to remind everyone that socket covers are dangerous!

[insertrandomnamehere]

Did a search and couldn't find a post on this topic for a couple of years so in case people still don't realise...

If you use Child safety socket covers, get rid of them! They are dangerous and they actually make sockets more dangerous not less.

Socket covers are completely unnecessary and could potentially cause a fatal accident. UK plug sockets are designed with shutters to prevent anything except a UK plug being inserted into the socket. It is extremely unlikely that a young child would be able to open these shutters, as the child would have to insert something of exactly the right size into the earth pin. This is not possible with real plugs. But socket covers hold these shutters open and introduce a range of new dangers.

Unlike real plugs, the various design faults of socket covers allow a curious child to insert them (upside down) into the earth pin only. On many sockets this opens the safety shutters and allows children access to the live contacts!

If you have these at home, please take a few minutes to read the national campaign calling for the banning of socket covers: //www.fatallyflawed.org.uk

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

Plugs do not bend they cannot go in upside down,unlike covers

The ikea and clipper safe ones are really really bad with both its very easy to get other things into the holes when they are used.

[insertrandomnamehere]

WhatHo - I suspect what they meant was that in your case, the chances of permanent damage were low because it was only a minor shock. Perhaps your dd pushed the live and neutral wires together rather than touching them herself, which would cause a bang and a loud spark. I've seen light switches charred black after this happens.

Perhaps you we're fortunate enough to have an RCD fitted that detected the fault and cut the supply within 30 thousandths of a second, just quick enough to avoid a fatal electrocution. Perhaps your dd touched the live and earth wires together, again causing a large spark.

What she didn't do, very thankfully, was touch the live wire in one hand and either be earthed (for example barefoot our touching something metal like a tap), or touch the neutral wire with the other hand at the same time.

[Honsandrevels]

I can't see mine there. I'm not saying people should use them but that I looked at the website and had a play around with ours. You could not do what they claimed with them. Maybe it is theoretically possible to bend them but if I can't manage it as a grown woman I can't see how a child could manage especially as you can't get them out of the socket in the first place without a struggle.

[specialsubject]

insertrandom puts it very well.

[Keepthechangeyoufilthyanimal]

Glad to find this thread - I did know about the dangers of covers already and was never planning to use them myself for the reasons you say OP, but will be showing the fatally flawed website to my MIL who has already been out and covered her entire house in socket covers 'to get used to having them on' now in preparation for our DC1 who is not even due until July. (aside from the fact she lives 300 miles away and we will probably only visit her at her house 2-3 times a year) I know she will have none of it when I tell her so the website will be good to show her.

[insertrandomnamehere]

Honsandrevels - are they brittle, for example could you put it upside down and snap the earth pin off, leaving it in the socket?

I'm not saying it's likely. In saying they are absolutely 100% pointless because UK sockets are rigorously designed to be safe. And in some (admittedly unlikely) circumstances, they could cause a fatal accident that would not happen if the cover was not present.

With that in mind, what possible justification is there for using them?

Sockets are designed to accept uk plugs. Uk plugs are subject to extremely strict standards. Anything else, including unregulated plug shaped bits of plastic, do damage sockets.

[insertrandomnamehere]

Keepthechange - precisely. Covers seem so intuitively safe so it is hard to convince people.

The video on the fatally flawed website is excellent. I'm sure that anyone, if you can get them to spend 5 mins watching it, will be convinced.

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

Why would anybody use something that is not needed and damages te actual built in safety feature

[fifi669]

Repeating said stupid thing I put chupa chops lolly back into socket.... Lolly stick is happy to stay in socket without me holding it, leaving shutters open :)

Just had HV around, she mentioned home safety I said I had cupboard locks and socket covers.... She was happy with that.

Each to their own I suppose! Whilst it's possible to get a shock in the way you're describing, I think the balance of probabilities is that it's less likely with my covers than without.

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

Is your HV an electrician?

[fifi669]

Are you?

[insertrandomnamehere]

I'd consider a newer socket then, sockets built to current regs shouldn't do that.

Sockets are built to a very high safety spec. Covers are designed with no electrical safety considerations in mind. The only regulation is that they must be non toxic for children to chew on. They are not designed to any electrical safety standard for covers, because none exists.

[insertrandomnamehere]

That wasn't addressed to me, but I'm not an electrician.

The test will be, do ask an electrician. They will tell you they are dangerous.

[fifi669]

www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/news-and-campaigns/press-releases/2009/06/socket-covers/

Electrical safety council has found no evidence that they're dangerous. It also states how safe sockets are in general.

[Binkyresurrected]

I asked DH he's an electrician, want to guess what he said? I bet you don't need to though.

[fifi669]

I'm in a council house, kitchen refitted and reworded when I moved in two years ago.... It works. Buy a lolly and check :)

[fifi669]

Rewired....

[insertrandomnamehere]

But fifi, it will be much easier to do this with an upside down plug cover than with a lolly stick which I'm sure had to be carefully positioned to get the shutters to stay open.

Yes, the child has to remove the cover first. But it can be done. Fatally Flawed has found videos of

[fifi669]

As I said, each to their own. I'm judging the risk as greater without covers than with. I know you can stick things in the earth to open the shutters, I've done it. I also know DP has issues removing the covers I have so it'd be even harder for a small child. Like most parenting there will be different opinions but I'm happy that mine works for my DS. If the next one has a cover fetish I may well change my mind.

[specialsubject]

fifi if you do want to continue with these, please confirm that your house has an up to date consumer unit with breakers, not fuses. There is concern that the socket covers are a fire hazard.

[insertrandomnamehere]

Electrical safety council have issued a very diplomatic statement saying there is no need to use covers, but it gives some parents peace if mind.

In irresponsible statement if you ask me, but it reflects the position of many authorities who offer no opinion on their use. Parliament is currently considering their banning, and you won't find any authority who actually recommends them.

[insertrandomnamehere]

RCDs would be better..

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

Are you?

No and that's exactly why I did ask one,as opposed to say a butcher or a health visitor or a chef

[BertieBotts]

Older extension cords yes, newer ones have a larger gap between the earth hole and the edge.

I found this when testing an older extension cord which DH brought from his parents' house. Every other extension cord in my house had been bought brand new by me since 2009, when I moved in. His was god knows how old, because they keep stuff for years (and why not, if it works).

The ikea statement about "earthed and non earthed" plugs just stems from a misunderstanding of UK electrics. Pretty much all other countries have both earthed and non earthed plugs - the US ones which look like smiley faces are earthed, the ones which are just two lines are unearthed. Most EU plugs are either round with two round pins, and metal contacts on the edge or middle (earthed) or a long, squashed hexagon shape with just two round holes like a shaver plug - unearthed. Ikea socket covers are based on EU plugs which is why they are badly shaped for UK plugs - in fact a lot of socket covers sold here, you can see the outline of a US plug (slightly squashed hexagon, or rectangle with convex curved sides) or they are round like EU plugs.

The way the UK deals with earthed and non earthed appliances is to add a plastic pin in place of the earth pin. If you somehow jam open the shutters, you can plug an EU two-pin plug into a UK socket.

To the poster who asked about the round pin plugs, I found this on the website:
My house has round pin sockets, are these dangerous? Should I use covers with them?

Before the introduction of the BS 1363 13 amp socket British homes were wired using a variety of round pin sockets. If your wiring system is very old then you should seek advice from a reputable electrical contractor about testing and possible re-wiring. Some round pin sockets are still used in modern installations for specialist purposes, for example 5 amp sockets are sometimes used in lighting circuits to allow floor lamps etc to be controlled by a central switch. Round pin sockets used in the UK are now required to meet BS 546, which does call for shutters. However there are still some older versions without shutters in use, and these should be replaced. We have not been able to find any suppliers offering socket covers to fit British round pin sockets.

And the person who said they had no shutters - see the reference picture on fatally flawed's front page. The ones which are the exception are "MK" type sockets. These have different kinds of shutters but they are still shuttered. The modern type look like this: highfields-arc.co.uk/constructors/info/files/mksktext.jpg

Actually I've just realised that the ones in my old house were metal and didn't look like this at all, and one was in DS' room! In the holes there were two metal bars or plates which I suppose get forced outwards when the plug is inserted. Hard to explain but if you have it you'll probably recognise it. Wish I'd got a picture now - would be interesting to email to FF and see what they say about them. They might have been old plugs, the house was Victorian.

[insertrandomnamehere]

Hopefully the plugs aren't Victorian!