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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think most people wire their own plugs

144 replies

Toadinthehole · 28/04/2013 02:14

The Guardian has begun an online photo gallery which exhibits people's personal experiences of the cuts in Britain.

Exhibit One is a picture intituled "Wiring my own white goods because I can't afford an electrician".

Link here.

Is someone having a little joke?

OP posts:

GibberTheMonkey · 28/04/2013 08:34

I never u deed told who came up with the colour coding either
Surely logically brown should be earth
And the striped bright flashy one would make sense as live
So neutral could be blue

But no, not that obvious.

Anyone know why they are the way they are?

GibberTheMonkey · 28/04/2013 08:34

u deed understood

cjdamoo · 28/04/2013 08:38

Ive done it s few times Tbh and changed fuses.

mummylin2495 · 28/04/2013 08:42

I can change plugs but I do have a free electrician as well because I am married to one ! he s not always at home when the fuses go or something minor like this so I think it's a good thing to know.

ProfYaffle · 28/04/2013 08:46

I was taught at school too but haven't had to for years and years. Fuses don't seem to need changing anymore either

inde · 28/04/2013 08:48

*I grew up in America...you used to have to buy the plug separately????

REALLY*???

I think appliances coming without a plug fitted came about because not all houses had the sockets that are the standard today. I grew up in a house that had different sockets to the ones we have today. One of the pins on them contained the fuse so that if it blew you didn't have to dismantle the plug. The problem was though that it used to unscrew and when you pulled the plug out left the fuse pin their, still live. When I was a kid I got a shock more than once from trying to pull the pin from the socket whilst it was still live.

NewAtThisMalarky · 28/04/2013 08:48

When the cord for my vacuum cleaner got sliced quite near the plug, I cut the wire and reattached a new plug (had to be a new one as the old ond was a moulded one). This was about six months ago. There's no way I was going to buy a new one when fixing it cost about £2 and took less than 5 minutes.

mercibucket · 28/04/2013 08:50

I've never changed a plug, and the last fuse that needed changing was ....... 15 years ago maybe. Weird. Maybe things just break now before the fuse/plug goes? I can't see that plugs and fuses have got better while the average electrical item on the whole has got a far far shorter lifespan than it used to.

AvrilPoisson · 28/04/2013 08:52

I agree gibber- colour system is potty!

We learnt at school (and were taught old colours just in case we came across older appliances!) Though my parents taught me too, as a useful skill (indded they had a fantastic extension a la Soupy )

The nuts on my wheels are far too tight to loosen btw.

Could I ask though... now one has to have everything signed off by an electrician (changing light fittings, wall switches etc) does that apply to plugs too? Our built-in oven didn't come with a plug, though it's definitely the type you plug-in not wire in, so we had to fit one.

woopsidaisy · 28/04/2013 08:53

I have never wired a plug. I would not attempt to wire a plug. I'd get someone who could do it to do it.
I thought I was normal, apparently not!
However, I have also never needed to do it, thank goodness.As it would appear I would be a laughing stock.
DH is similarly useless at this kind of thing. We store up all our DIY stuff, picture frames to be put up, small household repairs etc and get a handyman in. I don't think it is that big a deal tbh. We are crap at that stuff but good at other things. No biggie.

janey223 · 28/04/2013 08:56

Never shown how to wire a plug :-/

I won't touch anything electrical though! I'll ask a friend, my landlord or wait on my dad visiting, I'd feel like an idiot calling out an electrician for something so simple but too scared I'd end up blowing it up or something!

CouthySaysEatChoccyEggs · 28/04/2013 08:59

I was taught to wire a plug at school. Don't know if DD has been though. I will have to ask her.

Victoria2002 · 28/04/2013 09:00

I learned at brownies-but I think I know loads of people who wouldn't know how to. Fairly obsolete now though.

CouthySaysEatChoccyEggs · 28/04/2013 09:03

I do have a friend who was going to buy a new toaster. When I had a look at her toaster, it was obvious that all she needed to do was change the fuse. She didn't even know that plugs had a fuse in them...

StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes · 28/04/2013 09:03

DH is quite handy but will not touch electrics... all that comes to me. I wire plugs and recently replaced a ceiling light fitting while he stood by the ladder in awe

catwithflowers · 28/04/2013 09:09

I have changed dozens of plugs over the years. I moved abroad about 16 years ago and everything electrical I brought from England had to be changed from a 3 pin to a 2 pin plug. And when I moved back home a couple of years ago, loads of stuff I had bought in Europe had to changed to an English plug. It's one of the most useful things my lovely dad taught me

maddening · 28/04/2013 09:12

I can wire plugs and some things used to come without a plug.

Also non moulded plugs as used to be the norm would wear the cable in which case you would remove the plug and shorten the wire and replace the plug.

But too many were injured by faulty application of plugs. So now everything comes with a moulded plug.

MrsPennyapple · 28/04/2013 09:14

I learned how to wire a plug at school too, and I've done it a few times over the years. Once was when a desk had holes for cables to go through, but the hole was too small for the whole plug to go through. Whip it off, poke the cables through, wire it up again. Easy. (I think it was some piece of craft equipment that was going to be used in one place and not moved around.)

MsAverage · 28/04/2013 09:20

The organic vegbox is definitely the star. So beautiful, that I suspect that someone is just trolling the Guardian.

Iaintdunnuffink · 28/04/2013 09:26

I was born in 1970 and grew up wiring plugs, if you bought a new stereo or lamp it needed the plug putting on. My younger brothers, born in the 80's, have never needed to wire a plug and I doubt they know where to start with out the use of You Tube.

DoJo · 28/04/2013 09:28

If you have kit with plugs on that you move around regularly, then being able to wire a plug still comes in very handy - plus casements are often quite brittle and dropping one can cause it to crack quite easily. Similarly, if you ever damage the cable, by losing a bit of insulation off it or similar, you can just chop the plug off, expose the wires and re-attach. I accept that we probably do it in our house much more than your average family but I'm surprised that there are those who have never had to do it.

MrsPennyapple · 28/04/2013 09:29

I've also disconnected and re-connected a gas cooker, when moving house. I asked someone at work if I could realistically do it myself or if I really ought to call someone, he told me how to do it (turn gas off and then squeeze and twist the metal bit on the pipe at the back) and I did it. No idea how much the gas people would have charged me for that 2.5 seconds work, but probably a lot.

I have no idea how to chane a tyre or a wheel though. In my defense, I've only been driving a couple of months. It's on my To Learn list.

MrsPennyapple · 28/04/2013 09:32

So, does anyone else still chop the plugs off appliances that are being thrown away, or is it just me? There are times when you need to chop off the moulded plug that's on something, and you need a plug to replace it with. Not that I go around throwing away appliances with abandon, but it happens from time to time, and I generally save the plug if it's not a moulded one.

CheerfulYank · 28/04/2013 09:36

I'm with Tee...I'm American and have never heard of this.

My dad can do some wiring; my mom restores chandeliers and dad often has to
rewire them. But it's not something most people I know can do.

StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes · 28/04/2013 09:40

mrspennyapple dh always always does this we had a box full until I threw a load out recently, kept a few as spares but most things have moulded plugs now so we have less.

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