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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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16th Sep 2018, 5:10 pm | #21 |
Pentode
Join Date: Apr 2018
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
The model make is MK 647WHI 13 Amp safety plug. Very different to the MK tough
plug. |
16th Sep 2018, 5:36 pm | #22 |
Dekatron
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
The MK647 is a "non-standard safety plug" and is the one with the T-shaped ground pin. It cannot fit in a standard wall socket.
If yours had a regular ground pin, it was a fake. Do a google search for MK647 and you'll see what it should look like. |
16th Sep 2018, 7:35 pm | #23 | |
Nonode
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Quote:
Last year I replaced most of the unsleeved plugs I had still in use with ones I bought from Screwfix. The plastic shells were a little thin but I managed to wire them all up without any problems. Recently I used a similar plug from Wilko to fit a modulator that came with a Europlug & iffy looking adaptor.
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16th Sep 2018, 9:19 pm | #24 |
Pentode
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
The ones I have are mk safety plugs in white, with wrap around terminals secured with a nut.
They fit in to a regular wall plug socket. Last edited by gramophone1; 16th Sep 2018 at 9:26 pm. |
16th Sep 2018, 9:50 pm | #25 | |
Rest in Peace
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Quote:
Al. |
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16th Sep 2018, 10:16 pm | #26 |
Pentode
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Tyne and Wear, UK.
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Yes, sorry mk 646. Sorry for the confusion.
Anyway. They are not fit for purpose. I have made a mess of this thread with all the confusion caused. My apologies. They will go with my other spare plugs, until I decide what to do with them. |
17th Sep 2018, 9:10 am | #27 |
Octode
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
The MK 646 is 'not fit for purpose'?
Please elaborate... |
17th Sep 2018, 9:53 am | #28 |
Dekatron
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...04&postcount=1
$64,000 question is whether they're fakes or not.
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17th Sep 2018, 11:05 am | #29 |
Pentode
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Tyne and Wear, UK.
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
I explained the issues I was having at beginning of the thread.
The older mk646 was much better built. Guess that Is why I feel they are not fit purpose, because the quality is sadly lacking, compared to the older made in the UK mk646. You should be able to fasten the nut on to the cable tightly, but you can't because the wrap around terminal will snap. You can only really go finger tight, then carefully tighten very slightly with a screw driver. The older ones you had brass nuts, that you could fasten tight on to the wrap around terminal. The fuse holder on the new ones are made from copper, and bends easily. The older ones were silver plated, and held their shape well. The brass prong moves when wiggled. The older ones don't. Overall not as good as they used to be. Nothing more I can add really. |
17th Sep 2018, 1:33 pm | #30 |
Dekatron
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
A thread on the IET bemoaning the deterioration of MK products - from 2011.
https://www.theiet.org/forums/forum/...threadid=42814 But MK has been through a whole mess of being acquired, acquired, acquired. It floated in 1966, and was finally bought in an aggressive take over by RTZ in 1987 and shuffled into their Pillar division. That was sold to Caradon (which used previously to be called Metal Box) in 1993 along with a bunch of other brands and companies for £800m. Caradon then went bust in 2000, and then there was a sequence of private equity deals though to 2004 during which Caradon was salami sliced. Finally the shreds of the Caradon Empire renamed themselves Novar - and MK got shuffled into that. And finally Novar was acquired by Honeywell in 2005. So is it little wonder that quality has suffered? Certainly for some of their products. Or that 1970's classic era MK mains plugs sell for good money on eBay. Craig |
17th Sep 2018, 10:08 pm | #31 |
Pentode
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
My experience of recent MK products across the range is that the quality has fallen considerably since the Honeywell take over. The consumer units have suffered especially badly in my view. I now almost exclusively use Hager fittings.
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17th Sep 2018, 11:47 pm | #32 |
Dekatron
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
It's across the board really, quality wise. Not specific to MK, although the premium prices really infer a premium product.
I haven't had cause to complain yet although the quality of the mouldings on the far-eastern MK stuff is much worse than the UK made stuff. Corners used to be crisper, the fit used to be tighter. I bought a 3-gang light switch the other day and when installed the 3 rockers aren't 100% level and the gaps not 100% equal. In the olden days it would've been a reject. Certainly the UK made MK stuff is as good as ever, but you need to know before you buy it! Here in the potteries the premium pots were the same, stuff passing as a 'second' back in the 60's/70's/80's would be considered a 'first' these days. The problem is that any old company can produce 'seconds' all day long but when you want a 'first', well, what do you do? A company's reputation is built on its products. Unfortunately, it can go one of two ways
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18th Sep 2018, 12:20 am | #33 |
Octode
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
As an electrician. I've never liked modern MK stuff and have found other brands to be much better. On one job I did recently, I had to install a 32A double pole switch with neon as that was the only make my wholesaler had at the time. The quality was dire and the neon just fell out. After 2 weeks running a 23A resistive load, the switch melted!!
I've never liked their sockets with all the terminals in the middle and screws that are really stiff to turn. In fact, I've never liked the classic MK plug with the binding post type terminals:- I've always found standard screw terminals to be much better. And a total abomination was the introduction of the horrid plastic 'screwless' cordgrip. So all in all, I'm really not an MK fan!! Cheers Nick |
18th Sep 2018, 10:57 am | #34 |
Dekatron
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Interesting...... I felt (as an engineer) that the binding post connections were much better electrically- less likely to work loose and kinder to the wire strands too. More time consuming to fit, though, and you did need to know which way to loop the wire round the threaded post- a bit more fiddly on the neutral side!
For screwed (choc-bloc) type connections it's interesting that higher current ones like in BS4343 connectors use two screws.
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18th Sep 2018, 2:08 pm | #35 |
Dekatron
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Looks like MK has gone down the same path as Bush: a classic British brand name that used to be a yardstick for quality but is no longer quite what it was.
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18th Sep 2018, 3:10 pm | #36 |
Heptode
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Gloucestershire, UK.
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
I opened a pack of 5 MK Made in UK twin power sockets. I am never buying them again! Switch action is horrible and the connection terminals are hard to reach and have screws made of cheese. The screws are also not easy to get to, because the plastic moulding on the back is mis aligned with the screw heads.
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18th Sep 2018, 4:35 pm | #37 |
Dekatron
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
I wouldn't conflate MK and Bush. MK are trying to stay afloat in an increasingly hostile sales environment. We see quality, they see share price. Bush no longer exist as we knew them.
OT, but coincidentally I recently bought an MK shower pull switch. UK made, and genuine, it was faulty in that it would switch on OK, but switch off only by a random combination of cord "twitches". It was replaced without question however. |
18th Sep 2018, 5:35 pm | #38 |
Dekatron
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
When I was at Crabtree (early 90s), although MK kind of 'had the name', those in the know believed Crabtree to be the best quality. Not saying there was much in it mind, but Crabtree stuff was superb. They're part of the Electrium group now, well, have been since the mid 90s when I was made redundant. I'm not bitter though.
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18th Sep 2018, 9:01 pm | #39 | |
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Quote:
And Crabtree MCBs (multi-and single phase) have a long and successful pedigree too.
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18th Sep 2018, 9:48 pm | #40 |
Dekatron
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Re: Modern MK Safety Plug. Not impressed
Is Crabtree stuff still good?
As mentioned above, Hager seems to be the go-to brand used by many professionals these days. |