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?

youtube is your friend here OP. You will need a screwdriver and maybe some wire strippers. After this, you’ll be able to take on replacing the belt and sorting out the drum too!

The Sainsbury delivery driver looked aghast when he saw me midway through the belt replacement. The following week he was congratulating me!

Honestly I'm fifty and don't remember getting appliances without preattached plugs. I do remember wiring plugs at school but never having to do it. Probably because I only had rented or secondhand stuff until I was about 40!

I would however add, people make mistakes, don't be so angry unless he was a nob about it.

Yeah, I actually had to go & buy one yesterday, very strange 🤣

@Pinkdreams how the helk did he break a plug?,

If it's a moulded plug, just cut it off, strip the outer insulation off just above where it will be clamped inside the new plug (pliers are useful for this), and the inner insulation (i.e. on the individual coloured wires) just enough to secure the bare bit inside the terminals.

To add to my previous post, I think we are all presuming you are in the UK @Pinkdreams , if not then I'd ignore 99% of the advice here
If you are in the UK this is a nice clear video.
https://youtube.com/shorts/QwzfMhxdr-I?si=4yRsCW5o_XJNap1E

I didn't learn at school but do remember goods coming without plugs, so was shown what to do by my dad. However, I haven't changed a plug for many years

Wiring a plug was part of the physics curriculum in the early noughties but that was pre-Gove.

It really hasn't.

I’m 54 and I was never taught how to change a plug in school either 🤷🏻‍♀️.

i do know how to change one, but I had to learn how to do it myself.

Nothing wrong with changing sockets. An electrician not required. My 14 year old niece was being taught how to wire a plug in school a couple of weeks ago. If you can't do something use YouTube.

That’s interesting, I did it in year 7 at school, I’m 55, and I don’t remember doing it to a plug after the school lessons, maybe that is when the plugs started being included on new appliances then. I just made it, you just missed it.

It's really unkind to berate OP for not knowing how to change a plug. I know how to, but that isn't because I'm better or smarter; I'm just of a certain vintage.

It's one of those life skills that used to be essential but is now never needed by the vast majority of people. It's a bit like mocking young people for not knowing how to write a cheque, or how to send a fax, or how to manually spool back a cassette tape with a pencil.

Plenty of young adults now have other instinctive skills that most people of my generation probably don't instantly know anything about; and maybe never will learn at all.

hes a pickle,

I wish I did! I keep meaning to get some. If I use the plug behind the washing machine, with the socket on the opposite wall labelled 'washing machine' the electrics trip leaving me scrabbling about in cobweb hell.
If I plug washing machine in to normal socket - happy days.

Of course, I could be living in a death trap but the council maintenance seem to... Not give a shit. Or, be very busy and backed up with other jobs, since Covid it would seem.

Blimey that is pretty pathetic. I am not much older than OP and presumed that knowing that you can change a plug and how is really, really basic.

Yep it always popped up in a GCSE science exam.

Not that we had physics, chemistry or biology separately. I have GCSEs in Science 1 and... Science 2!

By law, plugs have been factory fitted to new appliances since January 1995. However, many manufacturers started the process around two or more years earlier, as it was well known for years in advance that the day would come.

If you are 28, there is no way I would have expected you to have needed to change a plug, let alone know how to do it off the top of your head. Ignore anyone who thinks differently.

How to wire a plug was the only - and I mean the ONLY - thing I found interesting or remembered in Physics at school😆 And I must admit it has come in useful, unlike calculating the speed of a marble rolling down a slope and suchlike. My 16yo knows how to wire a plug.

I could never write a cheque properly, and avoided them at all costs. For everyone who is saying that wiring a plug is easy, then why the f* did the law change to ensure all new appliances had plugs fitted to them? I'll tell you why - it was because a hell of a lot of people were incapable of wiring a plug properly and safely. It may have been a skill that we all depended on, but a lot of people were poor at it.

Well I read this as a Scottish person where “tube” is an insult 😅

“Just change the plug, you tube!”

Before January 1995, factory fitted plugs were entirely at the discretion of the manufacturer. Unless you started buying appliances in your teens, at 50 you wouldn't remember anything different, unless the absence of plugs on appliances had caused dramas in your childhood household...it did in mine, as my father was useless at wiring plugs safely, so plugs often went with a bang after being used for a while. Also, many a mother would go berserk when removing an infrequently used appliance from a cupboard, only to find someone had robbed the plug off it for something else.

@Pinkdreams

Is your tumble dryer a condenser (see I'm old but never had a tumble!) or a... Hose?

If there is any chance of condensation build up then don't be changing plugs or plates regardless of knowledge.

I think us old folk (!) sometimes forget that the most electrical use was given to a kettle or a 3 bar electric heater with a dodgy frayed brown wire surround, some red electrical tape and everyone steered clear knowing it was a death trap. My word - don't try and dry your polyester suits too closely!

Wall socket plate safer to replace than a plug probably but whatever you do,
switch electric off at mains first!

I've gone all health and safety 🤣

I genuinely do not understand what difference the type of dryer is in respect of putting a new plug on it. Please educate me.