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Other Vintage Household Electrical or Electromechanical Items For discussions about other vintage (over 25 years old) electrical and electromechanical household items. See the sticky thread for details. |
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18th Sep 2018, 10:30 pm | #41 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,998
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
It's ages since I fitted - let alone bought - a rewireable 13A plug! As others have said, everything comes with a plug fitted as standard these days, or it uses a removable IEC309 'kettle-lead' - which makes life much easier.
For reliable high-current stuff I rather like the connectors made by ABB [available from your local Screwfix]. |
19th Sep 2018, 1:30 am | #42 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Invercargill, New Zealand
Posts: 3,457
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
I'm happy with PDL, who have been owned by Schneider since the early 2000s. Our house is all 600 series, and all of the outlets in the workshop are older 500 series ones I grabbed when they were refurbishing the offices of the firm I used to work for.
Schneider also own the Australian brand Clipsal. Are any of the UK brands owned by them? If so, could be worth looking at! |
19th Sep 2018, 7:31 am | #43 |
Heptode
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Cornwall, UK.
Posts: 989
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
As a sparky, I’ve not used MK products for years. The quality no longer matched the price premium. 20 - 30 years ago, it was either MK, Crabtree, or MEM, that were the premium accessories . Brands like Contactum, BG, Nettle, Tenby, and others were the budget brands, and the difference in quality was evident. You got what you paid for.
However, over the years these smaller manufacturers have upped their game and are producing better products at reasonable prices. The traditional brands have suffered, and quality on the whole has dropped off a cliff edge. Some well known brands have had serious re call issues with their products, which is very concerning. For example, miniature circuit breakers overheating. I had the pleasure of dealing with and visiting MK at Edmonton in 1992, during the Pillar years. Edmonton and it’s environs had several MK factories producing its products within a short distance of each other. Their head office was a strange building. It was situated at the end of a road of terraced houses, and you were greeted into their reception by a well dressed and delightful door man! I remember him proudly telling me he had worked for MK for more years than he cared to remember. He was very proud of the company, and it gave impression that MK cared about it’s products and customers, too. SimonT
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The honesty of imperfection.......... |
19th Sep 2018, 9:24 am | #44 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Staffordshire Moorlands, UK.
Posts: 5,271
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
ALl the crabtree stuff I've seen recently has been made in China. They are part of Siemens.
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Kevin |
19th Sep 2018, 12:28 pm | #45 |
Pentode
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Tyne and Wear, UK.
Posts: 168
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
I have a modern crabtree double pole/switched socket, and the build quality is really good.
I use it for my hifi, and funny enough it replaced an MK double switched socket. I found the MK to be inferior to the crabtree, which is why I had it replaced. Plugs in the MK socket do not fit as tightly, or as nicely as they do in the crabtree socket. Side by side and the crabtree socket was much better built than the MK, which really annoyed me as the MK socket was not cheap. |
19th Sep 2018, 3:45 pm | #46 |
Heptode
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Cornwall, UK.
Posts: 989
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
That’s a real shame, as I think MK standard double sockets are still made in a factory near Southend. At least MK usually mark their products with the place of manufacture; UK or Malaysia, etc.
Most other brands don’t, and if they are a well known UK brand, a lot of tradesmen that I meet all think these are made here in the UK, when they are not! For instance, Stamped on the back of an accessory, it may say ‘Crabtree England’. People then assume it’s made here. I’m not singling any one manufacturer here, it happens a lot with most of the well known electrical accessory brands, annoyingly! SimonT.
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The honesty of imperfection.......... |
19th Sep 2018, 3:56 pm | #47 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 8,831
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
The point is - though it grieves me to say it - you can get stuff manufactured to a good standard in China if all the QA issues are in place. For example, a UK (parent company) person is permanently there on the shop floor sorting out manufacturing problems, QA etc. What happens mainly is that once the decision is made to manufacture in China, the salesmen start to work out how much profit they can make by 'keeping down' the quality (so to speak) instead of keeping it up. And there you go, you get poor tolerances, poor fit, irregular material quality etc etc. From what I know from my old contacts at Crabtree, they are doing it as well as anyone. I have no existing commitment to Crabtree may I add - they sacked me! Redundant actually.
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19th Sep 2018, 4:49 pm | #48 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Oxford, UK.
Posts: 4,982
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
A good example of getting high quality out of China is the Quad Electrostatic speakers are made there (because Quad is part of IAG, which is Chinese, along with Wharfedale, Ekco, Audiolab, Mission, Luxman and Castle). And they do a pretty good job too.
But IAG is not engineering down to a price. And the R&D is still in the UK. |
19th Sep 2018, 8:08 pm | #49 |
Hexode
Join Date: May 2015
Location: Northampton, Northants, UK.
Posts: 380
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
This is why I take a libertarian view of things like regulation. The inevitable result of the certification style we have is that everyone just makes sure they can get the certificates and no better. I'm watching this in my current employ, where everyone is scrambling madly around GDPR. Nobody is the least concerned with actual data protection, it is purely a matter of demonstrating that dreaded word "compliance".
This is also why we ended up with burgers made out of elderly donkeys from Eastern Europe a few years back. Everyone had the paperwork. Nobody actually cared if it described reality, so long as the paperwork was in place. I have a personal intense dislike for the ubiquitous BG accessories by the way. But everyone uses them because they are sufficiently compliant. |
19th Sep 2018, 8:12 pm | #50 |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Gloucestershire, UK.
Posts: 720
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
The Chinese will do as they are asked. If asked to produce high quality, they will. Foxcon comes to mind here. On the other hand, if Delboy asks to have something made to a price then they will oblige just the same. It's not really fair to blame them for the failings of the buyers.
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20th Sep 2018, 9:45 am | #51 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
Posts: 5,339
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
As has been observed, manufacturers will make things to the customer's specification. As per #33, I have also experienced modern MK neons popping out at the slightest provocation, but this is evidently due to the design being less than satisfactory rather than poor manufacture.
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20th Sep 2018, 9:00 pm | #52 |
Triode
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Chorley, Lancashire, UK.
Posts: 16
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Our site Electrician brought some to show me last week, same problem they're not fake. China will nickle and dime production even with our QA man stood on the assembly line ( it's baked into the culture ) so some sympathy, but we were both rather saddened by it, I can assure you if MK didn't know last week, they do now.
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1st Oct 2018, 7:22 pm | #53 |
Octode
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Oxfordshire/Bucks borders, UK.
Posts: 1,604
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
I've used MK switches and sockets around my house and found the quality to be fine, but I second the comment regarding stiff terminal screws. Most needed freeing off.
Crabtree have always been excellent and still are. I just found the appearance of the MK switches to be more pleasing.
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Avometer, vintage Fluke and Marconi collector. Also interested in vintage Yaesu and KW. |
6th Oct 2018, 5:40 pm | #54 | |
Pentode
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Witney, Oxfordshire, UK.
Posts: 229
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Quote:
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6th Oct 2018, 6:35 pm | #55 |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Gloucestershire, UK.
Posts: 720
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Quite likely, but
a) it is a pain in the bum and b) when the screwheads are made of cheese, it chews them up. |
6th Oct 2018, 10:01 pm | #56 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Leominster, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 16,535
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Real cheesehead screws, eh? Doesn't pan out very well, obviously.....
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7th Oct 2018, 10:18 am | #57 |
Octode
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Morden, Surrey, UK.
Posts: 1,557
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
I thought you had a counter proposal, did it sink without trace?
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7th Oct 2018, 4:06 pm | #58 |
Heptode
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 902
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
I have just had to cut the moulded on plug off my Candy washer because it was getting too hot to touch. It's now got a brown Bakelite MK plug on that must be at least 50 years old, but it's not getting hot any more.
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7th Oct 2018, 7:35 pm | #59 |
Octode
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Knutsford, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 1,495
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
A wise move to change it... especially with the huge current draw of a washing machine. Physically hot mains connections are not safe or acceptable!
Might be worth telling the manufacturer about this issue, it could save someone having a fire, |
7th Oct 2018, 8:17 pm | #60 |
Heptode
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Newton Abbot, Devon, UK.
Posts: 761
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Consider changing the socket too if possible, as the heat from the plug may have weakened the contacts.
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