Italian 2 pin sockets

A few years ago I had to authorise spending 2,000 euro to replace a broken washer dryer whilst my boat was on charter, as it involved a lot of cabinetry work to get it in and out. Fortunately, just before spending the money, the captain rang me and asked if it was true that UK plugs had fuses in them. It turned out to be a 10p fix, and the washer dryer is still going strong.

On the sockets question, out of interest you can fit two pin (non earthed) Euro plugs into a std UK socket, by shoving something in the earth pin hole to fool the interlock. Saves having to use lots of bulky adapters.
 
Nick_H said:
...................................On the sockets question, out of interest you can fit two pin (non earthed) Euro plugs into a std UK socket, by shoving something in the earth pin hole to fool the interlock. Saves having to use lots of bulky adapters.
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Speaking from bitter, bitter experience, that is NOT advisable :grumpy:
 
Baseplate said:
Speaking from bitter, bitter experience, that is NOT advisable :grumpy:
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Hope the bitter experience was only property, not injury

I couldn't see anything dangerous about it, as evidenced by the euro socket picture above having the earth pin completely exposed. What is the issue with doing it?
 
Whitelighter said:
So it turns out Italian 2 pin sockets are slightly narrower than European 2 pin sockets,
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Yup I found that out pretty soon after buying my first Ferretti. I've never had any problem buying UK to Italian adaptors at UK airports. You'll need loads of them because they're one of those things that mysteriously disappear from boats on a regular basis. Family and guests tend to nick them inadvertently (I hope). I've recently bought a whole load of sticky labels to put on them in the hope of reducing this mysterious loss
 
Nick_H said:
I couldn't see anything dangerous about it, as evidenced by the euro socket picture above having the earth pin completely exposed. What is the issue with doing it?
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Well, of course by doing that you get a non-grounded connection, to start with.
But other than that, I do what you suggested on a regular basis when I'm in the UK, for anything with a plug like the IT 10A plug in my pic above, but with no GND center pin.
In fact, I've got plenty of stuff with that plug: PC recharge cable, phone chargers, electric razor, to name but a few.
Works a treat, and it's more convenient than carrying around adapters.

Otoh, I see that Baseplate is rather new to the asylum, so I can't blame him for having not supported your non-100% kosher suggestion, all considered.
But I don't dare thinking of what he would say about some electrical tricks we debated in the past, like the notorious lethal bit of kit, as jfm called it (a.k.a. LBOK)... :D:D:D
 
Deleted User said:
You'll need loads of them because they're one of those things that mysteriously disappear from boats on a regular basis. Family and guests tend to nick them inadvertently (I hope).
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Goes to show that it's convenient to have IT guests onboard, I reckon. Neither myself nor S ever felt the need for adaptors, on your fine vessel! :cool:
 
MapisM said:
Goes to show that it's convenient to have IT guests onboard, I reckon. Neither myself nor S ever felt the need for adaptors, on your fine vessel! :cool:
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Aah but I haven't had a chance to check it yet to see what else might be missing;)
 
No worries. The only thing S would have stolen from your boat is the whole master cabin, but I told her that it could never fit in ours... :)
 
So you didn't fancy my English coffee making machine?
 
Nick_H said:
Hope the bitter experience was only property, not injury

I couldn't see anything dangerous about it, as evidenced by the euro socket picture above having the earth pin completely exposed. What is the issue with doing it?
Click to expand...

MapisM said:
Well, of course by doing that you get a non-grounded connection, to start with.
But other than that, I do what you suggested on a regular basis when I'm in the UK, for anything with a plug like the IT 10A plug in my pic above, but with no GND center pin.
In fact, I've got plenty of stuff with that plug: PC recharge cable, phone chargers, electric razor, to name but a few.
Works a treat, and it's more convenient than carrying around adapters.

Otoh, I see that Baseplate is rather new to the asylum, so I can't blame him for having not supported your non-100% kosher suggestion, all considered.
But I don't dare thinking of what he would say about some electrical tricks we debated in the past, like the notorious lethal bit of kit, as jfm called it (a.k.a. LBOK)... :D:D:D
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Ah-my original post was relating to an historical ............errm............event that resulted in 1 x melted toaster, some pretty flames and a full and frank exchange of views twixt self and The Long Haired General.

It was a period when we lived in Germany and long before the inclusion of an earth pin for Schuko plugs :cool:
 
Deleted User said:
So you didn't fancy my English coffee making machine?
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Naah, nothing wrong with the rest of the boat and her equipment. I just mentioned the part swmbo is more envious of...
Good thing that we only used the bow cabin which is more similar to ours, so she couldn't get used to the full beam luxury! :rolleyes:
'Fiuaskme, another thing which I found remarkable is the heating: once reached the desired temperature, it's very silent and homogeneus.
Which is more than can be said for many climate systems mostly designed for cooling, rather than heating. :encouragement:
 
MapisM said:
'Fiuaskme, another thing which I found remarkable is the heating: once reached the desired temperature, it's very silent and homogeneus.
:
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Shush, you can't tell people you need heating in the Med. Think of the tourist trade;)
 
Deleted User said:
Shush, you can't tell people you need heating in the Med. Think of the tourist trade;)
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Good point. Worth specifying that heating was just meant to raise the temp by 5 or 6 degrees, which was enough to reach the low 20s.
I don't think anywhere north of the Channel the weather can be better than that, at the beginning of Jan! :cool:
 
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