Socket “safety” plug covers. Are they bad?
I feel the need to share this info to my customers and anyone viewing this site, as I still see these used in many homes and businesses around the UK.
Many of you will have come across the “safety socket covers” sold across the UK, available in many stores, the idea of them is to protect your toddlers from poking objects into live electrical outlets. Many of you will quite rightly have purchased them and fitted them to all the sockets within your toddlers reach in your property. They will have given you the confidence that your child will be safer in those short moments where they are out of sight while you grab their next snack. But are they the best thing to protect them? Or are you, in fact, giving them a tool to make access to live parts easier?
Nearly 100 years ago an engineer called Caroline Haslett helped to design the 13A UK socket. The main priority of the design was to make them safe for children, and its design is still used in the UK and around the world today. It is considered to be the safest domestic socket design in the world. But why?
The holes for the plug pins are too small for a new born baby to insert a finger in them.
Internal shutters prevent children from poking objects into live parts of the socket. The shutters are automatically held in place by springs and only open when a plug is inserted into the socket.
Most sockets have shutters that are operated by the insertion of the earth pin (the longer pin at the top of the plug).
The basic method of earth pin operation is perfectly safe providing children are not supplied with a tool the same shape as an earth pin, which can be used to defeat the shutters. A socket cover is one such tool. If one of these socket covers is inserted upside down, and the earth pin engaged, it will expose the live parts of the socket. If a child then inserted an object into one of the exposed pin openings, they are at high risk of electric shock.
“But don’t covers also stop children plugging in dangerous electrical items?”
This is a fair question. The answer is, maybe? Previously there have been comments made by respectable organisations like RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents), that socket covers could help prevent this problem. However children are clever and have strong fingers. They can work out how to pull out socket covers anyway. Because of this, RoSPA has updated their advice.
Recommendation from RoSPA is as follows :
“…13-amp power sockets made to BS 1363 incorporate a shutter mechanism, which prevents inappropriate access to the live connectors. RoSPA therefore does not consider it necessary to recommend the use of socket covers” https://www.RoSPA.com/home-safety/resources/policy-statements/electricity
Please also see these other sites for more info :
https://youtu.be/5NEgRNXTe3k
http://www.fatallyflawed.org.uk
https://electrical.theiet.org/media/1520/wall-socket-protectors.pdf
https://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/article/doh-guidance-highlights-dangers-of-plug-socket-covers
https://www.pat-testing-training.net/articles/socket-covers.php