On 05/01/2012 15:30, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In ,
wrote:
On Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:28:02 +0000, Bill
wrote:

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Yes. The supplier I use doesn't even list unswitched 13 amp in their
budget ranges. But I was never a fan of them anyway. I've not known a
switch on a socket to fail, so I'd guess it's pretty rare.

I have one in the workshop that has failed. The socket was used for a
welder and I think the switch must have melted inside. I can't move the
rocker at all.

I had the switch fail on an MK - it was only feeding a light load and
not switched excessively - just wasn't mechanically good enough. Otoh,
the rest of the MK sockets are fine.

Remember being told MK had a much longer than usual warranty - 25 years?
Or was that some time ago? As they certainly used to be so much more
expensive there had to be a reason for buying them? Because by this
thread, they seem to fail all the time. ;-)

Just had a look at TLCs guarantee claims for sockets...

Contactum 25 years, BG 10 years, Telco 25 years, GET Ultimate 25 years,
MK Logic Plus 15

So MK would seem to be shorter than most... whether this represents a
dose of realism on their part or over confidence on the others is
another mater!


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

John Rumm wrote:

So MK would seem to be shorter than most... whether this represents a
dose of realism on their part or over confidence on the others is
another mater!

Well, my parents house, built in 1966, has MK sockets and switches throughout,
some are in daily use, and operated several times a day, all are in perfect
(I think !) working order. In fact the only dodgy one, that I replaced a few
years ago, was in their garage. That had hardly ever been used.


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

Mark Carver wrote:
John Rumm wrote:

So MK would seem to be shorter than most... whether this represents a
dose of realism on their part or over confidence on the others is
another mater!

Well, my parents house, built in 1966, has MK sockets and switches
throughout, some are in daily use, and operated several times a day, all
are in perfect
(I think !) working order. In fact the only dodgy one, that I replaced a
few years ago, was in their garage. That had hardly ever been used.

I've encountered a few faulty ones during my life. In fact Mark, you
might remember that I thought the Sony telly in my front bedroom was
faulty, but it turned out to be the wallplate. The one in my mum's front
room, which powered a 2kW fire for donkey's years, failed. Both it and
the fire's plug had obviously been very hot when I had a look.

I remember there was a 15A one in my grandma's house and she used to
press the leg of a chair against to plug to force it firmly into the
socket. That was the only way it would work. There must have been a bit
of give in the face of the socket. It turned out that the L receptacle
was a ring of metal (don't know what) that encircled the pin of the
plug. It had been pushed back.

And to think my job as a ten year old when helping Dad was to stand on a
chair or table and make a connection to the customer's pendant lamp to
power the telly that we were installing!

Bill

"Mark Carver" wrote in message ...

John Rumm wrote:

So MK would seem to be shorter than most... whether this represents a dose
of realism on their part or over confidence on the others is another
mater!

Well, my parents house, built in 1966, has MK sockets and switches
throughout, some are in daily use, and operated several times a day, all
are in perfect
(I think !) working order. In fact the only dodgy one, that I replaced a
few years ago, was in their garage. That had hardly ever been used.


in 2004 when I rewired our house (built in 1968) I removed the old MK
switches and sockets all in good working order with smooth switch action but
all badly yellowed. Good quality stuff!

I fitted Select switches and sockets from Screwfix. I've had one switch fail
on a double socket in my office which is used about 5 times per day. As the
sockets cost about a pound each I'm not upset by that.

I rewired because the lighting circuit didn't have a complete earth and
there were not nearly enough socket outlets. I increased the lounge from 3
outlets to 14 and the kitchen from 7 to 16!

On 07/01/2012 18:41, Doctor D wrote:


"Mark Carver" wrote in message ...

John Rumm wrote:

So MK would seem to be shorter than most... whether this represents a
dose of realism on their part or over confidence on the others is
another mater!

Well, my parents house, built in 1966, has MK sockets and switches
throughout, some are in daily use, and operated several times a day,
all are in perfect
(I think !) working order. In fact the only dodgy one, that I replaced
a few years ago, was in their garage. That had hardly ever been used.


in 2004 when I rewired our house (built in 1968) I removed the old MK
switches and sockets all in good working order with smooth switch action
but all badly yellowed. Good quality stuff!

I fitted Select switches and sockets from Screwfix. I've had one switch
fail on a double socket in my office which is used about 5 times per
day. As the sockets cost about a pound each I'm not upset by that.

I rewired because the lighting circuit didn't have a complete earth and
there were not nearly enough socket outlets. I increased the lounge from
3 outlets to 14 and the kitchen from 7 to 16!

I rewired a former neighbours place that still had its original 1956
rubber wiring (which given its age was not actually too bad - most of it
was still flexible). Hopelessly provisioned though... Must have had 6
single sockets for the whole house, all hanging off a 4 way rewireable
consumer unit. It had more sockets than that in the kitchen alone when
redone!


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In article ,
John Rumm wrote:

[Snip]

I rewired a former neighbours place that still had its original 1956
rubber wiring (which given its age was not actually too bad - most of it
was still flexible). Hopelessly provisioned though... Must have had 6
single sockets for the whole house, all hanging off a 4 way rewireable
consumer unit. It had more sockets than that in the kitchen alone when
redone!


when we bought our first house in 1964, it had just post WW2 wiring. 4
power points in total - one in each bedroom and one in the kitchen.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.16

On Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:30:11 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:
On Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:28:02 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Yes. The supplier I use doesn't even list unswitched 13 amp in their
budget ranges. But I was never a fan of them anyway. I've not known a
switch on a socket to fail, so I'd guess it's pretty rare.

I have one in the workshop that has failed. The socket was used for a
welder and I think the switch must have melted inside. I can't move the
rocker at all.

I had the switch fail on an MK - it was only feeding a light load and
not switched excessively - just wasn't mechanically good enough. Otoh,
the rest of the MK sockets are fine.

Remember being told MK had a much longer than usual warranty - 25 years?
Or was that some time ago? As they certainly used to be so much more
expensive there had to be a reason for buying them? Because by this
thread, they seem to fail all the time. ;-)

Are MK still made in the UK. I know the website say they manufacture
its products 'for the UK in the UK'. There is a legal issue over the
definition of 'manufacture'. Do they bring in components for assembly
in the UK. I believe the RCBOs are made in China.

On Sat, 7 Jan 2012 20:41:55 UTC, charles
wrote:

In article ,
John Rumm wrote:

[Snip]

I rewired a former neighbours place that still had its original 1956
rubber wiring (which given its age was not actually too bad - most of it
was still flexible). Hopelessly provisioned though... Must have had 6
single sockets for the whole house, all hanging off a 4 way rewireable
consumer unit. It had more sockets than that in the kitchen alone when
redone!


when we bought our first house in 1964, it had just post WW2 wiring. 4
power points in total - one in each bedroom and one in the kitchen.


My parents house, built in the early '30s had "no" power circuits as
built. Only lighting. I put a ring in in the early '60s replacing my
Dads bodges using MK units. In the '90s when we came to sell the house
I tried to change a few from singles to doubles - only to find that
"current" sockets would not take two 7/029 cables :-(
--
Regards
Dave Saville

In article fV45K0OBJxbE-pn2-oldPkFvBPdO6@localhost,
Dave Saville wrote:
My parents house, built in the early '30s had "no" power circuits as
built. Only lighting.

Same as my parent's house where I was brought up. But while it was being
built, they paid extra for two power sockets - 15 amp 2 pin - one in each
of the ground floor rooms. So no provision for heating the bedrooms - in
the NE of Scotland. People were hardy in them days.

I put a ring in in the early '60s replacing my
Dads bodges using MK units. In the '90s when we came to sell the house
I tried to change a few from singles to doubles - only to find that
"current" sockets would not take two 7/029 cables :-(

Interesting - I thought even the latest ones would take 2 x 7/029 if
twisted together.

--
*I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sun, 08 Jan 2012 12:19:30 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article fV45K0OBJxbE-pn2-oldPkFvBPdO6@localhost,
Dave Saville wrote:
My parents house, built in the early '30s had "no" power circuits as
built. Only lighting.

Same as my parent's house where I was brought up. But while it was being
built, they paid extra for two power sockets - 15 amp 2 pin - one in each
of the ground floor rooms. So no provision for heating the bedrooms - in
the NE of Scotland. People were hardy in them days.

I put a ring in in the early '60s replacing my
Dads bodges using MK units. In the '90s when we came to sell the house
I tried to change a few from singles to doubles - only to find that
"current" sockets would not take two 7/029 cables :-(

Interesting - I thought even the latest ones would take 2 x 7/029 if
twisted together.

I'm sure I have found that the trick is *not* to twist them at all so
the strands mesh more closely, and if all else fails break a strand or
two off.

--
Graham.
%Profound_observation%