Page 11 | DP has just broke my dryer

Pinkdreams · 2025-06-24T22:11:04+00:00

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?

LividVermiciousKnid · 26/06/2025 06:48

I’m 45 years old and have never changed a plug nor had the need to. Not about to start messing with electricity now ffs.

JustATeacher · 26/06/2025 07:33

LividVermiciousKnid · 26/06/2025 06:48

I’m 45 years old and have never changed a plug nor had the need to. Not about to start messing with electricity now ffs.

Just out-of curiosity, why?

I can understand someone not knowing how to because they've never had the need or been shown but why the 'ffs' and talk of 'messing with electricity' when it's just changing a plug?

I've never needed to do much - never renovated a house for example, but I've changed wall sockets using the existing wiring and changed ceiling light fittings using the existing wiring when I've redecorated. Those are all standard DIY jobs that don't require an electrician.

IfYouPutASausageInItItsNotAViennetta · 26/06/2025 07:52

Pinkdreams · 25/06/2025 21:01

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.

Great to hear that, OP.

Although, now that he's happy with changing a plug, he could easily get a metre of cable and a connector box and, using the same principle, enable you to use the original convenient socket again.

RawBloomers · 26/06/2025 08:05

Bjorkdidit · 26/06/2025 06:12

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.

That is cost reduction.

goingroundthebendatthisrate · 26/06/2025 09:41

RawBloomers · 26/06/2025 05:23

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.

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That's right, which is what I said at the start of this thread.

goingroundthebendatthisrate · 26/06/2025 09:43

goingroundthebendatthisrate · 25/06/2025 01:34

That makes a huge difference historically, as it was pretty much only the UK who ever had appliances sold without plugs as standard. There were two reasons for this, one being a consequence of another.

Initially, the UK had no standardization of plugs and wall sockets - until the 1940s, there were 2 different types of 2-pin plug and 3 different types of 3-pin plug, all of them round-pin, unfused, and each requiring their own size of socket. There was also another type of plug which allowed appliances to be connected to a light socket. Most homes had a mixture of all types of socket, but not always in the same room.

Therefore, any plug fitted to a new appliance by the manufacturer had a very good chance of not fitting into the socket of the customer, and added to which, even if it worked in one room, it may not have fitted the socket in another. Adaptors to overcome this (and to allow multiple appliances to be plugged in all at once) were everywhere.

In the 1940s, standardization began, with the arrival of the 3-pin fused plug, which had rectangular pins and a range of standards within the design which made it safer than ever. However, the plug itself was not inexpensive, and the culture of selling appliances without plugs continued, as it saved a lot of money on the cost of the plug and the labour fitting it, reducing the retail price of the appliance.

During the 1970s, it became increasingly popular for large appliances (such as kitchen appliances) to be supplied with plugs attached, similarly for high-end appliances such as vacuum cleaners from Miele and Vax (who initially sold a very expensive carpet cleaning system, unlike the cheap crap they peddle today). Also appliances that were exclusive to the Electricity Board showrooms had plugs, and some retailers who thought they were a cut above would too - I know Marks & Spencer table lamps had plugs fitted to them while British Home Stores didn't (although like so many retailers, they'd cheerfully sell you a new plug).

All this changed in 1995, after it was considered too many people were blowing themselves up when fitting plugs in a haphazard way, and from thereon in, all new appliances had to have factory fitted plugs as standard.

Edited

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@RawBloomers here it is

IfYouPutASausageInItItsNotAViennetta · 26/06/2025 11:00

Bjorkdidit · 25/06/2025 22:01

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.

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I still think that's the manufacturers weaseling out, though.

The only reason why people usually have spare chargers around is because the manufacturers' profit model is based around people getting a new phone every two years - but even then, the ready supply of chargers will eventually dry up as they get lost or break.

If they really cared about reducing waste they could always ask and offer a free new charger, only if you need one.

Another thing with phones packaging and stock storage/transporting. If you buy a washing machine, lawn mower or even a toaster, the plug will take a negligible amount of extra space in the box. With a phone, it could necessitate a box that's three or four times as big.

Needspaceforlego · 27/06/2025 10:37

goingroundthebendatthisrate · 25/06/2025 21:06

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.

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If every appliance comes with a plug, there is less reasons for people to need or want to recycle plugs. Or leave plugs with a bit of flex attached in a tool box.

Another seriously crazy thing I've seen someone do. Is hold the wires of one appliance to the plug socket, and use the plug of another appliance to push into into the socket making the thing without the plug work.

KrisAkabusi · 27/06/2025 11:24

You couldn’t put a three pin plug in a two pin socket nor a two pin in a three pin socket.

You could put a two-pin plug into a three-pin socket by pushing an ice lolly stick into the top hole. Just saying!

goingroundthebendatthisrate · 27/06/2025 11:32

Needspaceforlego · 27/06/2025 10:37

If every appliance comes with a plug, there is less reasons for people to need or want to recycle plugs. Or leave plugs with a bit of flex attached in a tool box.

Another seriously crazy thing I've seen someone do. Is hold the wires of one appliance to the plug socket, and use the plug of another appliance to push into into the socket making the thing without the plug work.

Show quote history

Another seriously crazy thing I've seen someone do. Is hold the wires of one appliance to the plug socket, and use the plug of another appliance to push into into the socket making the thing without the plug work.

Haha, I saw people doing that a lot, a child in the 80s.

goingroundthebendatthisrate · 27/06/2025 11:35

KrisAkabusi · 27/06/2025 11:24

You couldn’t put a three pin plug in a two pin socket nor a two pin in a three pin socket.

You could put a two-pin plug into a three-pin socket by pushing an ice lolly stick into the top hole. Just saying!

In the present day you could forcefully do that with a European plug and a UK rectangular socket, but the point that person was making was that the 2 pin and 3 pin plugs & sockets that were in use before the plugs and sockets we have now came into use, were not interchangable with each other.

RawBloomers · 28/06/2025 05:40

KrisAkabusi · 27/06/2025 11:24

You couldn’t put a three pin plug in a two pin socket nor a two pin in a three pin socket.

You could put a two-pin plug into a three-pin socket by pushing an ice lolly stick into the top hole. Just saying!

The pins were a different shape and had different spacing. People did do crazy things to make them work but it took more than a lolly stick.

BeachPossum · 28/06/2025 06:02

Haggisfish3 · 24/06/2025 23:41

It has been on the school curriculum for decades. At least twenty five years.

Has it? I was certainly never taught how at school (and that was in the last 25 years). I learned from watching a YouTube tutorial.

I don't know why people are being so condescending. I guarantee you all have blind spots or gaps in your own knowledge that another person would find surprising, and OP doesn't deserve to be put down for hers any more than you do for yours.

Skybluepinky · 28/06/2025 18:47

I’m sure you would make an electrician viral on TikTok if you called them out to change a plug

Aulddeacon · 29/06/2025 11:39

After reading other boards on here about simple things to women that men can’t do right and the name calling and abuse the poor husbands get from other women without anyone standing up for the name calling the poor husbands get
i don’t see what’s up with saying surely you can change a plug after all the dryer wasn’t broken it was just the plug.
a very simple thing to fix.

Magsbd · 01/07/2025 19:50

Pinkdreams - I was also irritated by some of the cheeky replies you got. I’m in my seventies and have never rewired a plug. I was not shown how to do it at school and neither was my daughter, nor my grandchildren. I suppose once you know how to do it it will be simple.but very dangerous to try it if you don’t. But checking out YouTube might be a good idea.