Euro plug

[Distinterior]

It does strike me as ridiculous that I am deemed competent and qualified to rewire someone's house and replace their consumer unit, along with completing all the relevant testing and certification, but I'm not allowed to remove a moulded plug from an appliance and replace it with a re-wireable one.

Needless to say, that's pretty much what I told the service guy but in slightly more colourful words,.....but he was having none of it.

Just in case anyone was wondering......It was a BSH " Engineer", who cover all Bosch, Siemens & Neff domestic appliances in the UK.

 

[AES]

It does strike me as ridiculous that I am deemed competent and qualified to rewire someone's house and replace their consumer unit, along with completing all the relevant testing and certification, but I'm not allowed to remove a moulded plug from an appliance and replace it with a re-wireable one.

Needless to say, that's pretty much what I told the service guy but in slightly more colourful words,.....but he was having none of it.

Just in case anyone was wondering......It was a BSH " Engineer", who cover all Bosch, Siemens & Neff domestic appliances in the UK.

Re the above 3 posts, I do not doubt these stories. And of course it's difficult, expensive, and time-consuming for an ordinary member of the public to stand up against a big company like Bosch.

However, it this sort of "nonsense" happens regularly in UK, and if a UK-"qualified" electrician has fitted the new plug, then I do feel that "someone" should take it up "officially" - perhaps via Citizens' Advice Bureau, "Small Claims Court" etc (not having lived in UK since the mid 1980's, I am not current with all the rules and channels anymore).

I sympathise with the problems that Disinterior has highlighted, and just hope that someone, somewhere, has the "juice" to give these barsteward firms a good "official thumping".

Not heard of such a problem here in Switzerland but it could probably happen.

Like I siad in a previous post in this thread, I guess I've just been lucky so far (no Warranty Claims needed). So I will continue with my practice of just cutting non-Swiss plugs off,.

But in the event such "Warranty Claim nonsense" does arise with me then I'm probably bloody-minded enough to take the matter up officially. (Not that this would help anyone in UK of course).

But I suppose that if UK members are faced with such a problem, then before buying they could perhaps take steps to guard against it by contacting the relevant company and saying something along the lines of QUOTE: "I'm going to fit a suitable plus on your machine, and get it done - WITH paperwork - by a UK-certified electrician. Please confirm in writing that this will NOT affect my Warranty. No answer means that I'll be forced to buy from a different manufacturer". UNQUOTE:

Worth a try? Dunno.

Good luck though

 

[Spectric]

I dont think it has anything to do with safety or competancy, they just regard it as a modification from their original specification which is really just the same if you tamper with your new car and change it in that you can impact your warranty.

 

[AES]

I dont think it has anything to do with safety or competancy, they just regard it as a modification from their original specification which is really just the same if you tamper with your new car and change it in that you can impact your warranty.

Maybe Spectric. But don't forget that Warranties are normally drafted by lawyers who are A) often NOT renown for living in the practical real world, and B) are actually paid to guard their clients against all the possible "What Ifs?".

IF we' talking about "just" having a competent person fit a plug - which one could argue quite legitimately is not actually an intergral part of the equipment itself, or it's specification, and therefore that fitting such does NOT constitute a modification to the machine itself - as I said above, I would guess (rpt GUESS) that if someone had enough "juice" to go through whatever are today's official channels in UK, I would think one would have a good chance of claiming "unfair contractual terms and conditions".

But as Phil showed us a while back in this thread, if there are so many "connector" variations, even within Europe, never mind world-wide, one wonders why the manufacturers don't send ALL their machines out "plug less" and arrange for the in-country retailer to fit the correct plug in-country.

 

[Spectric]

don't send ALL their machines out "plug less" and arrange for the in-country retailer to fit the correct plug in-country.

Yes I can remember when many items were not fitted with a plug and you purchased that separately. I think fitting a plug was just one of those things that no one questioned.

 

[AES]

Yes I can remember when many items were not fitted with a plug and you purchased that separately. I think fitting a plug was just one of those things that no one questioned.

Yeah, I remember that too. But I also THINK I remember newspaper, etc, talk that a lot (?) of people were making a real pigs ear of fitting plugs (you know, the sort of "simple" stuff like fitting the L (brown) line into the Earth (green/yellow) pin, and such like) that it became "the norm" for most machines and appliances to come with the plug ready-fitted - and often these days, moulded on!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I dont think it has anything to do with safety or competancy, they just regard it as a modification from their original specification which is really just the same if you tamper with your new car and change it in that you can impact your warranty.

I don't think it has anything to do with safety or competency either, they just regard it as an excuse not to pay out.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You don't seem to see the difference now, but when it was made compulsory for plugs to be fitted, power tools deemed professional were exempt. It could be quite handy when choosing tools you weren't certain of.

 

[selectortone]

I don't think it has anything to do with safety or competency either, they just regard is an excuse not to pay out.

That's why the small print is called 'weasel words'. So vendors can weasel out of their responsibilities.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.

 

[Spectric]

power tools deemed professional were exempt.

Like when you buy 110 volt tools such as my Trend T10 which I had to fit the plug.

 

[JimJay]

I live in the EU and am a lazy beggar. I have installed both Schuko and UK sockets in most rooms of my house, and have a collection of UK trailing sockets with Schuko plugs, and vice-versa. I can run any of my tools and appliances from any mains socket in the house. I also have a bunch of adapters, just in case, and a drawer full of fuses. So far, so good...

 

[cmoops2]

Yes I have heard and seen cases like this and the warranty was void. A good example from a while back was someone fitting a washing machine where the socket was above the worktop and no way would you get the plug through a 1/2 inch hole and no, drilling a larger hole to get the plug through was not an option so the moulded plug had to be cut off. When it began playing up and not completing washing cycles they would not honour the warranty and they had to pay for repair.

Gotta ask - why was drilling a larger hole to get the plug through not an option ?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Why would anyone want a bloody great hole through their worktop?

 

[Distinterior]

Gotta ask - why was drilling a larger hole to get the plug through not an option ?

You're kidding surely...??

 

[Spectric]

Perhaps there idea was to remove a cylindrical section, make the hole 1/2 inch down the middle and slot so you put the plug through the worktop, put the missing worktop piece around the cable and then glue back in place !

 

[Fergie 307]

Maybe it's just me, but drilling holes in worktop to plug things into sockets above is one of those things that drives me mad, aaargh

 

[mccpe]

Oh that's interesting. I am not aware of any convention here but that may well be pure ignorance on my part.

We do have some plugs, typically after-market plugs that you fit yourself rather than moulded-on style, that are symmetrical. There is then no right/left side of the plug and you cannot know without dismantling it how it is wired. Do plugs like that exist in France?

Incidentally, if you are a butcher you can plug a euro plug into a UK socket, but then you get no earth connection. I have seen that done in extremis but I guess it is not a good idea as a long-term solution.

This link shows pictures of a Legrand socket and the last image is the back of the socket with pins labelled L E N, live therefore on the right looking at the front of the socket. Two pin plugs can be plugged in either way round, but in theory two pin plugs are only allowed on double insulated appliances.

Prise de courant 2P+T Surface dooxie 16A finition blanc

 

[Distinterior]

Yes I can remember when many items were not fitted with a plug and you purchased that separately. I think fitting a plug was just one of those things that no one questioned.

I dont recollect off the top of my head, which year it was that electrical goods/appliances started to be fitted with moulded plugs by the manufacturers, but prior to that date, the appliances that I mentioned in my previous post were, ironically.....all delivered without any kind of plug fitted.

As they were all manufactured in the EU ( Germany, in this case) they were all made for the EU market, the UK included. As has been shown in this thread, different countries use different styles of plugs for connection to their type of sockets.
We always had to fit our own plugs back then.....The machines themselves were & are the same.

On the odd occasion, some of the higher specification DW's would be delivered with an EU plug fitted to the cable and of course we would just cut it off and fit a UK re-wireable one......

 

[JimJay]

Maybe it's just me, but drilling holes in worktop to plug things into sockets above is one of those things that drives me mad, aaargh

I agree - I usually install a pop-up extension lead with additional USB charging connections into a corner of my worktops. It doesn't really interfere with the available space but gives me 4 sockets with just a push if/when I need them.