DP has just broke my dryer

[Pinkdreams]

I asked DP to move the dryer whilst I clean under it as I spilt something, he couldn’t move it far enough so got annoyed and pulled it, which has now completely snapped the plug. I’m so angry. My dad says we can just change it ourselves, would you call an electrician?

Your medal is in the post 🏅

😁

Electrician friend wasn't amused to find id left those card diagrams on my plugs

God I've just remembered my parents reusing plugs. Buy new telly or whatever, take the plug of the old one!

Showing your age there factory fitted plugs have been a thing for 30 years

My dad used to mess with electrics (one time he made the upstairs lights turn on in the living room and the kitchen turn on a bedroom light, it was chaos and he didn't know what he was doing but he did fix it!) and has often changed plugs (- he would always cut plugs off old appliances before getting rid of them which is something I ended up doing and then getting rid of because I never used them and then I needed one and had to buy one 🤦🏻‍♀️).

I'd never done it until last year, a plug was damaged when we moved and I was so proud of myself for changing it, if it wasn't for my dad then I'd have not known but I'd have looked online to see how to do it.

I don't think it's a bad thing that you had to ask if it was safe, many people didn't grow up being told how to do these things but you do know now!

Since your DH broke it I'd want to tell him to do it but honestly, I'd do it yourself so you know what you're doing next time you need to do this.

I will say though, at least for my plug, it was so fiddly that you need steady hands (which I struggle with) and non thick fingers (reason my husband could never do it 😅) and it did make my already short wire just a little bit shorter but it works at least!

I'm mid 30's and was never taught anything about plugs at school either and like I said, if not for my dad I'd have not known.

@Needspaceforlego my parents used to do that too! But didn’t change electrical goods as often as we do nowadays

Been a long time since you were in school then lol.

This is not in any national curriculum in the UK.

This post has just highlighted the absolute difference in age between those commenting and the OP.

That's not the burn you think it is. That was a question statement. Like, "You went into the shop?" Are you unfamiliar with this use of language?

Of course I am, it's the life-blood of people who post on Mumsnet. Not the "burn" indeed. 😂

We learned how to do it in physics in the first year at secondary.

Mind you, that was in the days before appliances came with plugs already fitted. My nieces can't get their heads round the fact that you used to have to buy a plug and fit it every time you bought something electrical.

ETA: I still remember the mnemonic for which way round the wires go, too: BLue Bottom Left; BRown Bottom Right.

Ah well, you didn't have to buy a new plug, that was the "fun" part, getting something home and then ransacking drawers & cupboards for an old plug that was kicking about, or failing that, robbing a plug off something else instead.

When I was very little, early 1980s, I remember my mum's iron broke, and she had to borrow one from a neighbour...she was still using the neighbour's iron after buying herself a new one, as she was waiting for my dad to take the plug off the old iron and put it on the new one. Funnily enough, the broken iron actually had a factory-fitted plug marked "Morphy Richards", as they'd gone through a phase of fitting plugs as a selling feature. They didn't do it for all that many years, as it was too expensive. Anyway, that plug was then fitted to the next iron, and the one after that, neither of which were Morphy Richards!

Yep, and it's easy to replace a light socket or wire in a new ceiling light, too. I've done both, in pre-internet days, with the help of the Reader's Digest DIY book.

I remember hearing a horror story about a kid who'd got their hand on a plug with a bit flex attached (the man had obviously cut the flex so he'd have a spare plug) the kid was killed by putting the plug into a socket.

I have a funny feeling that might also have been part of the campaign to get factory fitted plugs so people wouldn't feel the need to remove plugs from appliances.

That's what electricians want you to believe. They probably make a lot of money from easy little jobs like changing a wall socket or a light fitting.

UPDATE

The dryer is now fixed, DP cut off the old plug and rewired a new one, unfortunately it’s now too small to reach the plug underneath my worktop where it’s hidden so we have to use the one above and just unplug it after every use. But most importantly I have my dryer.

Thank you to those of you who jumped in and was nice and sticking up for me. To those who weren’t, I hope you aren’t as horrible to your own children when they need your help.

Yeah I’ve got ‘all the fuses in all the sizes’, as BT Beattie would say.

Result! I feel like a need a diagram, OP! You know how MN loves a diagram …

I'm torn on whether that incident would have had impact on the change in legislation, given that factory fitted moulded plugs which are damaged or unsuitable to use have to be cut off...Whenever I've disposed of a moulded plug (and yes, it's rare) I've always bet the pins with pliers first, so that the plug couldn't be inserted into a socket.

Lynn Faulds-Wood and her Watchdog team were an integral part of getting the legislation changed...it took time, but they got there in the end. It has to be said though, the quality of 13 amp plugs has in some cases plummeted since it became mandatory to have a plug fitted on new appliances. It was always said that it added cost to the appliance, and as we know, the price of electrical goods has dropped as time has passed...savings had to be made somewhere.

No. A competent 10 year old could change a plug with instructions

Of course it is! All plugs are the same, just make sure that you have the right fuse in the plug for the appliance you're using, which is likely a 13 amp.

Exactly. And the same reason why phones, Kindles, tablets etc only come with USB cables and not plugs, because people always have spares available, so it's a resource reduction measure. What goes around, comes around.

It wasn’t just cost reduction. Three pin sockets only came in just after WWII. For decades there was a mixture of two and three pin sockets in use. You couldn’t put a three pin plug in a two pin socket nor a two pin in a three pin socket. Selling appliances with plugs attached was not that convenient because it meant the appliance couldn’t be used by some households.

I didn't say anything about reducing costs, but about not making a load of plugs that people don't need because they've already got spares.

I am 67 and school never taught me how to change a plug. Instead my Father taught me when I was 10. Changed dozens over the years.