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Old 21st Apr 2018, 10:28 am   #41
barrymagrec
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

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Originally Posted by Rubberfingers View Post
They are smaller, the same size as a 20mm fuse, and the relevant British standard is BS646
Yes, I think very old ones (1950s) may have been 3/4 inch.
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 11:00 am   #42
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

That is a lot of current going through a 0.75mm flex for low loading appliances.

Makes you wonder if our electrical system is so much safer than everywhere else.

I think it probably is . . . .
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 11:51 am   #43
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

Yet the Continentals (and the USA) where 16A radials and unfused plugs are the norm don't seem to be any more-likely to burst into flame due to overloaded flexes than us Brits: one could make the observation that compared to RoW the UK appears significantly overfused!

I've got some 1A and 7A mains-plug fuses here: honestly I can't think of any circumstance where I've felt the need to use them.
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 12:24 pm   #44
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

The reason people use so called specialist hifi mains cables, is because for most of them you can use a 13 amp fuse. The idea being the greater the value the fuse, the lower the impedance you get. There is an argument that says this improves sound quality due to the lower impedance.

I make all of my own mains cables using 1.5mm three core flex, which is good up to 15amps.
But I still only use 5 amp fuses. Interestingly the IEC connectors I have used have a max rating of 10 amps. I certainly don't feel comfortable using 13 amp with hifi, even if the cable is specified for that size fuse.

It also got me thinking. What about the wire that runs from an IEC socket in an amplifier to the transformer. How are you to know how many amps that can withstand before over heating, and catching fire. I think 5 amp fuses max for hifi is plenty.
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 1:33 pm   #45
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

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Originally Posted by gramophone1 View Post
It also got me thinking. What about the wire that runs from an IEC socket in an amplifier to the transformer. How are you to know how many amps that can withstand before over heating, and catching fire.
You shouldn't have to worry about that. It's the responsibility of the manufacturer to ensure that that is safe and that any internal protection measures needed to ensure its safety are present. It may be that the equipment itself has fuse, either internally or included in the IEC connector or in a separate holder mounted, for example, on the rear panel. If so, and if you ever have to replace that fuse, then you should do so with an equivalent one. But apart from that the wiring inside the equipment shouldn't be a source of worry for you.

Cheers,

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Old 21st Apr 2018, 2:03 pm   #46
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

Generally, you can get away with a few more amps through a short piece of wire than you could through a longer one. Hence the weedy-looking power leads on things like kettles (often just 0.75 or 1mm2, but kept under 1m. to prevent loop formation).
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 2:25 pm   #47
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

I never knew that, thank you for the information
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 2:29 pm   #48
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

What would you use a 7 amp fuse for ?

These days it is normally 3 amp 5 amp 13 amp. A 7 amp fuse is not something I have come across before.
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 3:18 pm   #49
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

Always used to be used on electric Irons if I remember.
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 3:45 pm   #50
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

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Originally Posted by Boom View Post
The old screw in fuses were rated at 15A IIRC and could pass their full rating without getting warm at all. The fuse was actually one of the legs. I worked in London during the 1970s and the sockets were used mainly in GLC flats.

For those who didn't have the questionable privilege of working with them:

https://www.flameport.com/electric_m..._main_plug.cs4
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 4:34 pm   #51
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

Please stay on topic.

This thread is about plug fuses to BS1362.
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 4:38 pm   #52
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

Thinking about the colour of 3A fuses :

I remember an adaptor that was bought from Woolworths in the early 1970s. It had 13A plug pins on one side, 13A socket (unfused) on the other and a 2 pin 5A socket on each side. The last 2 were protected by a BS1362 cartridge fuse (one fuse for both sockets in parallel).

The adapter got nicknamed 'the elephant' in my family. The 2 pin sockets had oval flanges, a bit like the ears of said animal, the 3 pins of the 13A plug looked like the tusks and trunk.

Anyway, We had 2 of them, bought a couple of months aparts. One had a blue 3A fuse, the other a red 3A fuse. So blue 3A fuses were still arounds in the early 1970s.

Don't ask me to find them and see if there are BS1362 numbers on the fuse cartridges though!
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 4:55 pm   #53
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

There must be a lot of counterfeit fuses around. I purchased what I thought were genuine bussmann fuses from my local hardware store. When I opened them up, I had a hunch they were counterfeit. They had shiny end caps with a dimple in each end. To confirm my suspicion I broke one of the 13 amp fuses open, and found it had no sand filling inside.

So I stick with vintage, made in England fuses if I can find them.
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 5:38 pm   #54
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

A quick check through my BS1362 fuse drawer, which includes quite a few scavenged from old equipment over the years, reveals that I have 13A ones bearing the brand names:

ALERT
ASHLEY
BG (one of the BG ones also says ALERT on it)
BUSSMANN
D (a solid D-shape with a clear equilateral triangle as the 'hole' in the middle)
EVER READY
LACO (I can't be sure of the first letter - the printing's failed and it could be e.g. BACO)
LYVIA
MARBO
METWAY
MK
NETTLE
PENCON
PMS
SAFE (this must be recent as it also says Lead Free)
SEM (this must be recent as it also says Lead Free)
VF (not sure if this is the manufacturer or some sort of descriptor as I have a BG one which also says VF)
VOLEX
VT
W&G
WINFIELD (the Woolworth's brand ?)

That was more than I would have guessed ! I wonder how many different manufacturers there actually were. Apart from the brand names a lot of them appear to share one of just a few different generic graphic styles.

Cheers,

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Old 21st Apr 2018, 5:44 pm   #55
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

I too bought some counterfeit fuses. Wire poking out between the caps and the ceramic tube. Slightly different size when laid next to a genuine one. Broke it open and found no sand filling inside.

You can buy genuine 1A and 2A fuses from RS Components at a decent price which is where I bought mine from. I use them in the plugs for valve radios where the total set current doesn't rise more than a few hundred milliamps.
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 5:52 pm   #56
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

Quote:
Originally Posted by high_vacuum_house View Post
I too bought some counterfeit fuses. Wire poking out between the caps and the ceramic tube.
Is that definitely an indication of bogusness? I remember in the 1970s having some what-I-believed-genuine MK 13A fuses where the wire was soldered to a hole in the end of a small-diameter brass end-cap then the protruding bit folded back over it and a larger brass cap press-fitted over the smaller-cap-and-wire, so you could still see the tip of the wire.

The problem with these was that over time the larger brass cap - which was distorted by the presence of the wire - developed a longitudinal split. . .
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 6:33 pm   #57
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

SEM are a Chinese brand
MARBO the ones I have are printed made in the uk. Factory was in Hartlepool, closed 2000. Still made, but I don't know which company owns the brand now. Naim use 13 amp Marbo for their components.
Atlas are a German company.

One of the vintage fuses I have not seen on ebay, even though I look is Crabtree.

Other ones I have are

MK
EVER READY
NIGLON
BG
ATLAS
MARBO
SAFEWAY
THORN
LAWSON
RICHSTAR
ALERT VINTAGE DUAL CAPPED (still in use)
NETTLE
VOLEX
LYVIA

I just bought some vintage EVER READY fuses no ASTA markings, only BS1362. What stands out on these, is that the end caps are gold or could be brass. Certainly different to any fuse I have come across before.
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 7:02 pm   #58
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

I remember 7A BS1362 fuses but I cannot bring to mind when I last saw one.

I also remember in a theatre I worked at, in the early 80s we found a box of tiny 2A "Grelco" adaptors, the old toblerone shaped stackable ones actually manufactured by Grelco. They were unbearably adorable.
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 7:12 pm   #59
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

Quote:
Originally Posted by Trifocaltrev View Post
On checking my tin of spare BS1362 Fuses, I have also come across a 15A rating, I have no idea where these came from or that they were even available. Has anyone else come across these?
They are possibly fakes or designed for fused outlets, like what a washing machine or small water heater would use.
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Old 21st Apr 2018, 9:15 pm   #60
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Default Re: Vintage BS1362 plug fuses

There is no such thing as a BS1362 15A fuse.....by definition BS1362 covers domestic fuses suitable for 13A plugs...1A - 13A, no higher.

I think BS1361 covers 5A - 100A but they are shorter or fatter than BS1362...can't remember which so that there is no danger of them being fitted to a 13 amp plug.
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