[nateguchi]

I may be biased, but I think British plugs are great. They have integrated fuses and are switchable too! The sockets have shutters as well to stop children sticking paperclips or forks in and electrocuting themselves.

Not great to stand on, however

[isostatic]

The British system (BS1363) is by many measures the best plug/socket system, from automatically shuttering the live wires, to insulated live/neutral to prevent metal objects from shorting on sockets, fuses in the plugs to protect weaker cables, longer wires for Earth than Live if the flex is pulled out. Even 1363 has flaws though -- see the loophole at http://bs1363.fatallyflawed.org.uk/, and of course the counterfits.

Every time I use a U.S. plug/socket is scares the bejesus out of me, having grown up with 1363.

However it has significant practical drawbacks. Many devices are class 2 and thus down need earthing. A flat two-pronged europlug allows a far higher desnsity socket, and much smaller footprint cables.

[dsfyu404ed]

Compactness and cost must not part of "many measures" of "best"

Edit: Beat me to it on the compactness part.

[isostatic]

No idea about cost, but given they're under £1 each [0] it's not adding a lot.

[0] https://cpc.farnell.com/pro-elec/9518-5a-black/uk-mains-plug...

[martin-adams]

Tom Scott did a wonderful video breaking down the design of the British plug.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEfP1OKKz_Q

[ken]

BS 1363 plug has some neat safety features, but it's really big. Look at the size of a British power strip, for example. As Tom Scott observes, to get the full benefit of the safety features, they would need to make them even bigger. It's also not even close to round, so pulling it out of a nest of cables looks terrible.

I'm not convinced that a fuse belongs in a plug, either, especially if it's invisible, and the plug has to be completely disassembled with a screwdriver to access it. Put the fuse in the device, which certainly has much more space for it, and probably a mechanism to make it easy to access.

As far as the physical structure goes, BS 1363 looks like it was designed in the 1940's ... because it was designed in the 1940's. I'd much rather have something modern and ergonomic like TRUE1. It's small and round, it locks, it's basically impossible to shock yourself with it, and it's IP rated.

I'm not alone here. There's many videos on YouTube of people hacking the Edison plugs off their power tools to replace them with powerCON or TRUE1, but I have yet to find anyone in the world who wants to replace their Edison plug with BS 1363!

[jdietrich]

>I'm not convinced that a fuse belongs in a plug, either, especially if it's invisible, and the plug has to be completely disassembled with a screwdriver to access it.

Moulded plugs generally use a clip-in fuseholder that can be opened with any pointed object; rewireable plugs can be opened to replace the fuse by loosening one captive combination Philips/flat screw. It's usually far easier than replacing a fuse in the appliance, which is often on a PCB-mounted holder buried within the guts of the appliance.

[zrobotics]

The fuse is located in the plug, rather than the device, because one of the most likely ways to be exposed to live wire is a damaged/frayed power lead. If the fuse is located in the device, it does not protect the upstream part of the system.

[aidenn0]

New construction in the US will (or already has, depending on your state) require receptacles with shutters as well:

https://www.esfi.org/resource/what-is-a-tamper-resistant-rec...

[danieltillett]

They are absolutely massive though.

[jjoonathan]

Also, half the shutters always seem to be stuck shut on public outlets.

[jacobush]

At least failing in a safe mode?

[ken]

Or, depending on your perspective, failing in a way that incentivizes users to jab things in the holes to try to "fix" it.

This is another reason I'm a fan of TRUE1: the moving parts are in the plug, not the socket.

[stordoff]

> Not great to stand on, however

Only plugs that double as caltrops, if necessary. I like to think that it's a feature :)

[kevin_thibedeau]

North American receptacles have tamper resistant shutters now too.

[tlarkworthy]

Apart from the 240V bit (vs. 120V in most other countries)

[isthisnametaken]

240V (or 230) is the prevailing standard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity#/media/File:...

[tlarkworthy]

Wow that flipped my world view.