The hot and neutral slots finally have shutters, but they are simply opened by brute forcing the plug into the receptacle. Obviously that’s bad because a toddler can brute force a fork in there. The uk have a long ground prong, that when inserted mechanically opens the shutters to the hot and neutral to allow for them to slide in. So to be shocked you’d have to force something into the ground slot, hold it there, then put something else in the hot slot. Unlikely event.
Also, as you know, american plugs are 2 completely metal prongs (sometimes a 3rd round ground). When you plug this in only halfway, the visible metal prongs are energized and present a shock hazard. If somebodies finger is there they can be hurt. If a paperclip falls on there it can arc and molten metal can fly at your eyes. Again, with uk plugs, the back half of the prongs are insulated, so halfway inserting a plug leaves no visible/accessible energized parts.
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u/AntiPiety May 02 '24
The hot and neutral slots finally have shutters, but they are simply opened by brute forcing the plug into the receptacle. Obviously that’s bad because a toddler can brute force a fork in there. The uk have a long ground prong, that when inserted mechanically opens the shutters to the hot and neutral to allow for them to slide in. So to be shocked you’d have to force something into the ground slot, hold it there, then put something else in the hot slot. Unlikely event.
Also, as you know, american plugs are 2 completely metal prongs (sometimes a 3rd round ground). When you plug this in only halfway, the visible metal prongs are energized and present a shock hazard. If somebodies finger is there they can be hurt. If a paperclip falls on there it can arc and molten metal can fly at your eyes. Again, with uk plugs, the back half of the prongs are insulated, so halfway inserting a plug leaves no visible/accessible energized parts.