There seems to be some debate as to whether electric socket covers should be recommended where young children are involved. Any thoughts would be welcome...

These links are well worth a read... http://electrical.theiet...-protectors.cfm?type=pdf http://www.fatallyflawed.org.uk/ As a recent parent, with an electrical engineering background I wouldn't have them in my home!

This was discussed at length in the past with some interesting points from our electrical specialists - might be worth an attempt at using the search facility :)

Many thanks for the postings and links. Most useful. Consensus seems to suggest no to any recommendations for their use? I did try the search facility to no avail.

If I remember correctly the thread was either locked or destroyed by the mods for being part of some sort of campaign!! There is however no consensus on the issue, quite the opposite in fact!!

This is probably a more balanced view: http://www.esc.org.uk/st...s/socket-blanking-plugs/

That made me smile! The search function is a law unto itself :) I haven't had a post moderated for ages, maybe I should put it in my CPD targets :)

I'd better explain that my posting above (currently #14 at 17:58:31) included the time of teh_boy's posting at #13 just in case his posting is removed for some reason and mine gets re-numbered as #13. Also, I confess that I only realised that the moderatorial procedure for inappropriate postings had changed after I posted a spoof 'contents not displayed' message some weeks ago in response to a thread asking why I'd apparently left the forum.

And another thing...the 'earth' pin of the inserts tend to break off thus allowing the live and neutral female outlets to be open... Just the thing you need when a child has a small metal object to hand (for child read also 'a half-witted adult') or other thing perhaps a pencil...

Would the answer not be to introduce a BS for socket covers? Socket covers are not really there to stop little kids from sticking things into the pin apertures but to stop them plugging in electrical devices. Plugging in hair straighteners and burning themselves or the carpet. Trying to iron the dog. Copying that cartoon brickie and plugging in a hammer drill etc etc I have also found 4 way extension bars that a standard BS plug can be inserted upside down opening the shutters so the safety of certain electrical products goes much further than socket covers.

May I point out that the article in the first link is written by the Technical Regulations Manager of the IET - the body responsible for the Wiring Regulations. The last few lines of that article read as follows: "Last word Socket-outlets to BS 1363 are the safest in the world and have been since they were first designed in the 1940s. Socket protectors are not regulated for safety, therefore, using a non-standard system to protect a long established safe system is not sensible. Thanks to David Peacock (Fatally Flawed) and Malcolm Mullins (Honeywell)" Readers familiar with the British Standards committee responsible for BS 1363 will recognize the last name as that of the chair of the committee. The website in the second link has a lengthy statement from MK (a leading manufacturer of domestic sockets) on its home page, it concludes: "MK goes to great lengths to ensure that all its BS 1363 plugs and sockets are safe. Inserting incorrectly dimensioned products into a socket-outlet can both damage the socket and reduce its safety." It is perhaps not surprising that lerobinson feels the way that they do.

There is an interesting FAQ (last in the list) on this topic at FatallyFlawed. It includes a link to a study by a Glasgow hospital on hair straightener injuries, apparently most of these occur when the user leaves them to cool, nothing to do with children plugging them in. Dangerous appliances need to be kept out of reach of children, kidding yourself that a piece of plastic can stop a child plugging something in is simply delusional, especially considering that the best known make is advertised as “easily removed from the socket by inserting the plug you need to use”!

I had them when my kids were little. We live in a house built in the 1910s decade with original gas pipes for lighting still visible in most rooms and wiring and sockets which had been "built upon" and extended through the years. It was some years until we could afford to have the house rewired although we did have an electrician give it a once over and declare it "reasonably safe". However, the sockets were a mismatch of old and new, some with pin covers and some without and no RCD at the fuse box because of the age. In these circumstances when you have couple of kids then I think they are a good idea and should not be dismissed because we all now live in a perfect world where all sockets are intrinsically safe and we all have 360º X-ray vision and can see what our children are doing every second of the day for the first 5 years of their lives. Should there be a British Standard? Yes, clearly there is an issue, but for me it was the safest option at the time in my circumstances and I would do the same again.

Plugs are required to be made to precise dimensions and shape. Sockets are required to be made to work correctly with plugs which meet those precise dimensions, inserting anything else results in an unknown situation. But, what is rarely realised is that there are no socket covers which are made with the correct dimensions and shape - therefore there are none which have predictable performance. This is not speculation but fact. This means that it is entirely unpredictable as to whether a socket cover will be easy to remove or not, it depends what socket you insert it into, a socket cover which is a tight fit in one socket will be partially ejected, and therefore very easy to remove, from a different socket. If easy to remove it is clearly useless, if difficult to remove then the reason is usually because it has oversize pins which will stretch and permanently damage the contacts of the socket, neither is satisfactory. The only socket covers you can buy for British sockets are intended for BS 1363 13 amp flat pin sockets. These have always had shutters, without exception, and there has never been a valid reason for using socket covers in them. It is perfectly reasonable to make an argument for using socket covers on old British BS 546 round pin sockets as they have not always had shutters (although modern ones do, and the Wiring Regulations require their use) - but as no one sells socket covers for BS 546 sockets it is not a practical option. If there was regulation of socket covers so that we could be sure that they did not damage sockets, and could not be used as convenient tools to over-ride the built-in protection, then socket covers would become a harmless but unnecessary waste of money, but there would be no added risk involved in using them. But until then, or until a manufacturer decides to make covers which meet the size requirements, then their use is entirely negative. There is absolutely no way that I will ever put my children at risk by using unregulated socket covers.

Hilary, using socket covers would not affect the safety (or lack thereof) of the wiring system. Twin-twisted cable to light fittings is not to current (no pun intended) standards but is not hazardous in itself, particularly as they tend to be out of reach of children. As for the red and black wiring, that could be well within its design life. Electricity doesn't know what colour the insulation is! If you were scared to use some of the sockets and couldn't replace them then you should have blanked them off with something more permanent than a socket cover, rather than possibly make them even more dangerous by pushing a non-standardised and unregulated piece of plastic into them. There are never any circumstances in which socket covers are a must, and none where the socket covers couldn't do any more damage. Your working gas lamp is an interesting analogy. If you thought it was unsafe, would you a) call a Gas Safe engineer, b) isolate the gas supply, or c) find a piece of plastic that seemed to fit and jam it in the end of the gas pipe?

That is a good point, but I would point out that the manufacturers of those whole socket covers suggest that, to allow fitting the cover, you should loosen the screws holding the socket in place without isolating the mains! That is very bad practice under any circumstances, but in the case that Hilary describes where the installation is in a poor condition it is potential suicide. It is also worth bearing in mind that if the wiring itself is in a fragile state then any movement of the socket could make matters worse.