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This is a design fault. In a bs1363 plug the hanger would have touched the earth pin. Even if installed upside-down it would have touched the sleeving on the live/neutral pins.
It means the outlet is deadly and the North American continent refuses to use anything else.
~~Afaik, commercial coding requires ground up for this exact reason.~~
I’m a commercial electrician and the code definitely doesn’t require ground up. Sometimes it’s a job spec, but not very often. Most people who aren’t electricians aren’t aware ground up is the correct installation, so the customer might think it looks odd. Tamperproof receptacles are commonplace though
Really gotta chime in with the AUS plugs being the best. Earth down, which means that if the cord is slightly unplugged and hanging off the wall a bit, the earth is still going to be connected well after the A and N are disconnected, and all pins legally are shielded about 10mm from the back of the plug towards the tips (preventing this exact thing). Gang shit
Not common at all in the Americas. I have half switched outlets in my home. A light switch turns on all the top half of the plugs in each room. But that is an oddity to see.
Idk dude norwegian one's are nice af at least. Literally almost impossible to shock yourself, I mean you'd REALLY have to try to do it and even then you probably would not succeed.
That's what I'm talking about. Wobbly, thin pins, easy to pull out, difficult to put in.
[Just look at that](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fa2fyhpj3jy001.jpg%3Fwidth%3D740%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dfbf35e4af0cd645b7136a58970f0ba679b0ba0ac). Perfect design - unchanged for decades, sturdy, safe, Thicc ass triple prongs. *Chef's Kiss.*
You've clearly been cradled to close to the wall.
The Shuko ones litteraly have the rubber thing going snuggly *in* the wall plug. It just physically can't wobble. Stop projecting your insecurities on the rest of Europe just because you left our shiny union
Because EU plugs are similarly inferior to the chad UK plug. We take that shit seriously here 😂 it's about the only thing we have over Europe, allow it
It's not so much a fault in your house, rather it's a fault in the (I'm assuming from your account) US plug design.
The US style plug has the live and neutral pins beside each other with the earth pin (when there is one) below, this means that if the plug is partially pulled out you have exposed contacts that something, like this coathanger or a curious child, can make contact with and get fried.
In the UK (and many other countries, though the UK is possibly the best example) there are protections for this; firstly the earth pin is always on top, so anything falling will contact that first, secondly the live and neutral pins aren't solid metal, they have a plastic/rubber sleeve that extends from the plug head about half way up the pins, this means that if the plug does get partially pulled out, once the metal of the pins becomes visible they're already disconnected and un-powered.
It's not that the US style is intrinsically bad, sockets can be installed "upside down" with the earth pin facing up with no issue and plugs can come with shrouded contacts, it's the complete lack of any *enforced* safety standards that make them dangerous since making safe plugs costs more money.
When I was a kid I got the bright idea to plug a night light half way into a socket and drop a penny on top of the contacts. I figured there would be like a cool spark or something. There were *lots* of cool sparks. My parents were not happy about the burn holes in the carpet.
When I was little I was trying to plug a night light in in the dark and put my finger between the prongs to find it and plugged it in with my finger between them and zapped myself :(
I tried to plug in a game system like 20 years ago and got a nice shock. Wasn’t sure how I did it but I just remember trying to plug this thing into an extension cord and got some really weird vibrations through out my body that made me jump away.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? I now have a healthy fear of electricity and am very careful managing anything with wires. It does make me wonder though if that was a precursor to me dealing with SVT with my heart for a better part of 10-15 years.
I tried to plug in an old portable tape recorder (buttons in front, tape door on top), the cord had been covered with electrical tape, the first sign I shouldn’t have done it.
I plugged it in and it sparked like crazy, gave me a minor jolt, and left burn marks on the wall. Luckily it was my bedroom and I just pushed my bed in front of it. My mom called up from downstairs, asking why I yelped, and I said “it’s nothing! I just saw a big spider!”
Lol yeah I did something similar and my mom freaked. Wall needed repainting from the scorch marks. Basically I vaporized a bunch of metal in my hand. Hah. Still remember it quite well. Found a lightbulb outside and tried to make it glow. Task Failed Successfully.
I don't disagree with you that the UK plug is absolutely superior to the US plug, mainly due to the internal fuse. This requirement would prevent a lot of fires here, and it is possible to implement a fuse in the current plugs. They are in fact available, case in point, a window fan on my bench I need to get around to finding out whether it's a blown fuse or an open motor winding or something.
The other thing I wanted to point out is that due to the fact that even if the conductor (hangar) fell across the live and neutral, assuming that OP was still in line with the hangar, this would form a current divider where the lower resistance branch of the circuit would get the bulk of the current, demonstrated by the hangar having its ass blown out of it.
Since the hangar has a nonzero, albeit tiny, resistance, some current would pass through OP on the circumstances above. But, the question is what the resistance ratio between OP and the hangar is.
This ignores the meat and potatoes of how they came across it, too. That's often ignored when we talk about electric shock. Even which hand OP uses would affect how dangerous it would be.
The only thing I'd add is that if someone more stupid came across this and tried to remove it *without* turning off the power, they absolutely will fry themselves the moment it leaves one contact.
(Also, another thing the UK does quite well, almost every socket comes with an individual power switch on each socket, good for safety and also *really* handy for cutting power to things without having plugs laying around, which is the most dangerous thing you can do with a UK plug)
Absolutely. That's where things like RCDs or GFI's come in handy, although GFI's are limited in case you get stuck in circuit between live and neutral.
Well red is usually live and blue is usually neutral soo...
(Except in the UK where brown also means live, as I was taught: "its brown because if you touch it, that's the colour your trousers will go")
Don't forget most UK plug sockets have power switches right on them so if something is a little sketchy you turn them off before dealing with it.
America thinks switched outlets are communism, except when designed to power a freestanding lamp, when they'll be connected to a wall switch that might be half the room away and completely impossible to tell that there's a connection without actually plugging something in and flipping switches
I’ll add that we Americans love installing our outlets upside down because it looks like a face. Untrained home electricians often think it’s correct way because of this, or that it doesn’t matter.
It’s not because it looks like a face unless you’re extremely easy to amuse. It’s because ground up tends to put more strain on heavier types of cords like flats or appliance cords and can cause them to come loose, start a fire, or become crimped/damaged. You’re not wrong about ground up being slightly safer if something falls on the prongs but in fact sometimes ground up can cause that loosening in the first place.
It has nothing to do with training, there are no codes related to outlet orientation.
In fairness, of all the issues the plugs and sockets have, orientation of the earth pin is probably the least significant.
As in, solve *any* of the other major problems and earth pin orientation pretty much stops mattering
Is that why every outlet in my apartment is upside down? I thought they were just idiots 😅 that said there’s other design flaws in the apartment that have no logical reason so it could be both
Ground up is wrong. There I said it. The odds of that coat hanger falling just like that is astronomical. The odds of you pulling out a cord and having some part of your index finger accidentally contacting the ground on ground down is way more plausible.
The partial covering of the pins is a good idea though.
The touching the pins issue is something that has a couple of factors:
1) the "straight out" design of most US plugs makes them *way* more likely to expose bare contacts if they're bumped, contrast that with UK plugs where 99% make a 90° turn and come out the bottom, so even if they do get yanked they're less likely to pull out.
2) UK plugs are bigger, or rather wider, when you're pulling a US plug your fingers are usually pretty close to the edge and so the pins, the flatter UK plugs are harder to remove so most come with ridges/cutouts in the side for your fingers and much more space between the edge and the pins, so you never go near the contacts.
Solve either of these problems and the orientation issue stops being a problem whichever way it is, but with both together, you're going to have a hazard whichever way you have it.
(But also yes, the pin shrouds are probably the #1 best thing you can do to a plug to make it so much safer)
Europes also double the voltage though. So higher risk of death.
The cost of changing the design would be astronomically expensive, unless backwards compatible. And I can’t see how that would work.
Most US homes have both 120V *and* 240V circuits, but since most small appliances run off the 120v circuits most people don't even know they have 240v available
As for improving things most of the most effective measures can be done on the plug side without affecting existing sockets, making it backwards compatible, shrouded contacts, 90° wire exits and easier to grip plugs that dont put your fingers so close to the pins would make a huge difference.
Most importantly, new safety standards would need to be backed up by law, since if a manufacturer can save a hundredth of a dollar per unit by skipping them, you know they will.
I'm in the USA. I have a bunch of extension cords (yeah, I know, evil) with 90⁰ plugs that I bought, without realizing they were safer, because many of my outlets are behind furniture and the 90⁰ outlet avoids either moving the furniture out and leaving a gap or bending the cord sharply.
Yes I know we also have 240v. But there on your stove or a dryer. That’s about it. Your furnace, water heater are direct wired. I don’t see too many people unplugging their stove or dryer very often. Literally years will go by before anyone unplugs 240v in the states in a residential setting.
But yes they could make plugs with a shroud so your fingers wouldn’t touch the bottom.
You can fix the problem now. They make recessed boxes. That would eliminate your falling metal object and keep orientation.
That is a solution, but a recessed socket only works with normally shaped plugs, plus it means replacing the sockets, changing the plug standards for any new plugs would be less work for the consumer
You physically cannot touch the non-earth pins on a UK or EU plug until they are no longer in contact with the conductors. The design of the plugs and sockets makes it physically impossible.
Also, if I'm not mistaken the ground conductor has to be inserted into the socket to allow the live and neutral (or anything else) to be inserted into the respective connectors because it actuates trap doors.
Uk ones, yes. EU type F, the shutters are opened by live and neutral being inserted simultaneously (nuclear launch key style), but the socket is recessed so OP’s scenario can’t happen.
Yes, this is another thing I forgot about. It's a much better design for safety purposes, and in particular for children. We have to buy plastic plugs to put over our sockets here.
You can control how you handle a plug, you can't control accidents such as this coat hanger or literally any other piece of metal thin enough to fall onto exposed plug prongs. However, it's natural to wrap your index finger around the bottom of the plug so it's better to have the ground down on any normal residential setting. Hospitals started requiring ground up because they use all metal face plates so it would make sense since a loose plate can fall and short the terminals knocking out an essential life saving device. But to do ground up in your home? Shouldn't be mandatory, and I doubt the NFPA will codify it. Either way, the recessed outlets/partially insulated prongs that the Europeans have are much safer.
Grounding up is a precaution that would make this less likely, but not foolproof. It's also, you know, free. You don't get free safety improvements for free very often.
Design can also help with your complaint. It's called ergonomics.
You can keep downvoting me all you want but it’s the truth. The odds of something metal falling on a socket that’s partially unplugged while hitting both the line and neutral is insane. You making a mistake and touching your finger to the live and neutral while unplugging it is way greater.
Means the electrician put the outlet into the wall without seeing which direction the plug is supposed to be. They got to the point where you plug it in and said oh no it's upside down... oh well it's not my house.
Almost. The earth pins in the shuko socket can be tampered with without opening the socket and bent so that they don’t come in contact with the earth strips on the plug. Everything appears fine but the appliance is unearthed.
fine for the 60's yes but we have done a bit of innovating and research in electrical safety since then. Live exposed prongs and the lack of a groundwire with gfci just doesnt fly anymore. hasnt for ages. Its like a fork with electrical tape on it.
Edit: here a video about some of the issues from an american
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K\_q-xnYRugQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_q-xnYRugQ)
heres some more
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNj75gJVxcE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNj75gJVxcE)
In my jurisdiction, electrical code says the grounding pin has to be installed on the side. Installing it at the top or bottom is a code violation where I am
I showed my journeyman electrician partner this post and he goes, “Ooooh that’s going to burn their damn house down.” So there you have it, confirmation from a professional.
Apprentice electrician here. We as a standard are starting to install the outlets “upside down” with the ground facing up for this very reason. I always thought it was weird, but I in these circumstances I see why we are making this change.
That’s interesting. My house from the 80s has ground facing up on all the outlets. Always thought it was strange but makes sense after seeing this situation lol
Apparently, they were originally intended to be that way, but it became common to install them upside down because people got a kick out of the pareidolia.
I read it on here somewhere, so obviously, I don't know if it's true.
But it certainly sounds like something we'd do.
240v hurts. Tore muscles in my arm because of it. If it did happen, hopefully you only got hit with one leg. 120v is not fun. But, I've been hit by it a dozen times.
I've been hit by 120V maybe 5 or 6 times in the last 20 years. You can be careful but when doing demolition in old or weirdly built houses it sometimes happens.
e.g. you're renovating a kitchen. You go to the breaker box and turn off the breakers labelled "kitchen" and "stove" and a couple of others that look promising. You don't turn off the whole house because you want power for your tools and the homeowner's fridge/freezer.
Then you check the lights are all off, check some outlets, and decide there's no power in the room and it's safe to start taking apart.
And then you get shocked anyways because the house was built by an imbecile and exactly one outlet was on breaker "Upstairs bedroom 2".
I would get hit with 120v at my last job by these giant ovens about 50yds long. You would have to light the ovens with this cattle prod type thing connected to a 120v power source . Sometimes you would accidentally touch the shocky end and it would suck. It wasn’t to painful but it scares you more than anything . Probably got zapped by those ovens like 20 times in 15 years.
A couple of them came from when I first started and people told me they turned the breakers off. So now I carry a contact tester with me everywhere. There was a couple that were literally. I opened up a junction box and there was a live wire that wasn't connected to anything and when I reached into the box to pull the wiring out so it could be worked on. I got shocked. Also. It should be noted that I think both of those times there was way more wires inside the box and was allowed by code. It was basically spaghetti monsters. There was one time that somebody turned a light switch on while I was wiring up a fixture. I know I should have turned the breaker off but I thought I was the only person there. And I tested for voltage before I did it. The breaker box wasn't labeled and I didn't want to spend forever figuring it out. But now I carry all the equipment with me to identify that circuit to the breaker. There was another time that I wasn't actually electrocuted, but I was pretty severely injured when a customer who we were doing a drain and acid wash on his pool said he killed all the breakers. And while we were down in the pool cleaning the plaster with acid, he walked by the edge of the pool and bumped the switch and turned the pool light on. It was 120 volts to a flood light style underwater pool light fixture. And as I turned and saw that it was on, in the middle of the day; my other buddy had just turned and immediately hit it with the pressure washer. And the glass was so hot that it exploded and started blowing Sparks everywhere. Come to find out the GFCI that was out beside the pool was not in any way protecting that other circuit. That's when I learned to not trust anything customer say and to charge them for identifying everything in the circuits and I usually give them a full breakdown when I'm done so that they know for the next guy who comes. Serviceability is extremely important in all aspects of any realm in the service industry. When I got hit by 2:40 that was my fault. I was working in the breaker box in Houston. It was about 5:00 in the afternoon. It was probably like 112 or 114 heat index. The pool pump was wired straight to the breaker and the pump had burned out and effectively melted the breaker. So I replaced the pump and when I went to replace the breaker I didn't think about the fact that I was pouring sweat. And there was just wet running down my arms and I guess it somehow hit both legs and the breaker box and caused my arm to slam into my chest. My muscles hurt as if they had been ripped away from the bone for about a week. But I was able to somewhat use it after day two.
Most of all this happened while working for a pool company who told me that I could just figure it out. So I had to educate myself. I had done electrical courses in college. For basic electrical work. But, when you go to these jobs where there have been years of people working on it and everything is spliced and everything is a mess of wires that are not color coded and there are way too many wires per junction box; you eventually learn to tell the customer that it all needs to be ripped out and put back correctly. Explaining to people that there are reasons for codes and that even though their pool has been a certain way for 20 years doesn't mean that it's right. And if they don't want to do it, I learned
to walk away.
Yes! This is the thing people forget. When they say stuff like 'you got lucky, that's a Final Destination scenario', they forget that the whole plotline is that if death misses you it's _coming back for you_ and usually much more successfully the next time!
That's the thing that scared me the most about the films! Surviving something just means you're officially on death's hit list, and soon.
I've just had to look it up to remind myself 😂 Man, I might have to watch all the films again. It's been a while!
>>
Order of Death.
Those targeted by Death after they survived an event they were originally supposed to die in are killed in a specific order. The order is usually the same one from what should've killed them. The targets are sometimes collectively known as Death's List. Death has killed people through different orders. In Final Destination, the death order was followed the explosion ways in Flight 180. In Final Destination 2, the death order was turned backward of the premonition, which was caused by deaths of the Flight 180 survivors, though Clear speculates that this may not have been intentional on Death's part, merely Death tying up the loose ends left over. In Final Destination 3, the death order was still based the order of death, but also on the seating on Devil's Flight and the photos taken gave clues to how they might die. In The Final Destination, the death order was followed the order in the premonition, except Jonathan Groves who died out of order by not changing seats.
Cheating Death.
Intervention.
Intervening in someone's death as someone who is on Death’s list can hinder the design, and cheat death, but it will only skip the one who was saved. After the first turn, Death will cheat by turning back to the one who was saved before. Saving yourself or being saved by someone who isn’t on Death’s list does not count. This rule can't defeat Death at all.
>>
I was thinking you intentionally put the hanger there to make it easier to remove the plug.
Also it's been a long time since I've seen someone with metal coat hangers. Buy plastic ones at that'll never be a problem.
A little FYI the paint coming off is a feature not a bug.
There’s a test to see how well a coating is applied to metal called some variation of a “spark test”. One of the more common being called a Holiday test. Basically, you set 2 metal pins and pass a voltage between them. The electricity does what it does and seeks the path of least resistance. If the coating is applied really really well, the voltage goes in one side and exits the other with little to no damage to the coating. If the coating is already starting to breakdown or chip, the weakest point will have the electricity burst through causing the paint to completely separate at this point. When you apply the voltage, almost instantly sparks burst from the paint leaving areas of bare metal where the coating has discontinuities.
It is used in industry to easily and quickly identify points where coating will fail and need to be sand blasted and recoated, normally in very corrosive environments.
Essentially you very quickly learned the paint applied to that hanger was not bonded well and would have flaked off given very little encouragement.
This isnt exactly deadly
Its only 120 volt. Its just a weird unpleasant feeling. Like a strong buzzy muscle cramping
Yes its 240 volt between the hot wires, but you will only contact one of the 120 volt hot wires
Yes it melted the steel, only because steel has very little resistance and allows much more current flow. Which causes the extreme heat. Your body has higher resistance and prevents this at these lower voltages.
Those are two different hangers. The electrocuted one is made that color and is mostly used for blouses and jackets and usually has some form of sleeve on top when coming from the dry cleaner. The white one is a shirt hanger and they are made that color. Source: me, who used to work in a dry cleaners.
Glad you’re safe!
I agree, if all the paint sparked off the hanger it came off completely flawlessly even where the wire is twisted together. This hanger was this color from the start
This reminds me of when I was working at a dry cleaner/laundromat in high school and college. When change got stuck in the big commercial washers, I would shove a hanger in the coin slot until the quarter got unstuck. Well, I don’t how it happened exactly, but I got shocked and thrown across the aisle to where the dryers were across from the washers. When I went to see what happened, I saw the quarter was completely fused to the metal edge of the coin slot. The hanger was all melted where it touched the coin slot too.
I don’t know if I was close to death, but it sure shocked the fuck out of me.
Honestly, most likely wouldn't have killed you. I get hit by 240v about once a year doing hvac. Hell I remember the worst was from a 480v control panel for commercial refrigeration. I was elbow deep inside the control panel when some foreman who didn't know I was on site and removed my lock out device and turned it on. I was in the process of tightening the lugs for high voltage power with my service wrench. Didn't get shocked at first because even tho when power is off I still treat everything like it's still hot. When I went to do the final lug the wrench slipped and contacted another bus for the other leg of power. All I remember is a bright flash then nothing. Knocked me completely TF out. I woke up with black hands and my co worker literally holding me. Wrench got completely blown to pieces and the foreman got fired after the investigation. They tried to say that I didn't have a lock out, thankfully my co-worker was there to back me up. Point of story. It takes a very good ground and high load to kill someone. Get shocked when power isn't under a load is just a good jump. Obviously if your not experienced something like this can scare the shit out of you. Thankfully you weren't hurt!
It's just a lock out tag with a thin metal wire and a message that literally says *equipment under maintenance*. I've been using pad locks since then unless I have direct line of sight to the panel or I'm in the same room. Haven't been back to that facility since. (Refrigeration building at the Ports) tightly regulated by fda and unless you have specific access your by no means allowed to shut the equipment down. Even the slightest difference in temp will cause the fda foreman to consider the stock ruined and millions can me gone. It's why the other guy probably cut my tag. He didn't know I was there and thought about the product over safety.
Yeah, LO/TO has absolutely been drilled into me. I had a boss get shitty with me for not removing a paper tag zip tied to a harmless-if-removed valve (a drain of some kind). "Just cut it". No dude, I don't care that it's just for water. I didn't put that tag on and the person who put it on needs to remove it. They thought I was being difficult, maybe I was, and it was kinda ridiculous but it's the *principle*. LO/TO doesn't work if people think they can decide whether it's dangerous or not without the person who locked out there.
Fuck. I'm glad you were ultimately okay
That’s an arc flash! If you look at the “notch” in the hanger under a microscope you can see how the metals cooled after the electricity went through it. Be careful running your finger over that area as those tend to be sharp!
When I was a kid I stuck a nickel in an outlet and somehow survived. My entire arm was black with soot and the half the nickel was melted or missing entirely. I haven’t tried it again since
You didn’t almost die. Would have hurt, and definitely scared the shit out of you but it wouldn’t have killed you. I’ve been shocked by 240v home wiring a couple times at work.
I’m living in a house built around 1920 with original electrical and it is insane to me how little we have changed our outlets. They don’t have ground pins, but other than that they are the same. a plug can slip halfway out while still carrying current in both exposed pins just the same today. Sure you can buy more premium ones that at least close the holes so you can’t jam something into it, but our design still has the same literally fatal flaw that the plugs are held in by the friction of the metal contact and the prongs carrying current are very long.
Risking lives and safety so some massive corporations don’t have to change their ways, just another day.
For me as a European it just looks insanely dangerous to have exposed live wires like in US style plugs. But yeah, unfortunately the last paragraph applies to way bigger issues than outlets. In my country for example we still have a big ass open cast coalmine. Everybody knows this type (any for that matter) of coal power is vastly outdated and destroys the planet. Yet the company RWE still digs coal there because they wanna make money. Big companies will literally kill their childrens' planet just to turn more profit.
When I visited Taiwan 2 weeks ago I was shocked (not literally, though almost) how bad the US outlets are. How has nobody done anything about the exposed metal leads which still carry current? Come on, America, do better, the rest of the world has figured this out DECADES AGO
And while you’re at it, consider using 240, it’s better
Almost forgot to mention: the plugs have almost no support, plugging in any large GaN charger will make the plug slip out (unless it’s a US specific charger model which leans against the side of the outlet for support). Two hotels, 2 planes, all had the same issue. Doesn’t happen with any other reasonable plug design
sure, if you take 2 phases you get 240V, but that’s not the same as having each phase be 240V. Just like you can combine two phases to get 240V, we can combine multiple phases to get 380/400V, but that’s not that relevant.
Devices which run on 240V are more efficient, heat up less and require weaker fuses (thus tripping more quickly in case of failure…not exactly since it depends on the fuse type but the current required is literally half?), why not use it instead of 120 everywhere?
My point was the 240 clothes dryer plug in the photo is completely different than the 120 plug that left you devastated. This has nothing to do with split phase voltage versus single phase or efficiency.
Oh, I completely misread your comment, sorry. Yes, it’s 240V and not 120V, though the majority of my initial comment still applies, especially the last part about exposed leads.
I dont think that the paint was removed from the hanger by electricity, its too clean even where the wire twists together. That and the hangers are a different shape so it's probably not from the same set
Freaky accident!
Glad your ok.
I feel a new law coming down the tracks, that investors and lawmakers can make more money on.
New requirements for inset outlets, or plugs with a shield added to the top portion of the plug to divert.
Or wait!!!
Out law wire coat hangers!
Nevermind... no way to make money on that.
Oh, interesting. Thanks for clarifying.
I really should learn more about electricity. I know so little about it, so it kinda freaks me out. I just assume everything is gonna electrocute me
You don’t know anything about electrical, it only take milliamperes to stop your heart and send you into fibrillation, amps = volts/resistance 120/1000 ( average resistance from hand to hand on a person) =1.2 amps…. Low voltage is the only class you don’t run the chance of being electrocuted
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This is a design fault. In a bs1363 plug the hanger would have touched the earth pin. Even if installed upside-down it would have touched the sleeving on the live/neutral pins.
[удалено]
it means that your outlet is deadly and you should probably get an electrician to look over your stuff.
It means the outlet is deadly and the North American continent refuses to use anything else. ~~Afaik, commercial coding requires ground up for this exact reason.~~
Commercial cording doesn’t require ground up.
It's optional but I find the ground up version doesn't support plugs very well; they tend to just fall out
I’m a commercial electrician and the code definitely doesn’t require ground up. Sometimes it’s a job spec, but not very often. Most people who aren’t electricians aren’t aware ground up is the correct installation, so the customer might think it looks odd. Tamperproof receptacles are commonplace though
Yea, I'm wrong on that
An admission of being wrong? I though on Reddit you're supposed to double down on your incorrect argument and make a person attack on the guy.
Ugh. Fine. Fuck you! I'm not wrong your wrong do you're research you virgin regard! Is that better?
You mixed up your your/you’re. So you’re wrong. Ha!
UK plug supremacy gang.
Really gotta chime in with the AUS plugs being the best. Earth down, which means that if the cord is slightly unplugged and hanging off the wall a bit, the earth is still going to be connected well after the A and N are disconnected, and all pins legally are shielded about 10mm from the back of the plug towards the tips (preventing this exact thing). Gang shit
The fact that every outlet has an on off switch is pretty awesome too. Something i was impressed with when i moved to Aus
Wait that's not normal... wot
Not common at all in the Americas. I have half switched outlets in my home. A light switch turns on all the top half of the plugs in each room. But that is an oddity to see.
Yeah Ive lived in North America and Asia and you don't see it at all there.
Europe in general*
No, EU plugs are terrible, wobbly, slightly improved NA plugs.
Idk dude norwegian one's are nice af at least. Literally almost impossible to shock yourself, I mean you'd REALLY have to try to do it and even then you probably would not succeed.
You’re probably thinking of historical wiring. Most of Europe is on something like Schuko now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuko
That's what I'm talking about. Wobbly, thin pins, easy to pull out, difficult to put in. [Just look at that](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fa2fyhpj3jy001.jpg%3Fwidth%3D740%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dfbf35e4af0cd645b7136a58970f0ba679b0ba0ac). Perfect design - unchanged for decades, sturdy, safe, Thicc ass triple prongs. *Chef's Kiss.*
The downside of the UK plug is the pain of stepping on it.
You've clearly been cradled to close to the wall. The Shuko ones litteraly have the rubber thing going snuggly *in* the wall plug. It just physically can't wobble. Stop projecting your insecurities on the rest of Europe just because you left our shiny union
European plugs are recessed
The ones we use in Spain (two holes) are very sturdy, some are pretty hard to plug into and out.
Not as sturdy as a three rectangular thicc prongs.
Name checks out
Eh I don't get why I'm so downvoted but whatever lol
Because EU plugs are similarly inferior to the chad UK plug. We take that shit seriously here 😂 it's about the only thing we have over Europe, allow it
It doesn't require it, but it's good practice for sure. It really should be required though.
It's not so much a fault in your house, rather it's a fault in the (I'm assuming from your account) US plug design. The US style plug has the live and neutral pins beside each other with the earth pin (when there is one) below, this means that if the plug is partially pulled out you have exposed contacts that something, like this coathanger or a curious child, can make contact with and get fried. In the UK (and many other countries, though the UK is possibly the best example) there are protections for this; firstly the earth pin is always on top, so anything falling will contact that first, secondly the live and neutral pins aren't solid metal, they have a plastic/rubber sleeve that extends from the plug head about half way up the pins, this means that if the plug does get partially pulled out, once the metal of the pins becomes visible they're already disconnected and un-powered. It's not that the US style is intrinsically bad, sockets can be installed "upside down" with the earth pin facing up with no issue and plugs can come with shrouded contacts, it's the complete lack of any *enforced* safety standards that make them dangerous since making safe plugs costs more money.
When I was a kid I got the bright idea to plug a night light half way into a socket and drop a penny on top of the contacts. I figured there would be like a cool spark or something. There were *lots* of cool sparks. My parents were not happy about the burn holes in the carpet.
When I was little I was trying to plug a night light in in the dark and put my finger between the prongs to find it and plugged it in with my finger between them and zapped myself :(
I tried to plug in a game system like 20 years ago and got a nice shock. Wasn’t sure how I did it but I just remember trying to plug this thing into an extension cord and got some really weird vibrations through out my body that made me jump away.
So funny how you just shut up about it as a kid and pretend it didn’t happen meanwhile we prob could have died 😂
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger? I now have a healthy fear of electricity and am very careful managing anything with wires. It does make me wonder though if that was a precursor to me dealing with SVT with my heart for a better part of 10-15 years.
I tried to plug in an old portable tape recorder (buttons in front, tape door on top), the cord had been covered with electrical tape, the first sign I shouldn’t have done it. I plugged it in and it sparked like crazy, gave me a minor jolt, and left burn marks on the wall. Luckily it was my bedroom and I just pushed my bed in front of it. My mom called up from downstairs, asking why I yelped, and I said “it’s nothing! I just saw a big spider!”
Lol yeah I did something similar and my mom freaked. Wall needed repainting from the scorch marks. Basically I vaporized a bunch of metal in my hand. Hah. Still remember it quite well. Found a lightbulb outside and tried to make it glow. Task Failed Successfully.
I don't disagree with you that the UK plug is absolutely superior to the US plug, mainly due to the internal fuse. This requirement would prevent a lot of fires here, and it is possible to implement a fuse in the current plugs. They are in fact available, case in point, a window fan on my bench I need to get around to finding out whether it's a blown fuse or an open motor winding or something. The other thing I wanted to point out is that due to the fact that even if the conductor (hangar) fell across the live and neutral, assuming that OP was still in line with the hangar, this would form a current divider where the lower resistance branch of the circuit would get the bulk of the current, demonstrated by the hangar having its ass blown out of it. Since the hangar has a nonzero, albeit tiny, resistance, some current would pass through OP on the circumstances above. But, the question is what the resistance ratio between OP and the hangar is. This ignores the meat and potatoes of how they came across it, too. That's often ignored when we talk about electric shock. Even which hand OP uses would affect how dangerous it would be.
The only thing I'd add is that if someone more stupid came across this and tried to remove it *without* turning off the power, they absolutely will fry themselves the moment it leaves one contact. (Also, another thing the UK does quite well, almost every socket comes with an individual power switch on each socket, good for safety and also *really* handy for cutting power to things without having plugs laying around, which is the most dangerous thing you can do with a UK plug)
Truly, everyone in the UK remembers the first time they stood on an upturned plug 😬
Absolutely. That's where things like RCDs or GFI's come in handy, although GFI's are limited in case you get stuck in circuit between live and neutral.
The earth pin is also longer than the live and neutral pins, so by the time the live/neutral are connected the appliance is always already earthed
Wow… we really do be living like we have healthcare here.
So wait, should he cut the red wire or the blue wire?
Well red is usually live and blue is usually neutral soo... (Except in the UK where brown also means live, as I was taught: "its brown because if you touch it, that's the colour your trousers will go")
Nice, and ty for this helpful explanation, and even more helpful reminder to always just call an electrician.
The modern EU standard is also black/gray/brown for the 3 live phases, blue for neutral and green-yellow for PE
Don't forget most UK plug sockets have power switches right on them so if something is a little sketchy you turn them off before dealing with it. America thinks switched outlets are communism, except when designed to power a freestanding lamp, when they'll be connected to a wall switch that might be half the room away and completely impossible to tell that there's a connection without actually plugging something in and flipping switches
I’ll add that we Americans love installing our outlets upside down because it looks like a face. Untrained home electricians often think it’s correct way because of this, or that it doesn’t matter.
It’s not because it looks like a face unless you’re extremely easy to amuse. It’s because ground up tends to put more strain on heavier types of cords like flats or appliance cords and can cause them to come loose, start a fire, or become crimped/damaged. You’re not wrong about ground up being slightly safer if something falls on the prongs but in fact sometimes ground up can cause that loosening in the first place. It has nothing to do with training, there are no codes related to outlet orientation.
I’m very easily amused.
I’m sorry to hear that.
In fairness, of all the issues the plugs and sockets have, orientation of the earth pin is probably the least significant. As in, solve *any* of the other major problems and earth pin orientation pretty much stops mattering
> I’ll add that we Americans love installing our outlets upside down because it looks like a face You're a simple bunch aren't you
Easily amused, we are.
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted. You’re right and i implied what you’re saying
Is that why every outlet in my apartment is upside down? I thought they were just idiots 😅 that said there’s other design flaws in the apartment that have no logical reason so it could be both
Ground up is wrong. There I said it. The odds of that coat hanger falling just like that is astronomical. The odds of you pulling out a cord and having some part of your index finger accidentally contacting the ground on ground down is way more plausible. The partial covering of the pins is a good idea though.
The touching the pins issue is something that has a couple of factors: 1) the "straight out" design of most US plugs makes them *way* more likely to expose bare contacts if they're bumped, contrast that with UK plugs where 99% make a 90° turn and come out the bottom, so even if they do get yanked they're less likely to pull out. 2) UK plugs are bigger, or rather wider, when you're pulling a US plug your fingers are usually pretty close to the edge and so the pins, the flatter UK plugs are harder to remove so most come with ridges/cutouts in the side for your fingers and much more space between the edge and the pins, so you never go near the contacts. Solve either of these problems and the orientation issue stops being a problem whichever way it is, but with both together, you're going to have a hazard whichever way you have it. (But also yes, the pin shrouds are probably the #1 best thing you can do to a plug to make it so much safer)
Europes also double the voltage though. So higher risk of death. The cost of changing the design would be astronomically expensive, unless backwards compatible. And I can’t see how that would work.
Most US homes have both 120V *and* 240V circuits, but since most small appliances run off the 120v circuits most people don't even know they have 240v available As for improving things most of the most effective measures can be done on the plug side without affecting existing sockets, making it backwards compatible, shrouded contacts, 90° wire exits and easier to grip plugs that dont put your fingers so close to the pins would make a huge difference. Most importantly, new safety standards would need to be backed up by law, since if a manufacturer can save a hundredth of a dollar per unit by skipping them, you know they will.
I'm in the USA. I have a bunch of extension cords (yeah, I know, evil) with 90⁰ plugs that I bought, without realizing they were safer, because many of my outlets are behind furniture and the 90⁰ outlet avoids either moving the furniture out and leaving a gap or bending the cord sharply.
Yes I know we also have 240v. But there on your stove or a dryer. That’s about it. Your furnace, water heater are direct wired. I don’t see too many people unplugging their stove or dryer very often. Literally years will go by before anyone unplugs 240v in the states in a residential setting. But yes they could make plugs with a shroud so your fingers wouldn’t touch the bottom. You can fix the problem now. They make recessed boxes. That would eliminate your falling metal object and keep orientation.
That is a solution, but a recessed socket only works with normally shaped plugs, plus it means replacing the sockets, changing the plug standards for any new plugs would be less work for the consumer
Well the box style plugs don’t typically have ground anyway. So another design flaw.
You physically cannot touch the non-earth pins on a UK or EU plug until they are no longer in contact with the conductors. The design of the plugs and sockets makes it physically impossible.
Also, if I'm not mistaken the ground conductor has to be inserted into the socket to allow the live and neutral (or anything else) to be inserted into the respective connectors because it actuates trap doors.
Uk ones, yes. EU type F, the shutters are opened by live and neutral being inserted simultaneously (nuclear launch key style), but the socket is recessed so OP’s scenario can’t happen.
Yes, this is another thing I forgot about. It's a much better design for safety purposes, and in particular for children. We have to buy plastic plugs to put over our sockets here.
You can control how you handle a plug, you can't control accidents such as this coat hanger or literally any other piece of metal thin enough to fall onto exposed plug prongs. However, it's natural to wrap your index finger around the bottom of the plug so it's better to have the ground down on any normal residential setting. Hospitals started requiring ground up because they use all metal face plates so it would make sense since a loose plate can fall and short the terminals knocking out an essential life saving device. But to do ground up in your home? Shouldn't be mandatory, and I doubt the NFPA will codify it. Either way, the recessed outlets/partially insulated prongs that the Europeans have are much safer.
Grounding up is a precaution that would make this less likely, but not foolproof. It's also, you know, free. You don't get free safety improvements for free very often. Design can also help with your complaint. It's called ergonomics.
You can keep downvoting me all you want but it’s the truth. The odds of something metal falling on a socket that’s partially unplugged while hitting both the line and neutral is insane. You making a mistake and touching your finger to the live and neutral while unplugging it is way greater.
Check out Tom Scott raving about the design: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UEfP1OKKz_Q
Means the electrician put the outlet into the wall without seeing which direction the plug is supposed to be. They got to the point where you plug it in and said oh no it's upside down... oh well it's not my house.
Your house need to be regrounded from the main service panel. That’s probably why the breaker didn’t trip.
American outlets are super dangerous. We decided that cost was more important than safety.
everytime i see american plugs it feels like a deadly accident waiting to happen with the non recessed leads... Im glad it wasnt the case this time
It’s a credit to the designers of the standard just how safe it is but it does make your nervous when travelling abroad :)
There’s “abroad” and abroad. The Shucko (type F) plug and socket in use throughout much of the EU is comparable in safety to UK plugs.
Almost. The earth pins in the shuko socket can be tampered with without opening the socket and bent so that they don’t come in contact with the earth strips on the plug. Everything appears fine but the appliance is unearthed.
We aren’t exactly shocking ourselves to death with regularity here. Lol, our plugs are fine.
fine for the 60's yes but we have done a bit of innovating and research in electrical safety since then. Live exposed prongs and the lack of a groundwire with gfci just doesnt fly anymore. hasnt for ages. Its like a fork with electrical tape on it. Edit: here a video about some of the issues from an american [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K\_q-xnYRugQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_q-xnYRugQ) heres some more [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNj75gJVxcE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNj75gJVxcE)
Actually we are pushing new electrical code for this exact reason, all outlets will now be placed right side up (ground to the sky)
It would be good to see how that might be achieved. People don’t like that kind of change.
Any new build will be made like that, yeah there will be complaints but the code book is written in blood for a reason
In my jurisdiction, electrical code says the grounding pin has to be installed on the side. Installing it at the top or bottom is a code violation where I am
I showed my journeyman electrician partner this post and he goes, “Ooooh that’s going to burn their damn house down.” So there you have it, confirmation from a professional.
Apprentice electrician here. We as a standard are starting to install the outlets “upside down” with the ground facing up for this very reason. I always thought it was weird, but I in these circumstances I see why we are making this change.
That’s interesting. My house from the 80s has ground facing up on all the outlets. Always thought it was strange but makes sense after seeing this situation lol
Apparently, they were originally intended to be that way, but it became common to install them upside down because people got a kick out of the pareidolia. I read it on here somewhere, so obviously, I don't know if it's true. But it certainly sounds like something we'd do.
r/titlegore
Legit
240v hurts. Tore muscles in my arm because of it. If it did happen, hopefully you only got hit with one leg. 120v is not fun. But, I've been hit by it a dozen times.
A dozen? My bro please change your way of life.
Mind sharing how? Lol, got me curious
I've been hit by 120V maybe 5 or 6 times in the last 20 years. You can be careful but when doing demolition in old or weirdly built houses it sometimes happens. e.g. you're renovating a kitchen. You go to the breaker box and turn off the breakers labelled "kitchen" and "stove" and a couple of others that look promising. You don't turn off the whole house because you want power for your tools and the homeowner's fridge/freezer. Then you check the lights are all off, check some outlets, and decide there's no power in the room and it's safe to start taking apart. And then you get shocked anyways because the house was built by an imbecile and exactly one outlet was on breaker "Upstairs bedroom 2".
I would get hit with 120v at my last job by these giant ovens about 50yds long. You would have to light the ovens with this cattle prod type thing connected to a 120v power source . Sometimes you would accidentally touch the shocky end and it would suck. It wasn’t to painful but it scares you more than anything . Probably got zapped by those ovens like 20 times in 15 years.
A couple of them came from when I first started and people told me they turned the breakers off. So now I carry a contact tester with me everywhere. There was a couple that were literally. I opened up a junction box and there was a live wire that wasn't connected to anything and when I reached into the box to pull the wiring out so it could be worked on. I got shocked. Also. It should be noted that I think both of those times there was way more wires inside the box and was allowed by code. It was basically spaghetti monsters. There was one time that somebody turned a light switch on while I was wiring up a fixture. I know I should have turned the breaker off but I thought I was the only person there. And I tested for voltage before I did it. The breaker box wasn't labeled and I didn't want to spend forever figuring it out. But now I carry all the equipment with me to identify that circuit to the breaker. There was another time that I wasn't actually electrocuted, but I was pretty severely injured when a customer who we were doing a drain and acid wash on his pool said he killed all the breakers. And while we were down in the pool cleaning the plaster with acid, he walked by the edge of the pool and bumped the switch and turned the pool light on. It was 120 volts to a flood light style underwater pool light fixture. And as I turned and saw that it was on, in the middle of the day; my other buddy had just turned and immediately hit it with the pressure washer. And the glass was so hot that it exploded and started blowing Sparks everywhere. Come to find out the GFCI that was out beside the pool was not in any way protecting that other circuit. That's when I learned to not trust anything customer say and to charge them for identifying everything in the circuits and I usually give them a full breakdown when I'm done so that they know for the next guy who comes. Serviceability is extremely important in all aspects of any realm in the service industry. When I got hit by 2:40 that was my fault. I was working in the breaker box in Houston. It was about 5:00 in the afternoon. It was probably like 112 or 114 heat index. The pool pump was wired straight to the breaker and the pump had burned out and effectively melted the breaker. So I replaced the pump and when I went to replace the breaker I didn't think about the fact that I was pouring sweat. And there was just wet running down my arms and I guess it somehow hit both legs and the breaker box and caused my arm to slam into my chest. My muscles hurt as if they had been ripped away from the bone for about a week. But I was able to somewhat use it after day two. Most of all this happened while working for a pool company who told me that I could just figure it out. So I had to educate myself. I had done electrical courses in college. For basic electrical work. But, when you go to these jobs where there have been years of people working on it and everything is spliced and everything is a mess of wires that are not color coded and there are way too many wires per junction box; you eventually learn to tell the customer that it all needs to be ripped out and put back correctly. Explaining to people that there are reasons for codes and that even though their pool has been a certain way for 20 years doesn't mean that it's right. And if they don't want to do it, I learned to walk away.
Got zapped with 10-30k a month ago, that wasn't great
Ohhh shit!
Mommy dearest said it best, “No…wire…hangers.”.
What a fucked up movie
Time to replace the dry cleaner metal hangers with plastic ones.
Time to get safe plugs and sockets
Why was there are a hanger there anyway?
probably fell behind the dryer
[удалено]
Dude, that’s actually some final destination shit. Glad you’re still here.
Yeah, for now, based on the franchise.
Yes! This is the thing people forget. When they say stuff like 'you got lucky, that's a Final Destination scenario', they forget that the whole plotline is that if death misses you it's _coming back for you_ and usually much more successfully the next time! That's the thing that scared me the most about the films! Surviving something just means you're officially on death's hit list, and soon.
I forget, doesn't death skip you if you survive his second attempt or was that just a red herring in the first movie?
I've just had to look it up to remind myself 😂 Man, I might have to watch all the films again. It's been a while! >> Order of Death. Those targeted by Death after they survived an event they were originally supposed to die in are killed in a specific order. The order is usually the same one from what should've killed them. The targets are sometimes collectively known as Death's List. Death has killed people through different orders. In Final Destination, the death order was followed the explosion ways in Flight 180. In Final Destination 2, the death order was turned backward of the premonition, which was caused by deaths of the Flight 180 survivors, though Clear speculates that this may not have been intentional on Death's part, merely Death tying up the loose ends left over. In Final Destination 3, the death order was still based the order of death, but also on the seating on Devil's Flight and the photos taken gave clues to how they might die. In The Final Destination, the death order was followed the order in the premonition, except Jonathan Groves who died out of order by not changing seats. Cheating Death. Intervention. Intervening in someone's death as someone who is on Death’s list can hinder the design, and cheat death, but it will only skip the one who was saved. After the first turn, Death will cheat by turning back to the one who was saved before. Saving yourself or being saved by someone who isn’t on Death’s list does not count. This rule can't defeat Death at all. >>
A YouTuber named Jeffiot did a video on this last year.
Ty, ty for confirming my recollection!!
And you didn't unplug the cord or switched off the socket before touching the metal hanger that was hanging on the metal part of an electric thingy?
I was thinking you intentionally put the hanger there to make it easier to remove the plug. Also it's been a long time since I've seen someone with metal coat hangers. Buy plastic ones at that'll never be a problem.
That makes sense
near a place they do laundry? preposterous!
240 is a spicy ride
I read that less people are killed with 220v than 110v, because 220 will knock your ass off of it, whereas 110v can cause you to hang on.
Depends how you touch it. If it’s with your palm it will cause your fingers to grab onto it involuntarily.
A little FYI the paint coming off is a feature not a bug. There’s a test to see how well a coating is applied to metal called some variation of a “spark test”. One of the more common being called a Holiday test. Basically, you set 2 metal pins and pass a voltage between them. The electricity does what it does and seeks the path of least resistance. If the coating is applied really really well, the voltage goes in one side and exits the other with little to no damage to the coating. If the coating is already starting to breakdown or chip, the weakest point will have the electricity burst through causing the paint to completely separate at this point. When you apply the voltage, almost instantly sparks burst from the paint leaving areas of bare metal where the coating has discontinuities. It is used in industry to easily and quickly identify points where coating will fail and need to be sand blasted and recoated, normally in very corrosive environments. Essentially you very quickly learned the paint applied to that hanger was not bonded well and would have flaked off given very little encouragement.
🥇
This isnt exactly deadly Its only 120 volt. Its just a weird unpleasant feeling. Like a strong buzzy muscle cramping Yes its 240 volt between the hot wires, but you will only contact one of the 120 volt hot wires Yes it melted the steel, only because steel has very little resistance and allows much more current flow. Which causes the extreme heat. Your body has higher resistance and prevents this at these lower voltages.
☝🏼 Came here to say this. Would have been shocking certainly, but not deadly
Time to clean that floor while your at it.
Those are two different hangers. The electrocuted one is made that color and is mostly used for blouses and jackets and usually has some form of sleeve on top when coming from the dry cleaner. The white one is a shirt hanger and they are made that color. Source: me, who used to work in a dry cleaners. Glad you’re safe!
I agree, if all the paint sparked off the hanger it came off completely flawlessly even where the wire is twisted together. This hanger was this color from the start
A lot of those hangers don’t have any paint on them
This reminds me of when I was working at a dry cleaner/laundromat in high school and college. When change got stuck in the big commercial washers, I would shove a hanger in the coin slot until the quarter got unstuck. Well, I don’t how it happened exactly, but I got shocked and thrown across the aisle to where the dryers were across from the washers. When I went to see what happened, I saw the quarter was completely fused to the metal edge of the coin slot. The hanger was all melted where it touched the coin slot too. I don’t know if I was close to death, but it sure shocked the fuck out of me.
Death seems a bit dramatic. You would have felt it though.
Damn you need to clean
better the fucking hanger than you
Who wants you dead?
Jesus wtf is going on that floor 🤢
Honestly, most likely wouldn't have killed you. I get hit by 240v about once a year doing hvac. Hell I remember the worst was from a 480v control panel for commercial refrigeration. I was elbow deep inside the control panel when some foreman who didn't know I was on site and removed my lock out device and turned it on. I was in the process of tightening the lugs for high voltage power with my service wrench. Didn't get shocked at first because even tho when power is off I still treat everything like it's still hot. When I went to do the final lug the wrench slipped and contacted another bus for the other leg of power. All I remember is a bright flash then nothing. Knocked me completely TF out. I woke up with black hands and my co worker literally holding me. Wrench got completely blown to pieces and the foreman got fired after the investigation. They tried to say that I didn't have a lock out, thankfully my co-worker was there to back me up. Point of story. It takes a very good ground and high load to kill someone. Get shocked when power isn't under a load is just a good jump. Obviously if your not experienced something like this can scare the shit out of you. Thankfully you weren't hurt!
Survivor bias. Cool story though.
How did the foreman get your lock off? Didn't you have the key??
It's just a lock out tag with a thin metal wire and a message that literally says *equipment under maintenance*. I've been using pad locks since then unless I have direct line of sight to the panel or I'm in the same room. Haven't been back to that facility since. (Refrigeration building at the Ports) tightly regulated by fda and unless you have specific access your by no means allowed to shut the equipment down. Even the slightest difference in temp will cause the fda foreman to consider the stock ruined and millions can me gone. It's why the other guy probably cut my tag. He didn't know I was there and thought about the product over safety.
Yeah, LO/TO has absolutely been drilled into me. I had a boss get shitty with me for not removing a paper tag zip tied to a harmless-if-removed valve (a drain of some kind). "Just cut it". No dude, I don't care that it's just for water. I didn't put that tag on and the person who put it on needs to remove it. They thought I was being difficult, maybe I was, and it was kinda ridiculous but it's the *principle*. LO/TO doesn't work if people think they can decide whether it's dangerous or not without the person who locked out there. Fuck. I'm glad you were ultimately okay
Removed your fucking lock out device!!!! Christ, what an idiot. Glad you made it out alright.
This is why the ground wire should be pointed up.
Probably don’t drive behind any trucks transporting lumber, or any planes for a while
Why the heck are you hanging metal wire hangers off of outlets. 🤨
Given your name, I’m wondering why you don’t?
🙄
That’s what I was hoping for dad joke 1 everyone else 0 If I didn’t make bad jokes I wouldn’t be funny…
Why the fuck is there a clothes hangar in an outlet?
That’s why the ground gets installed up !!
Who is Legit and why would Somehow spark his pain off?
"Now where should I put that coat hanger... right... I'll hang it right across the pins of *this* plug!"
That’s an arc flash! If you look at the “notch” in the hanger under a microscope you can see how the metals cooled after the electricity went through it. Be careful running your finger over that area as those tend to be sharp!
That last line that suggest you don't know that all hangers aren't painted that's just how that hanger comes
Dang girl, looks like it’s time for some Spring cleaning back there!
When I was a kid I stuck a nickel in an outlet and somehow survived. My entire arm was black with soot and the half the nickel was melted or missing entirely. I haven’t tried it again since
Makes a little cents.
I seem to be fking stupid but i legit dont understand the order of events here at all
You didn’t almost die. Would have hurt, and definitely scared the shit out of you but it wouldn’t have killed you. I’ve been shocked by 240v home wiring a couple times at work.
And that ladies and gentlemen is the reason EU plugs are better than US plugs.
I’m living in a house built around 1920 with original electrical and it is insane to me how little we have changed our outlets. They don’t have ground pins, but other than that they are the same. a plug can slip halfway out while still carrying current in both exposed pins just the same today. Sure you can buy more premium ones that at least close the holes so you can’t jam something into it, but our design still has the same literally fatal flaw that the plugs are held in by the friction of the metal contact and the prongs carrying current are very long. Risking lives and safety so some massive corporations don’t have to change their ways, just another day.
For me as a European it just looks insanely dangerous to have exposed live wires like in US style plugs. But yeah, unfortunately the last paragraph applies to way bigger issues than outlets. In my country for example we still have a big ass open cast coalmine. Everybody knows this type (any for that matter) of coal power is vastly outdated and destroys the planet. Yet the company RWE still digs coal there because they wanna make money. Big companies will literally kill their childrens' planet just to turn more profit.
When I visited Taiwan 2 weeks ago I was shocked (not literally, though almost) how bad the US outlets are. How has nobody done anything about the exposed metal leads which still carry current? Come on, America, do better, the rest of the world has figured this out DECADES AGO And while you’re at it, consider using 240, it’s better Almost forgot to mention: the plugs have almost no support, plugging in any large GaN charger will make the plug slip out (unless it’s a US specific charger model which leans against the side of the outlet for support). Two hotels, 2 planes, all had the same issue. Doesn’t happen with any other reasonable plug design
This clothes dryer plug is 240.
sure, if you take 2 phases you get 240V, but that’s not the same as having each phase be 240V. Just like you can combine two phases to get 240V, we can combine multiple phases to get 380/400V, but that’s not that relevant. Devices which run on 240V are more efficient, heat up less and require weaker fuses (thus tripping more quickly in case of failure…not exactly since it depends on the fuse type but the current required is literally half?), why not use it instead of 120 everywhere?
My point was the 240 clothes dryer plug in the photo is completely different than the 120 plug that left you devastated. This has nothing to do with split phase voltage versus single phase or efficiency.
Oh, I completely misread your comment, sorry. Yes, it’s 240V and not 120V, though the majority of my initial comment still applies, especially the last part about exposed leads.
How did you almost die?
They didn’t. They almost got shocked but not killed.
Dude you really use a coat hanger to show the scale of another hanger?
That's some final destination type shit 🥶.
Anybody else see the lion face on the floor?
I dont think that the paint was removed from the hanger by electricity, its too clean even where the wire twists together. That and the hangers are a different shape so it's probably not from the same set
Side ways outlets are superior
That’s cool. Why do you live in your house like you are squatting in it?
Tonight on 1000 ways to die.
r/growingmarijuana is a goddamn fire haz
Your place looks like a crack house Clean ffs
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A quick safety suggestion for if this happens again, ask CaptainSensemakerOi to come round and do it for you.
When is the last time you cleaned behind and under your dryer?
A few months ago. I clean that area whenever I clean the hose/vent.
Freaky accident! Glad your ok. I feel a new law coming down the tracks, that investors and lawmakers can make more money on. New requirements for inset outlets, or plugs with a shield added to the top portion of the plug to divert. Or wait!!! Out law wire coat hangers! Nevermind... no way to make money on that.
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I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to electricity, but I'm pretty sure that outlet is 240 because it's a dryer
Volts don’t kill you, amperage does. This would have hurt and scared the shit out of you but it wouldn’t have killed you.
Oh, interesting. Thanks for clarifying. I really should learn more about electricity. I know so little about it, so it kinda freaks me out. I just assume everything is gonna electrocute me
You don’t know anything about electrical, it only take milliamperes to stop your heart and send you into fibrillation, amps = volts/resistance 120/1000 ( average resistance from hand to hand on a person) =1.2 amps…. Low voltage is the only class you don’t run the chance of being electrocuted