance one). they wont listen because I am 16 and I am "too unexperienced" they even run a 2000w vacuum cleaner on it. it hets hot as hell. but the ones we have the metal is screwes into the plug so there is no continuity issuea
+Anas Malas That sucks man, I'm 18 lol. I've had some people be weary of me, but honestly, I probably could do a better job than some electricians out there!
+Anas Malas Sucks dude; I watched my parents do all kinds of dumb crap despite my advice, when I was a teen. But I'm 36 now and they still don't listen. Go figure.
+Anas Malas My dad pulls that all the time whenever I ask him to use literally any safety equipment of any kind. On the plus side, I get to say I told you so when he gouges an entire knuckle off while using an angle grinder with no guard and an oversized disk running faster than it's rated for in a t-shirt with no gloves and no safety glasses on. He does that regularly, and has ground the same knuckle off about 6 times now, along with other random bits of hand. I get to say I told you so a lot.
I've had a few of these over the years, but most shockingly I had one sent to me by an Amazon seller when I bought an ethernet switch. The best place for these is the bin.
+Strider9655 "The best place for these is the bin." Very true - and for that's where I immediately put the ones I get, given that the body won't fit into the round recess of the outlets; utterly useless here.
Surprised you've never been in one of these before.. I think i have three of these death-dapters now! I enjoy the blast from the past these days of having to put on your own plug.. Reminds me of 80s electrical/electronic purchases! I remember Tandy not selling me a desktop calculator with printer because it needed a plug and the new laws just came into effect, meaning they all had to be pre-fitted (and later moulded).. Ah, memories!
Being very alarmed at the exceedingly poor quality and risks involved with these Chinese "death daptors", I've never actually used one and the two I got with some items I purchased on eBay some time ago just got thrown in the junk draw. Today I thought I'd have a look at how bad the two that I got really are. I was astonished to find the contacts for the sockets to all the pins were actually screwed together making almost a good connection between the sockets and the pins, but the fingers of the sockets looked to be very flimsy chromed metal, not brass! Plugging one adaptor into the other confirmed that the pins are not gripped very well at all, and confirmed Clive's findings that you can plug any pin into any socket of the adaptor in any orientation. The adaptors remain in the junk box, never to be used unless I want the brass pins to machine in order to make something, which is the only reason why the adaptors haven't just gone in the bin! These adaptors are so bad I am astonished they are not made of conductive plastic! K Watt Yes that is my name and yes I am an electrical engineer, now retired.
+Jason VomitStorm Couldn't be assembled in a other way, becuase the screws wouldn't line up with the holes in the contacts! Yes, it's designed that poorly.
It "works" with small appliance (1.8VA). Pure curiosity made me plug a 10 amp heater (2500W) into this device, after having seen the construction with the screws under the holes, put it in an outlet on my desk. It is marked !0A/250V, so it should do. Well, there was a strong plastic smell after a couple of minutes followed by fumes and little yellow flames. A perfect set your home on fire device this type. And that's why it is for export only, not to burn homes in the country of origin.
I have the exactly the same adaptor powering a android box. It even has the "for export only" sticker as well. Since watching this video, I've taken the adaptor out of the plug socket and chucked it in the bin. I didn't realise how bad it was. Great video. Subscribed!
I just throw those things in the bin, absolute junk and as you point out there, are not safe in any way at all, better just to cut the plug off whatever's been bought and stick a proper, full-fat British rewireable plug on there... :)
I do exactly this! Much safer, works a treat, and keeps practice in the increasingly rare (i.e: Could net £40/hr from 2022) skill of being able to wire a plug! :-) The only hiccup came on the one occasion where I wasn't thinking straight and had forgotten I was working on an appliance in France. That said, it seems that a UK-Shicko adaptor is easier to come by in French stores than a rewireable Shucko plug! :-o :-p
One thing you didn't point out was the pin sizes - if you compare them, the death-dapter pins are significantly smaller than a real plug, so you can get some fun arcing in some sockets where the undersized pins don't make a good contact. Some of that is due to them being the wrong shape as well though.
I wonder Clive, is it just assembled incorrectly? could the connections be designed to screw to the pins and the assembler just didn't bother to do that and just pushed the parts into the holes and didn't screw them to the pins? I enjoy all your videos by the way !!! a big thumbs up!!!
+KB1UIF If you look closely none of the crews would match the holes in the metal taps. The ground very obviously, the other two not so much, but still off.
+KB1UIF exactly what I thought - looks like the workers in the factory went to brain dead mode just like with the earth wire glued with hot snot in those cheap LED lights..
Markus Bates they are, but theres always someone who wants it cheaper, some middle man who wants it cheaper than last year so he can earn more money from the sales, leads to this mess
+KB1UIF I took 2 of these apart recently that came from China with some wireless phone chargers. The pins were screwed to the metal contacts. I wouldn't risk using them.
Thanks for this video, it made me check the earth continuity of the death-daptor supplied with my chinese rework station; no continuity... ESD safe haha. Well, it's fixed now. So that's why I've been blowing a bunch of BS170s...
Not surprised AMECal are sending you freebies, your review of the ST-9927 sold me and I was not disappointed when it arrived yesterday. I wonder how many others have done the same. I also got the Cubot H1 because of your review.
Took one apart the other day (before seeing this video) and I too was shocked at the danger this thing could present! Its still apart and will remain so!
I have that adapter, it came with some sort of Chinese device (phone, charger, something), but with the Euroean pins on the plug end (German here). The funny thing is, because our sockets are recessed (instead of flush like UK and US ones), the large, non-round shape of the device and the positioning of the 2 pins off center means you can't plug it into a socket. Even if the pins were centered, the whole thing is just a few millimeters too wide to fit a socket. Genius! I do have the other one with the electrocution pins though.
It looks like it may have just been assembled wrong. Could you not take the 3 screws off holding the prongs and then rescrew them through the ports through the holes on the contacts?
I've got one of these recently and surprisingly there has been an upgrade! for one thing, EARTH IS CONNECTED! it doesn't fix all the other issues such as pluging-earth-into-live but it's nice to see earth connected up Opening it up, the screws have been replaced with like standoff things? that poke up into the metal above Also this doesn't have the middle ground pins oddly enough
I recently purchased some reptile heat mats from Singapore as a bit of an experiment to their quality. with them, I received these exact same horrendous adapters and I took it apart like this and posted to Facebook warning my friends. Ironically, the reptile heat mats are of good quality construction. 0.75mm copper flex (14W rated mats), the joints to the mat were clean & insulated and the mats themselves.. well they are simple enough to not get wrong. This was a far cry from the cheap Chinese replacement power supply I bought for my laptop a few years ago. It set itself alight (which was what made me started checking this stuff) and here is how: the kettle lead (IEC C13) that came with it, they had went to all the bother to put a fuse in it, but it was completely bypassed. it was connected to nothing inside the molded plug and the live went directly from the socket to the device. I found it shocking to go to all that length to include a fuse, but not take that extra step to connect it!
I have many of these adaptors and what I have found is they actually come apart overtime when you withdraw the three pin plug. Leaving you with exposed live parts still in the wall.
I have opened a couple of these kinda adapters, and the screw should hold the metal to the part that has the plugs to the wall, hence the holes in them! I know they are not good for high amps but they work ok for a phone charger or something similar.. Thanks for sharing
One of these come with my led strip lights, for some reason nothing would plug 🔌 into the adaptor, when I opened it one of the metal things at the bottom connecting the pins, was actually put in incorrectly, this was a death trap I had to put it in a different position, then I decided it’s for the bin also there was NO METAL AT ALL connecting the earth pin, so it had one missing contact and another incorrectly put in.
I got one of those for free with a lamp that didn't require one (the 'dapter was schuko on the "goes to mains" end, the lamp lead Europlug (unearthed, compatible with schuko sockets). The phrase "handing them out like candy" comes to mind.
... just got a Czech/central EU version of this... not only ground-pin-head do not touch, we don't even have screw-head on ground pin + as protection from ground metal strips falling out, it is lidded by one more plastic cover.
Back in 2009 when I made a class trip to England I bought two UK-socket-adapters on the ferry from Calais to Dover, which I still have. Luckily I only had a non grounded device (protection class 2) with me, but I later found out that you can actually fit a grounded Schuko-plug (I'm from Germany) into it, while there is no connection to the two ground contacts on the side of the Schuko-plug. I wonder if these adapters are banned now from the shop on the ferry because they are dangerous, especially if there is a live wire touching the metal housing of a grounded device you can plug into these adapters. It's pretty amazing what kinds of dodgy stuff can be found on the market. By the way: My first experience with British style light bulb sockets was when I tried to turn on the light in my room after my arrival, which didn't work, so I checked out the lamp closer and I saw that the CFL was not sitting straight in it's socket and then I tried to unscrew it (like it's done here in Germany) and as I finally got it out, which of course was tricky because of my lack of knowledge about these sockets back then, I found out that a pin broke of the side of the metal cylinder. The bulb was replaced after that so the light problem was fixed. Does that happen very often with these sockets in the UK? That was a kinda interesting experience back then but I have learned something new about UK electricity.
Just a little thank you, from someone who can no longer work. Boredom os a huge problem been looking for a hobby. Javing add or ADHD as we call it its not easy for me,not a lot interests me but for some unknown reason soldering on pcb's has peaked my interest, especially the hacking part. Got some goodies on tbe way.
Just found out my electronics classroom has these but in an American version without grounding. JOY! These ones are sneaky. They have a grounding plug but no pin, same construction though, with the contacts just pressed together and not screwed in.
I've got one of these death-dapters (came with an Amateur radio), which is also not earth connected. Just for good measure, mine's also got the 1/2 insulated earth pin. I replaced it with a Poundland shaver adapter.
this completely blew my mind. just from the outside look i could have sworn that the plug and the corresponding connector on the other side would surely be one solid piece of metal. i'm totally appalled. the designer should been send to jail directly.
I have at least two very similar ones as well (can't find the rest), the Schuko-version that is (and funnily enough two Australian versions, because apparently the Chinese don't know where Austria is). They are clipped together though, so I can't open them and I don't want to destroy them, because I need them for wall wart power supplies where I can't exchange the plug. But I measured the resistance on the Earth pin: 250kOhm on one, 150Ohm on the other.... After pushing into the earth socket with a screwdriver it has gone down to 3-5Ohm on both. I filled the earth pin with hot glue on both, so I don't forget that and will exchange them when eventually.
learn something every day.. that's sneaky.. I bought one of those mains to 12v cigarette adapters so I could use my car tyre pump on my motorbike in the back yard.. bought one for 3 quid from China and first use it went bang with smoke and fire.. not only did I have a near heart attack... and it took the house fuse out but I never sent it too you.. thanks for the reply. ..
I bought some plug adapters to use british type transformers on the plugs here in my country. So they look very much like the one in your video, except they are not put together with screws, instead they seem to be "plastic-melted" and of course the male plug is different. They suffer from the same problem as the ones in your video, as the earth connection seems to be disconnected.
I saw one of these recently, although the version I spotted in the wild, didn't have a ground plug on it. it had failed in a flamboyant fashion, charring the outlet it was used in. I am guessing that the tea pot it was used to adapt to the outlet, had caused it's fire-y demise.
I just took apart the one that arrived with my Cubot H1. It's exactly the same part, with the same fault. The screws don't even fix to the holes in the metal parts so they could never be actually screwed together. Quite a scary thing! ___________________________________________________________________________________ On second thoughts though, most things you'll be plugging in won't even have an earth pin as they will hopefully be double insulated in design. Maybe the Earth being missing isn't as bad as it would at first seem? Would it be any less safe with a plastic earth pin instead?
This is the one I got. I never use it as I have a high power feed from the 5V DC output on my server power supply. PPTC fused of course! :-) dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/124161/Cubot_Charger.jpg
I wish I was a RUclips superstar so that I could get free multi-meters... but, then again, you did coin the term death-dapter, so I s'pose you deserve it.
It looks to me that it was designed for the plug pins to be screwed to the internal terminals, but some bright spark (I know!) found that you could just screw the unit together and the screws would touch the internal connectors (except the earth of course) thereby saving money, and know one would ever know (until they died - at which point they cease to care about the internals of the adaptor).
Hi Clive! I'm not sure, but it looks like the whole adapter hasn't been assembled properly. When I watched this and you said the screws makes the contact and the connectors slide inside, first thing came to my mind that it was intended to assemble so that the screws hold the contacts against the backplate, so when you remove the screws the metal slides comes out as well, but for some odd reason the wall contacts were screwed in place without the adapter metal slides. Though I haven't ever had one of those to tumble with and in EU don't need one, the alignment suggests it would be so. Thank you for your great videos, love to watch them and learn more about electronics :)
Thought it was a fluke to start with. Interesting video. What a crappy plug you've got. Here we can only plug it in one way (on some plugs) but with at least earth + live at the same time :-)
+Steen Pedersen Our plugs and socket outlets are perfectly safe (they are potentially the safest in the world for many reasons - google BS1363). It is those crappy adaptors that are not. They are not to standard and as such are technically illegal to sell in the UK.
I think they're meant to be screwed completely through the contacts into the pin holder, so you would screw the 2 halves together and then put a screw through the positive/negative/earth plug holes, through the hole in the contacts and into the hole where the screws are in this one. Might just be a case of faulty assembly.
I would send a polite notice to whomever sold you the pump. If they don't respond well, report them to eBay/Amazon/whatever. These ones are definitely illegal, IIRC a lot of them also have the pins slightly the wrong shape so they can actually cause damage to sockets and potentially not make contact properly (since they're not to spec) and so get rather hot. A lot of them are also physically smaller than the standard requires which causes other problems that I don't recall right now. They obviously don't have fuses which makes them illegal too. You've already mentioned the holes that are far too big and (of course) the lack of shutters.
I got one of those adapters with something I got off an ebay seller in China. I took one look at it and dropped it in the bin. it looked like a first class ticket hell to me. I got a decent two pin adapter from Tesco. nice bit of kit that meter. Any chance of a link for it?
I bought a phone on eBay and it came with one of these "death adapters" (ends with the North American plug though), complete with the "For export only" thingy!
Hey Clive, did you see the europe version of this same adaptor? It is safe as hell, because you just cant put it inside the socket - it has same body like UK version, but there are screwed two cylindrical pins. I am so glad that i bring chinese socket rail with me from China. I can plug every ebay electronic just the safe way, no adaptors needed.
I see holes in that adapter's pins... I think maybe the screws for the prongs were supposed to be put in from the female side of the adapter, so they would hold the female connectors solidly against the male pins? ...And they just forewent that entirely in favor of shaving a second off assembly time?
Can't you just pull the metal contacts out and screw them through the hole at the base and close the adapter? It looks like it's intended to be mounted that way, or aren't those things screws?
Had these adaptors before, especially with my EPROM UV blanking boxes, which I promptly bin and get something like a 1 amp shaver adaptor from the likes of Poundland etc.
I just got one of these death-dapters from Banggood yesterday... American version, the live and neutral were the same, and there wasn't even a ground line on the wall side. What a horror.
+Thomas Wallblom - It's reversible (so you can't be sure which wire is live and which is neutral) and sockets generally don't have a fuse. In most situations neither of those is a big problem, and the size is a lot more manageable than UK plugs', but hey, you asked... 7/5 (French) or 7/7 plugs (with 7/5 sockets) are a slightly smarter solution.
Drawbacks of Schuko: 1) Bulky: 18mm of added depth to the socket. Because it is recessed. 2) Lower durability: The side pins can be damaged by incorrect use. 3) Non-polarised: All switches must be two pole to ensure a device is not live when turned off. Schuko male to E27 socket have a 50% chance to make the side of the socket live, which is easier to touch. 4) Schuko male fits in an unearth socket. Making it impossible to enforce a ground connection on a device that needs it. 5) Non-insulated pins: When connecting a Schuko plug into a flat unearthed socket, one can easily touch the live pins. 6) incompateble: None-earthed (CEE 7/2) plug does not fit, and can damage a Schuko socket. The benefits of Schuko: 1) Very stable connection. Can support heavy transformers build in to the plug, even when socket is in the ceiling. 2) Impossible to touch live pin while plugging in a Schuko plug to Schuko socket. 3) Reversible: Allowing two potions. Conclusion: in my option Schuko is overall the best 230V plug and socket system in use in europe (there are many see: surl.dk/fnu/). Its most serious drawbacks are when you mix it with other systems. But if I became world dictation of plugs and sockes, I would enforce IEC 60906-1 everywhere. See picture nummer 6+7 on this page: surl.dk/fnv/
+Per Mejdal Rasmussen 3) While I agree, it can be a negative for the engineer side of view, for customers it's great, because you can fit those power adapters the way best aligns with your available space. 5)/6) Those sockets are incompatible and shouldn't be used together anyway, so I wouldn't consider it a problem with Schuko (you'd have that with any flat socket). You could also damage a Schuko plug by cramming it into a British socket. ;)
Correct, the 7/5 socket is the better solution. There are countries, where it has to be mounted polarized (Czech Republic) and others where the advantage of the construction is not used (France, Poland). I prefer these over the side contact Schuko system, and both are legal to use in most areas of Europe.
Some of the death adapters I've had in the past were actually magnetic - the brass pins stuck to magnets and that was without the steel screw inserted down the middle to hold them in place.. That's on top of the magnetic flex I've found on some imported goods! Test one of your adapters with a rare earth magnet.
Hey Clive, if you can. Have a look at the Voltcraft VC890. It's a generally a normal multimeter, but with one special feature being that it uses an OLED screen.
After viewing this I took one apart that I got with some (rather good) walk talkies about 2 years ago..... to my horror they are exactly the same (and are now in the bin).
Can you please make a video showing how to check the safety of a power adapter before using them? I purchased one from banggood and today I received it. When I used it with my electric kettle, it exploded. It became all burnt and the electricity at home went out. Luckily I left the kitchen to answer the phone just right before it exploded
What happens to the metal parts in the top when a plug is connected? Would they be pushed down into the pins in the bottom part by any chance? No need to connect to earth with nothing connected, right?
I wonder if they skipped an expensive step by not screwing the back plate in through the pin connectors? Each terminal seems to have a hole where--roughly--the screw head lines up. I'm not saying it would be brilliant, but it might at least partially work.
Identical looking versions of these do exist with earth continuity, I just checked one that came with a Soshine battery charger and was pleasantly surprised.
How are those adapters meant to work anyway? From what I've heard, UK plugs have fuses in the actual plugs, but this adapter does not. So if I plop a foreign appliance into an adapter like that, it won't have a fuse protecting it?
It is not legal to sell these adaptors on the UK market as they are not BS1363 compliant. Proper travel adaptors will indeed be fused, and in UK wiring regulations the sockets must be protected by circuit breakers and RCDs in addition to the plug fuses.
I am looking for a multimeter. Is this Amecal a good choice, looks good/cheap? I destroyed my old multimeter by measuring ohms on a 12V battery, is there protections against this sort of thing?
They now have the ones with this style of plastic body on ebay but with only two 4mm europlug pins, which will "work", with a lot of slop, on a flat Danish socket or a non-recessed type C socket in e.g. Russia, and on most Italian 10A ones, but it's useless for anything else. It won't go in the French, German or Swiss recessed ones at all and people will probably try to jam it past the shutter on a type G, to no avail. I mean at least it's not pretending to have earth continuity any more!
It looks like it has just been assembled the wrong way. The springs from the plug could actually be held by the screws that also hold the pins before the whole thing is put together.
what is it with chinese and earth connections , plastic led light 240v i just bought doesnt need earth so wire is floating in the case but floating where it can touch live
Great video. I discovered a few of these in an office a while ago. The self tapping screws used to hold the case together had stripped the posts. Result: when the appliance plug was pulled it took the top half of the adapter case with it. The bottom half remained in the socket, along with the pins which were now exposed. This product must win an award for the highest number of dangerous failure modes.
In addition to being a shock hazard, that adapter is also a fire hazard. The lack of a crimped or other mechanically bonded contact means that over time, the resistance will go up and the adapter will be arcing internally when connected to high current loads. Over time the plastic housing will deform and melt, and eventually it could catch fire.
I just had an "Oh sh*t!" moment watching this video when I realised where I'd seen an identical death-daptor to that. My girlfriend is now complaining that she can't charge her electric toothbrush because I have dismantled and binned the same p*ss poor adaptor as in the video.
It's just poorly assembled, those screws should go through clamps (hence there are holes), so that socket contacts are attached to the lower part with pins.
+Иван Ерохин agreed, but, the fact that the ground will fit into the hot, is just terrible and dangerous.
I opened 4 of these units, none of them had the screws going through. Shocking!
Samuel Doye I see what you did there ;)
Puns are fun!
Go Ohm, you're drunk.
As I had an identical death adaptor waiting for me to look inside it, I took at apart whilst watching this video... Exactly the same inside.. Surely they should have put the screws through the contacts... I think I might have to plug a 10A load into it just so that I can watch the thing melt... Cheers BigClive!!!
+Jim Conner Video! :D
Hi Mr. +TheChipmunk2008 ... I just spent 20 mins in the shed running 11.6Amps through the death-daptor (fan heater), but the reaction was rather unexciting... After 20 mins, the death-daptor was getting rather hot, but no spectacular failure I'm afraid... Just a bit hot and a smell like the plastic was just starting to think about melting... Maybe if I'd left it for an hour or two... but I got bored, so I'm afraid no video for melting the death-daptor. Cheers!!
+Jim Conner They only go on fire while you're not watching them.
Thanks +bigclivedotcom - Upon post-mortem inspection, it seems that the plastic around the screw holding the live terminal was just starting to melt... I should have given it another hour or two, but I grew bored of standing around in the shed. Cheers!!
+Jim Conner I shall have to get hold of a few of them and try it :D... but thank you :D
what a shameless plug, huehuehuehue
+Liam Russell I don't think it has any shame whatsoever. It knows what it's doing and is just bad through and through.
+bigclivedotcom I know nothing about this stuff, but I have an adapter which I'm 99.9% sure is the same as this one (arrived with my OnePlus One import from a cheap Chinese seller on Amazon). Provided I'm not stupid enough to plug things in to it incorrectly, is it safe for me to use it, or should I throw it away immediately?
Also, I have a slightly different question. Would it not be possible to sue some of these companies selling dangerous equipment? Even if they didn't actually cause any damage, it must be very easy to prove they'e selling dangerous equipment that puts their customers in serious danger. Apart from the money (dunno if you'd even get any without being harmed by it), I would think if people started to at least threaten legal action on a large scale it would stop a lot of these companies doing this stuff, would it not?
+XTheGamingBossX I'd suggest only using a decent pin converter bought from a high profile local supermarket.
There's no point suing Chinese suppliers. The only person who would win would be a lawyer, mainly with your cash.
bigclivedotcom Thanks.
I would imagine these aren't just Chinese suppliers though, right? There must be some European companies shipping them?
+XTheGamingBossX Probably, but mostly naive.
2:21
"I fixed it, daddy!"
(Blows out every light in the house)
How many of these lovely "Gizmos of Death" carry CE markings? (or the infamous "China Export")
I love the phrase death-dapter. Well I don't know why I have never opened one myself as I have about 15 of them, but thankyou for showing us what's inside, they are even worse than I could have ever imagined :(
Yeah, don't use the ones that you have, only use them for showing if you want to start a plug and outlet collection.
Thanks for making these videos. I have learned so much about 'electrickery' and circuits by watching your excellent videos. You also manage to make it entertaining and interesting. Many many thanks.
and then my parents continue to use the 2 pin wall outlet to stuff with the plug same to what was in the video (the appliance one). they wont listen because I am 16 and I am "too unexperienced"
they even run a 2000w vacuum cleaner on it. it hets hot as hell. but the ones we have the metal is screwes into the plug so there is no continuity issuea
+Anas Malas This kind of stuff drives me mad. your age has nothing to do with electrical theory.
+Anas Malas
That sucks man, I'm 18 lol. I've had some people be weary of me, but honestly, I probably could do a better job than some electricians out there!
+Anas Malas I'd go out and buy then a Decent Adapter, better to be safe than sorry
+Anas Malas Sucks dude; I watched my parents do all kinds of dumb crap despite my advice, when I was a teen. But I'm 36 now and they still don't listen. Go figure.
+Anas Malas My dad pulls that all the time whenever I ask him to use literally any safety equipment of any kind. On the plus side, I get to say I told you so when he gouges an entire knuckle off while using an angle grinder with no guard and an oversized disk running faster than it's rated for in a t-shirt with no gloves and no safety glasses on. He does that regularly, and has ground the same knuckle off about 6 times now, along with other random bits of hand. I get to say I told you so a lot.
I've had a few of these over the years, but most shockingly I had one sent to me by an Amazon seller when I bought an ethernet switch.
The best place for these is the bin.
+Strider9655 "The best place for these is the bin."
Very true - and for that's where I immediately put the ones I get, given that the body won't fit into the round recess of the outlets; utterly useless here.
Surely you could use the metal elsewhere? If not to repair an actually good plug, then at least as scrap metal to melt down?
@@lepidotos Sure, because the average person has an use for _molten metal._
Surprised you've never been in one of these before.. I think i have three of these death-dapters now! I enjoy the blast from the past these days of having to put on your own plug.. Reminds me of 80s electrical/electronic purchases! I remember Tandy not selling me a desktop calculator with printer because it needed a plug and the new laws just came into effect, meaning they all had to be pre-fitted (and later moulded).. Ah, memories!
Being very alarmed at the exceedingly poor quality and risks involved with these Chinese "death daptors", I've never actually used one and the two I got with some items I purchased on eBay some time ago just got thrown in the junk draw.
Today I thought I'd have a look at how bad the two that I got really are.
I was astonished to find the contacts for the sockets to all the pins were actually screwed together making almost a good connection between the sockets and the pins, but the fingers of the sockets looked to be very flimsy chromed metal, not brass!
Plugging one adaptor into the other confirmed that the pins are not gripped very well at all, and confirmed Clive's findings that you can plug any pin into any socket of the adaptor in any orientation.
The adaptors remain in the junk box, never to be used unless I want the brass pins to machine in order to make something, which is the only reason why the adaptors haven't just gone in the bin!
These adaptors are so bad I am astonished they are not made of conductive plastic!
K Watt
Yes that is my name and yes I am an electrical engineer, now retired.
I'm guessing the screws should go through the holes on the contacts? Very poorly assembled
+Jason VomitStorm
Couldn't be assembled in a other way, becuase the screws wouldn't line up with the holes in the contacts! Yes, it's designed that poorly.
Actually with fiddling for some time, it worked to get them in. But seriously none would do this due to the time consumed.
It "works" with small appliance (1.8VA). Pure curiosity made me plug a 10 amp heater (2500W) into this device, after having seen the construction with the screws under the holes, put it in an outlet on my desk. It is marked !0A/250V, so it should do.
Well, there was a strong plastic smell after a couple of minutes followed by fumes and little yellow flames. A perfect set your home on fire device this type.
And that's why it is for export only, not to burn homes in the country of origin.
I had two of these from handheld radios, the earth pins worked but they're in the bin now. Thanks for making my life a bit safer!
I have the exactly the same adaptor powering a android box. It even has the "for export only" sticker as well. Since watching this video, I've taken the adaptor out of the plug socket and chucked it in the bin. I didn't realise how bad it was. Great video. Subscribed!
you can unscrew the pins first and put it back with the receptacle in between the screw and the pin. this way they will make contact for sure.
Yeah, I noticed that immediately -- spent the rest of the video yelling at the screen about it.
Nope you can't, trust me i tried, holes are not aligned with screws.
That really is an horrendous adapter.
Nice one with the free meters.
I just throw those things in the bin, absolute junk and as you point out there, are not safe in any way at all, better just to cut the plug off whatever's been bought and stick a proper, full-fat British rewireable plug on there... :)
I do exactly this! Much safer, works a treat, and keeps practice in the increasingly rare (i.e: Could net £40/hr from 2022) skill of being able to wire a plug! :-)
The only hiccup came on the one occasion where I wasn't thinking straight and had forgotten I was working on an appliance in France. That said, it seems that a UK-Shicko adaptor is easier to come by in French stores than a rewireable Shucko plug! :-o :-p
Oh dear! it's a this world to the next adapter! Lovely meters Clive, look forward to seeing more about them :)
Thats a professional ground isolator plug ;)
One thing you didn't point out was the pin sizes - if you compare them, the death-dapter pins are significantly smaller than a real plug, so you can get some fun arcing in some sockets where the undersized pins don't make a good contact. Some of that is due to them being the wrong shape as well though.
I wonder Clive,
is it just assembled incorrectly?
could the connections be designed to screw to the pins and the assembler just didn't bother to do that and just pushed the parts into the holes and didn't screw them to the pins?
I enjoy all your videos by the way !!! a big thumbs up!!!
+KB1UIF
If you look closely none of the crews would match the holes in the metal taps. The ground very obviously, the other two not so much, but still off.
+superdau maybe whoever made the holes messed them up and someone came up with the idea to shove it in anyway, lol
+KB1UIF exactly what I thought - looks like the workers in the factory went to brain dead mode just like with the earth wire glued with hot snot in those cheap LED lights..
Markus Bates
they are, but theres always someone who wants it cheaper, some middle man who wants it cheaper than last year so he can earn more money from the sales, leads to this mess
+KB1UIF I took 2 of these apart recently that came from China with some wireless phone chargers.
The pins were screwed to the metal contacts.
I wouldn't risk using them.
Thanks for this video, it made me check the earth continuity of the death-daptor supplied with my chinese rework station; no continuity... ESD safe haha. Well, it's fixed now. So that's why I've been blowing a bunch of BS170s...
A video comparing all the different adapters would be very interesting to watch.
Not surprised AMECal are sending you freebies, your review of the ST-9927 sold me and I was not disappointed when it arrived yesterday. I wonder how many others have done the same. I also got the Cubot H1 because of your review.
Took one apart the other day (before seeing this video) and I too was shocked at the danger this thing could present!
Its still apart and will remain so!
I have that adapter, it came with some sort of Chinese device (phone, charger, something), but with the Euroean pins on the plug end (German here). The funny thing is, because our sockets are recessed (instead of flush like UK and US ones), the large, non-round shape of the device and the positioning of the 2 pins off center means you can't plug it into a socket. Even if the pins were centered, the whole thing is just a few millimeters too wide to fit a socket. Genius!
I do have the other one with the electrocution pins though.
Great new meters ! love the big display, that would be so helpful with my crapy old eyes!
It looks like it may have just been assembled wrong. Could you not take the 3 screws off holding the prongs and then rescrew them through the ports through the holes on the contacts?
+Jeremy Kindred i thought that also, but if you examine closely, the alignment is out from the pilot holes so it wouldnt quite meet up with the pins.
+foundatlantis Hmm, yeah you're right.
+Jeremy Kindred I was thinking the same. I have had many imported gadgets that were assembled just wrong.
A simple compression spring couldn't be added... scary device indeed! Thanks for showing this.
I've got one of these recently and surprisingly there has been an upgrade!
for one thing, EARTH IS CONNECTED!
it doesn't fix all the other issues such as pluging-earth-into-live but it's nice to see earth connected up
Opening it up, the screws have been replaced with like standoff things? that poke up into the metal above
Also this doesn't have the middle ground pins oddly enough
Unbelievable!!! Oh, and the meter looks great too...
I recently purchased some reptile heat mats from Singapore as a bit of an experiment to their quality.
with them, I received these exact same horrendous adapters and I took it apart like this and posted to Facebook warning my friends.
Ironically, the reptile heat mats are of good quality construction. 0.75mm copper flex (14W rated mats), the joints to the mat were clean & insulated and the mats themselves.. well they are simple enough to not get wrong.
This was a far cry from the cheap Chinese replacement power supply I bought for my laptop a few years ago.
It set itself alight (which was what made me started checking this stuff) and here is how:
the kettle lead (IEC C13) that came with it, they had went to all the bother to put a fuse in it, but it was completely bypassed. it was connected to nothing inside the molded plug and the live went directly from the socket to the device.
I found it shocking to go to all that length to include a fuse, but not take that extra step to connect it!
These little plugs are lots of fun. I've got oodles of them. Cheers!
Wow, we got to see two plugs in one video! Great one, Clive!
I have many of these adaptors and what I have found is they actually come apart overtime when you withdraw the three pin plug. Leaving you with exposed live parts still in the wall.
I have opened a couple of these kinda adapters, and the screw should hold the metal to the part that has the plugs to the wall, hence the holes in them! I know they are not good for high amps but they work ok for a phone charger or something similar..
Thanks for sharing
I have one myself, fortunately only using it for a phone charger. Let out an audible "Oh god!" when the earth pin went into live though!
Got one of these death-dapters just the other week something I bought. Chucked it straight in the bin.
One of these come with my led strip lights, for some reason nothing would plug 🔌 into the adaptor, when I opened it one of the metal things at the bottom connecting the pins, was actually put in incorrectly, this was a death trap I had to put it in a different position, then I decided it’s for the bin also there was NO METAL AT ALL connecting the earth pin, so it had one missing contact and another incorrectly put in.
I got one of those for free with a lamp that didn't require one (the 'dapter was schuko on the "goes to mains" end, the lamp lead Europlug (unearthed, compatible with schuko sockets). The phrase "handing them out like candy" comes to mind.
I was sent this adaptor with a laser engraver - guess I'll start by throwing this bit in the bin.
... just got a Czech/central EU version of this...
not only ground-pin-head do not touch, we don't even have screw-head on ground pin
+ as protection from ground metal strips falling out, it is lidded by one more plastic cover.
"defeat the Earth"
So all the Borg had to do was plug something in upside down and they would have won?! My God, they must never learn this!
"Resistance is futile!"
i wonder if those screws are supposed to go through those holes as they are screwed in, but whoever assembled it done it wrong?
+Adam Webb yepp looks like it
You are a hero. Saving lives one video at a time. We survivors thank you bigclivedotcom.
Back in 2009 when I made a class trip to England I bought two UK-socket-adapters on the ferry from Calais to Dover, which I still have. Luckily I only had a non grounded device (protection class 2) with me, but I later found out that you can actually fit a grounded Schuko-plug (I'm from Germany) into it, while there is no connection to the two ground contacts on the side of the Schuko-plug.
I wonder if these adapters are banned now from the shop on the ferry because they are dangerous, especially if there is a live wire touching the metal housing of a grounded device you can plug into these adapters.
It's pretty amazing what kinds of dodgy stuff can be found on the market.
By the way: My first experience with British style light bulb sockets was when I tried to turn on the light in my room after my arrival, which didn't work, so I checked out the lamp closer and I saw that the CFL was not sitting straight in it's socket and then I tried to unscrew it (like it's done here in Germany) and as I finally got it out, which of course was tricky because of my lack of knowledge about these sockets back then, I found out that a pin broke of the side of the metal cylinder. The bulb was replaced after that so the light problem was fixed.
Does that happen very often with these sockets in the UK?
That was a kinda interesting experience back then but I have learned something new about UK electricity.
Just a little thank you, from someone who can no longer work. Boredom os a huge problem been looking for a hobby. Javing add or ADHD as we call it its not easy for me,not a lot interests me but for some unknown reason soldering on pcb's has peaked my interest, especially the hacking part. Got some goodies on tbe way.
Hillarious, just got one of these all these years later in my banggood order, mine had no ground pin!
Oh my gosh! My mother uses one of these on a regular basis! Definitely going to find her a different adapter now lol.
Just found out my electronics classroom has these but in an American version without grounding. JOY! These ones are sneaky. They have a grounding plug but no pin, same construction though, with the contacts just pressed together and not screwed in.
I've got one of these death-dapters (came with an Amateur radio), which is also not earth connected.
Just for good measure, mine's also got the 1/2 insulated earth pin.
I replaced it with a Poundland shaver adapter.
when will you be doing a full review and teardown of the multimeter, does it at least have a fuse? can't wait for the clamp meter as well! thanks!
this completely blew my mind. just from the outside look i could have sworn that the plug and the corresponding connector on the other side would surely be one solid piece of metal. i'm totally appalled. the designer should been send to jail directly.
I have at least two very similar ones as well (can't find the rest), the Schuko-version that is (and funnily enough two Australian versions, because apparently the Chinese don't know where Austria is). They are clipped together though, so I can't open them and I don't want to destroy them, because I need them for wall wart power supplies where I can't exchange the plug. But I measured the resistance on the Earth pin: 250kOhm on one, 150Ohm on the other.... After pushing into the earth socket with a screwdriver it has gone down to 3-5Ohm on both. I filled the earth pin with hot glue on both, so I don't forget that and will exchange them when eventually.
learn something every day.. that's sneaky.. I bought one of those mains to 12v cigarette adapters so I could use my car tyre pump on my motorbike in the back yard.. bought one for 3 quid from China and first use it went bang with smoke and fire.. not only did I have a near heart attack... and it took the house fuse out but I never sent it too you.. thanks for the reply. ..
I bought some plug adapters to use british type transformers on the plugs here in my country. So they look very much like the one in your video, except they are not put together with screws, instead they seem to be "plastic-melted" and of course the male plug is different.
They suffer from the same problem as the ones in your video, as the earth connection seems to be disconnected.
I saw one of these recently, although the version I spotted in the wild, didn't have a ground plug on it.
it had failed in a flamboyant fashion, charring the outlet it was used in. I am guessing that the tea pot it was used to adapt to the outlet, had caused it's fire-y demise.
I just took apart the one that arrived with my Cubot H1.
It's exactly the same part, with the same fault.
The screws don't even fix to the holes in the metal parts so they could never be actually screwed together.
Quite a scary thing!
___________________________________________________________________________________
On second thoughts though, most things you'll be plugging in won't even have an earth pin as they will hopefully be double insulated in design. Maybe the Earth being missing isn't as bad as it would at first seem? Would it be any less safe with a plastic earth pin instead?
+PIXscotland Ah, my H1 came with a square-pin PSU.
This is the one I got. I never use it as I have a high power feed from the 5V DC output on my server power supply. PPTC fused of course! :-)
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/124161/Cubot_Charger.jpg
I wish I was a RUclips superstar so that I could get free multi-meters... but, then again, you did coin the term death-dapter, so I s'pose you deserve it.
It looks to me that it was designed for the plug pins to be screwed to the internal terminals, but some bright spark (I know!) found that you could just screw the unit together and the screws would touch the internal connectors (except the earth of course) thereby saving money, and know one would ever know (until they died - at which point they cease to care about the internals of the adaptor).
Hi Clive! I'm not sure, but it looks like the whole adapter hasn't been assembled properly. When I watched this and you said the screws makes the contact and the connectors slide inside, first thing came to my mind that it was intended to assemble so that the screws hold the contacts against the backplate, so when you remove the screws the metal slides comes out as well, but for some odd reason the wall contacts were screwed in place without the adapter metal slides.
Though I haven't ever had one of those to tumble with and in EU don't need one, the alignment suggests it would be so. Thank you for your great videos, love to watch them and learn more about electronics :)
Thought it was a fluke to start with. Interesting video. What a crappy plug you've got. Here we can only plug it in one way (on some plugs) but with at least earth + live at the same time :-)
+Steen Pedersen Our plugs and socket outlets are perfectly safe (they are potentially the safest in the world for many reasons - google BS1363). It is those crappy adaptors that are not. They are not to standard and as such are technically illegal to sell in the UK.
I think they're meant to be screwed completely through the contacts into the pin holder, so you would screw the 2 halves together and then put a screw through the positive/negative/earth plug holes, through the hole in the contacts and into the hole where the screws are in this one. Might just be a case of faulty assembly.
I would send a polite notice to whomever sold you the pump. If they don't respond well, report them to eBay/Amazon/whatever. These ones are definitely illegal, IIRC a lot of them also have the pins slightly the wrong shape so they can actually cause damage to sockets and potentially not make contact properly (since they're not to spec) and so get rather hot. A lot of them are also physically smaller than the standard requires which causes other problems that I don't recall right now. They obviously don't have fuses which makes them illegal too. You've already mentioned the holes that are far too big and (of course) the lack of shutters.
I got almost the same adapter except mine doesn't even have an input earth pin
I got one of those adapters with something I got off an ebay seller in China.
I took one look at it and dropped it in the bin. it looked like a first class ticket hell to me.
I got a decent two pin adapter from Tesco.
nice bit of kit that meter.
Any chance of a link for it?
Love your videos super smart. It helps me fix cheap Ebay crap I regretted buying
I bought a phone on eBay and it came with one of these "death adapters" (ends with the North American plug though), complete with the "For export only" thingy!
Hey Clive, did you see the europe version of this same adaptor? It is safe as hell, because you just cant put it inside the socket - it has same body like UK version, but there are screwed two cylindrical pins. I am so glad that i bring chinese socket rail with me from China. I can plug every ebay electronic just the safe way, no adaptors needed.
I got an identical adaptor with some Chinese thing. Oddly enough I was tempted to use it even before seeing this video.
Nice stuff they sent you you really deserve it.
I see holes in that adapter's pins... I think maybe the screws for the prongs were supposed to be put in from the female side of the adapter, so they would hold the female connectors solidly against the male pins? ...And they just forewent that entirely in favor of shaving a second off assembly time?
Can't you just pull the metal contacts out and screw them through the hole at the base and close the adapter? It looks like it's intended to be mounted that way, or aren't those things screws?
Had these adaptors before, especially with my EPROM UV blanking boxes, which I promptly bin and get something like a 1 amp shaver adaptor from the likes of Poundland etc.
I just got one of these death-dapters from Banggood yesterday... American version, the live and neutral were the same, and there wasn't even a ground line on the wall side. What a horror.
Whats wrong with the damn Schuko plug?!
+Thomas Wallblom You can't make a whole appliance live with it, so it's obviously inferior to the british plug
+Thomas Wallblom - It's reversible (so you can't be sure which wire is live and which is neutral) and sockets generally don't have a fuse. In most situations neither of those is a big problem, and the size is a lot more manageable than UK plugs', but hey, you asked...
7/5 (French) or 7/7 plugs (with 7/5 sockets) are a slightly smarter solution.
Drawbacks of Schuko:
1) Bulky: 18mm of added depth to the socket. Because it is recessed.
2) Lower durability: The side pins can be damaged by incorrect use.
3) Non-polarised: All switches must be two pole to ensure a device is not live when turned off. Schuko male to E27 socket have a 50% chance to make the side of the socket live, which is easier to touch.
4) Schuko male fits in an unearth socket. Making it impossible to enforce a ground connection on a device that needs it.
5) Non-insulated pins: When connecting a Schuko plug into a flat unearthed socket, one can easily touch the live pins.
6) incompateble: None-earthed (CEE 7/2) plug does not fit, and can damage a Schuko socket.
The benefits of Schuko:
1) Very stable connection. Can support heavy transformers build in to the plug, even when socket is in the ceiling.
2) Impossible to touch live pin while plugging in a Schuko plug to Schuko socket.
3) Reversible: Allowing two potions.
Conclusion:
in my option Schuko is overall the best 230V plug and socket system in use in europe (there are many see: surl.dk/fnu/). Its most serious drawbacks are when you mix it with other systems.
But if I became world dictation of plugs and sockes, I would enforce IEC 60906-1 everywhere. See picture nummer 6+7 on this page: surl.dk/fnv/
+Per Mejdal Rasmussen
3) While I agree, it can be a negative for the engineer side of view, for customers it's great, because you can fit those power adapters the way best aligns with your available space.
5)/6) Those sockets are incompatible and shouldn't be used together anyway, so I wouldn't consider it a problem with Schuko (you'd have that with any flat socket). You could also damage a Schuko plug by cramming it into a British socket. ;)
Correct, the 7/5 socket is the better solution. There are countries, where it has to be mounted polarized (Czech Republic) and others where the advantage of the construction is not used (France, Poland).
I prefer these over the side contact Schuko system, and both are legal to use in most areas of Europe.
Is it perhaps assembled wrongly? Should the screws in the pins have been put through the holes in the terminals, rather than just pressing on them?
Some of the death adapters I've had in the past were actually magnetic - the brass pins stuck to magnets and that was without the steel screw inserted down the middle to hold them in place..
That's on top of the magnetic flex I've found on some imported goods!
Test one of your adapters with a rare earth magnet.
Hey Clive, if you can. Have a look at the Voltcraft VC890. It's a generally a normal multimeter, but with one special feature being that it uses an OLED screen.
After viewing this I took one apart that I got with some (rather good) walk talkies about 2 years ago..... to my horror they are exactly the same (and are now in the bin).
Can you please make a video showing how to check the safety of a power adapter before using them? I purchased one from banggood and today I received it. When I used it with my electric kettle, it exploded. It became all burnt and the electricity at home went out. Luckily I left the kitchen to answer the phone just right before it exploded
Clive, at least you got an earth pin on yours. Mine only has live and neutral pins.
What happens to the metal parts in the top when a plug is connected? Would they be pushed down into the pins in the bottom part by any chance? No need to connect to earth with nothing connected, right?
I wonder if they skipped an expensive step by not screwing the back plate in through the pin connectors? Each terminal seems to have a hole where--roughly--the screw head lines up.
I'm not saying it would be brilliant, but it might at least partially work.
Big Clive it looks like the screws might unscrew then get place through the plug to pull that metal tab up hard onto the pins....cheers Brett
I wonder if it's relying on the pressure from the appliance's earth pin to force the terminal into contact with the earth screw?
Identical looking versions of these do exist with earth continuity, I just checked one that came with a Soshine battery charger and was pleasantly surprised.
How are those adapters meant to work anyway?
From what I've heard, UK plugs have fuses in the actual plugs, but this adapter does not. So if I plop a foreign appliance into an adapter like that, it won't have a fuse protecting it?
It is not legal to sell these adaptors on the UK market as they are not BS1363 compliant. Proper travel adaptors will indeed be fused, and in UK wiring regulations the sockets must be protected by circuit breakers and RCDs in addition to the plug fuses.
I had one of these adaptors. Not anymore. After viewing this video, it has been taken apart and binned. A fire hazard waiting to happen.
I am looking for a multimeter. Is this Amecal a good choice, looks good/cheap? I destroyed my old multimeter by measuring ohms on a 12V battery, is there protections against this sort of thing?
They now have the ones with this style of plastic body on ebay but with only two 4mm europlug pins, which will "work", with a lot of slop, on a flat Danish socket or a non-recessed type C socket in e.g. Russia, and on most Italian 10A ones, but it's useless for anything else. It won't go in the French, German or Swiss recessed ones at all and people will probably try to jam it past the shutter on a type G, to no avail. I mean at least it's not pretending to have earth continuity any more!
leakage meter does that go round a males do-dah? to see if one leaks when we cough?
It looks like it has just been assembled the wrong way. The springs from the plug could actually be held by the screws that also hold the pins before the whole thing is put together.
There is a real piece of work...
what is it with chinese and earth connections , plastic led light 240v i just bought doesnt need earth so wire is floating in the case but floating where it can touch live
Clive would you make a video showing a 3kW appliance connected to that plug? :P I think everybody wants to see what happens :)