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Thread: plug converter/adaptor

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Porirua - the hub of NZ
    Posts
    114

    Default plug converter/adaptor

    Just a quick note to let you know that Dick Smith sells plug adaptors that will convert UK to NZ. The price is around $15.
    They also sell 42 inch HD tellies for around $1300.
    I think Mrs V has already covered this, if so thanks.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    at the bottom of the top bit
    Posts
    3,405

    Default

    $6 in warehouse for multi adaptors. smack the plug off and stick a kiwi one on!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Tauranga
    Posts
    116

    Default More on plugs

    Here’s the blind speaking of colour...

    I know nothing about electrical stuff but am aware it can be tricky. Here is a post on the UK/NZ plug topic from another forum. The points made in paragraphs 2 (re.fire/ insurance) and 5 (re. amperes/fuses) seem to be most noteworthy, as they can cause serious problems, not just fiddly inconvenience.

    [beginning of quote]
    TBH, some of the poorer NZ plug tops are very fiddly and I'd bet that it is pretty easy to make a pig's ear of connecting them, much harder to do that with a UK plug top, I once had a temping job where you guessed it - we had to change US plug tops for UK ones - joys of half a day making up these leads then another half delivering the appliances.....

    The NZ/Oz plug tops are a matter of embarrassment/ridicule amongst some of the electrical experts working in my field, particularly those who have used the UK/Singaporean types as the ones here are not very robust - I have been to several fires here where the socket became "crunch-y" due to the receptacle parts cracking as a result of repeated plugging in/out of appliances - I only ever saw one such fire in the UK so that's 1 in 1000 there compared to 2 in 150 here, not good odds.....so if your insurer declines your insurance policy as you used "unauthorised" or "lower quality" UK plug tops then give me a call, I'm sure they can be persuaded of the error of their ways. But if you use travel adapters for a long period for over-rated appliances, now that is another matter......

    On the subject - you need to be very careful with the cheap travel adapters too - many (even those from the UK pound shops) only have 2 pins connected so there is no earth - save those for your radio cassette/CD player not the PC as your PC needs an earth - that's why it has a 3 pin IEC (kettle) lead not a 2 pin (figure of 8) IEC lead, as do some laptops. They are not man enough for the job with some UK appliances either - eg rated at 5 or 7 amps, less than most toasters, kettles, etc.

    Also best to avoid most of the ultra-cheap multiboxes (the NZ/Oz version of the 4-way adapter) as they are very poor quality and tend to be the main suspects in electrical fires - with good reason I should add...

    One thing to be careful about when using multi-way adapters is that the sockets here are generally only rated at 10 amps, with the circuit they are connected to being 15 or 20 amps so "daisy chaining" multi-adapters and connecting multiple high power appliances on one multi-way is a bad thing, as the UK plug top you removed and replaced will have had a 13 amp fuse in it. There is no such protection in NZ plug tops, so you could plug in four 10 amp appliances into the multi-box, this should be OK for a NZ one as it should have a built-in over-current trip switch. Your UK one will almost invariably not have any such protection........other than possibly a 13 amp cartridge fuse sometimes built into the older, higher quality models of multi-way adapter.

    Bear in mind that the electricity supply over here can be shall we say, variable, much of Eastern Auckland has been on rolling brown-outs due to a broken transformer of late, although that is fixed now. The infrastructure is different with lots of over-head power cables as you would expect in rural areas - this extends into many suburban and city areas too. There seem to be more "surge" problems (certainly there appear far more cases to consider in fire investigation, which is my day job) and surge protectors/UPSs are common "sale" items here.

    We use mostly UK "Belkin" 6 or 8-way surge protected adapters with good quality Kiwi plug tops on for the Hi-fi, PC and home cinema stuff and these also take the adapters for battery chargers, etc. I am very careful about what is plugged into those adapters and we don't have any high current appliances that could be used in that area as they all have NZ plugs on now.
    [end of quote]

    Hope this makes sense to the handyman or handywoman.
    PS.: I'm not trying to "steal" content from elsewhere. I am happy to provide the link to the other forum but as crosreferencing is usually not welcome on forums I have kept it italicised to mark it as somebody else's info.

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