@Ek-Hou-Van-Braai German Schuko of course.
All outlets should just be replaced with IEC C13. Robust and compact.
Solid choice. Good current handling, already ubiquitous for many applications.
And full of garbage the moment its unplugged
Well the answer is obviously the UK plug some of those others are just plain bad. The question is are they all made largely obsolete by USB C ? and is that the closest we are likely to get to a universal plug and socket?
The eu has actually been trying for about 30 years has been trying to get universal plug but it keeps getting stopped by massive tech companies because money go up
You going to put 240VAC through USB-C?
No. They are not.
Kitchen appliances like blenders and mixers are going to draw more power than USB-C is capable of delivering even at their lowest settings.
Wait, China uses the AU plug?
The UK plug is nice. Very robust, it connects to ground before it reaches the power line and has a switch but it’s clunky.
When you unplug them, they have a habit of lying prongs upward. Standing on one naked Lego feel like a shag carpet. and to be honest the fuse isn’t really necessary with modern wiring f type plugs don’t have fuses in them and I’ve never had a problem with wires melting or anything. and with older sockets, the little flap that blocks the earth hole tends to get stuck. Apart from that they are the best.
I only use those as a tourist, but the plugs tend to fall out of the outlet constantly, especially if the plug is not just on a wire but has some usb-c adapter or such integrated.
Still trying to figure out why Germany is listed separately from the EU.
Yeah, I think they just wanted to illustrate the variety within Europe.
I have a strong preference for the German and Swiss types, but I think we can all agree that Japan massively fucked up. They took the already shitty American plug and just forgot about the ground.
In fairness the Americans don’t use the ground.
I’m always amazed at how many of my friends’ houses that were built in the 50s-80s have outlets with the ground hole, but no actual route to ground. One day that’s going to bite somebody.
Depends on the device
Japan also has 2 incompatible power grids, with the north running on 50Hz and the south running on 60Hz
Name a more painful thing to tread on than the British plug. Bonus points if it’s incorrectly wired to be live.
This is the most definitive argument that type J is superior to all others:
Image showing an arrangement of 3 swiss plugs in the same footprint as one french one
J is superior. Not only is it the most space efficient, it’s safe as the recessed plug prevents incompletely inserted pins from being shorted out if a conductor were to fall atop them.
Type I.
ElectroBoom (Youtube) made some points about Australia’s Type I. Seems it was very hard for him to electrocute himself. Lots of breakers on the outlets. I mean he did electrocute himself, but he was always going to.
The breakers aren’t on the actual outlets. We just have everything on breakers in the power box. So I think the Australian system is good, but it’s not inherently because of the outlets. Other types have the same safety benefits.
Also to add: all lighting and power circuits are required to be on RCBO’s or breaker+RCD unless they are extremely old switchboards that havent had any modifications done since the law was introduced (as modifying the switchboard would trigger an rewuired upgrade in most cases).
Any device that is in a common area that can be touched by a non-licenced person (ie non-electrician) should also be on a RCBO, but this isnt as well enforced.So even if you do manage to youch live parts on the Aus socket/plugs, you will be protected by the RCD/RCBO instantly.
The downside to the Aus socket is that it can be a little tricky/annoying plugging something in when you are reaching behind an object (like a couch or cupboard) and cant see the socket to line it up.
It’s obviously the one in the country I live in. All the others that I have had zero experience with are from Satan.
There was two different ways you could have ordered this alphabetically, and you failed to do either.
Isn’t it beautiful
Swiss Type J, because you can have three of them, taking up no more space than one German or French plug.
I would argue that neither of the plugs shown in the picture nor those mentioned by others are the best.
Ignoring current adoption, I think that IEC 60906-1 is the best plug. It is very similar to the Swiss plug and was intended to, at least in the EU, replace other plugs. It has quite a few advantages over the other plugs. It is rated at 16 A, has a compact form factor, is polarised, and has almost all the common protections except fuses (which are pretty much useless anyway). Currently it only is used in South Africa without major changes to the plug.
Compared to the Schuko (Type F):
- Much smaller. You can fit three plugs in the same space as a single Schuko plug (similar to Swiss triple outlets).
- It takes less force to plug in. Above 2.5A, Schuko plugs require a lot of force to plug in and pull out. To some extent, this is actually good for safety, but I would argue that, in the case of Schuko plugs at least, it’s too much
- It is also easier to plug in without seeing the plug since it isn’t round. Everyone who has tried to plug in a Schuko plug without seeing the holes knows how difficult it is
- It’s polarised/directional. In some very specific cases, there is a security advantage to using a polarised plug, but I think it’s also a hassle to only be able to plug in a plug one direction. It also fits Europlugs (the thin, small plugs with only two pins that are very common in Europe, e.g. on phone chargers)
Compared to (Typ G)):
- Wayyy smaller
- Not a stepping hazard
- Rated for 16A (instead of 13 A)
- No Fuse (Again, pretty unecessary)
Regarding three-phase power, I would argue that Swiss type 15 (10A) and type 25 (16A) plugs are the best. These are really cool because while beeing the same size as Schuko (Typ F) plugs, they can transfer three-phase power (so 11 kW; 230 V / 16A on all three phases). They also fit standard Swiss single-phase and Euro plugs. This makes plugging in large appliances like electric stoves much easier than in other countries.
I would find it quite cool if most countries switched to one common plug, and I think IEC 60906-1 would be best for that. It would also be possible to build hybrid sockets for many common plugs during the transition phase.
After making this post, reading all the comments and doing even more research. I have to say I 100% agree with you.
I’m glad.
Maybe it’s unreasonable but I still hope that maybe countries will decide to switch to this connector.
The large amount of different, outdated standards definitly are a safety risk and hassle, even within the EU (e.g. a Schuko Typ F plug can be plugged in in Denmark but then it has no ground connection. Which is a common thing people there do).
So it would be pretty great to have this be the new common connector in all 220V-240V 50 hz countries.
Once I have my own house in South Africa, I’m switching all the plugs over.
Let’s hope the movement catches on, I hope Brazil switches to the 16A specific standard.
Look at the lengths the EU is going through trying to make it seem as it didn’t reluctantly recognise the superiority of the Swiss plug and adopting it
I will have to agree that the swiss plugs already are very good. From what I see the only improvement of IEC 60906-1 would be that the plug generally is rated for 16A. Besides that there really isn’t any improvement. The 16A rating is pretty cool for devices like 3KW electric kettles.
Because of how similar the plugs are, switzerland could migrate to IEC 60906-1 pretty easy. Since the polarity of the socket is reversed and the ground pin has a slightly different offset, you could have a dual-socket that has both the neutral and live conductor rated for 16A, and a earth conductor for old swiss plugs at the bottom and the earth plug for new plugs at the top. Because of the slightly different offset of the earth conductor but identical spacing of the neutral and live conductors, both swiss plugs and new IEC-60906-1 plugs would only fit in their correct orientation.
IEC 60906-1 That is not a reversible plug which is annoying at times.
It takes less force to plug in. Above 2.5A, Schuko plugs require a lot of force to plug in and pull out. To some extent, this is actually good for safety, but I would argue that, in the case of Schuko plugs at least, it’s too much Hmm, I get what you mean and this can be an issue and it’s probably the reason why plugs without grounding exist since they are easier to pull out.
It is also easier to plug in without seeing the plug since it isn’t round. Everyone who has tried to plug in a Schuko plug without seeing the holes knows how difficult it is Never had this issue
I didn’t even know there are different three-phase power plugs, but then again you rarely need those compared to the normal plugs
Is not Type N (used in Brazil) an implementarion of IEC 60906-1 without any major change?
The brazilian plug is sadly a bit different. The biggest changes are that it has a different current rating. There is a version with 10A and 20A. It also allows for pins to completely be made out of metal which is a security hazard.
So it is quite similar but not identical.
My favourite is this one, it makes things go brrrrrr.
Couldn’t find a good photo of the socket online, only the plug. Cba to go take a photo of the socket right now, but I do have it at home and it’s fully functional.
Edit: Searching in Estonian yielded results for the socket too. Someone was auctioning a set 7 years ago.
I’ll fetch the popcorn.
I got the beer. Thankfully it’s an universal plug
