Who cares about safety, feel the convenience!

[5U4GB]

Found on everyone's favourite crapvendor web site, a plug that any child, or possibly even a sufficiently clever pet, should be able to pop open to expose live mains wiring:



Look at how convenient it is, you just flip up the plastic cover, slide the wires into the plasticky Wago-like connectors, and without having to bother with awkward stuff like strain relief or screws to secure it closed you've got a mains plug ready to go.

[AVGresponding]

It's kind of like a poor man's Safeblok/Quicktest. A very poor one...

[bat]

I wouldn't trust many manufacturers who would make those, WAGO for sure and perhaps eaton

[Gyro]

If that strain relief is made of some sort of thermo-adhesive lined (heatshrink?) material and the wires cut to a sensible length - the photo is clearly crap, it might not be as bad as it looks. Not as solid as a properly screwed cable clamp and housing, obviously.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I've seen a lot worse - hinges on how good the cord grip is, but even if that fails, you couldn't easily get a situation where a bare core emerges from the sleeve while the others are still connected, so minimal safety risk

[tszaboo]

I've wired ST18 connector that had this flip-up design. Also, the WAGO copycat blades, they are all right for fixed cables.
I think this is 90% there, just needs a proper strain relief and two screws to prevent the flip-up to open. So the same amount of screws as the other design.

[wraper]

It's probably more reliable than 80% of cables with screw connection plugs installed. IME most of such plugs simply cannot be trusted to hold the wire unless you crimp a ring lug or ferrule (depending on screw connection type) on the wire first.

[Retep]

How about this one:


It came with this:

[madires]

I see a few problems (from a VDE point of view):
- the shell clips are too easy to open (by a mishap, child, etc)
- no proper strain relief (the antikink sleeve isn't one)
- PE wire should be 1 cm longer than N and L (for safety reasons). The plug design makes is hard to fit that longer PE wire inside the plug.

[5U4GB]

I wouldn't trust many manufacturers who would make those, WAGO for sure and perhaps eaton

There's assorted videos on YT of Wago connectors being put through pretty brutal testing, e.g. 2-3x the rated current, so 64A through a 32A connector.  Those things are seriously well-engineered.

The Chinese clones OTOH, which mostly seem to be 222s... I'd put maybe 48V at 1A through some of them but that's about it.  The one advantage with the clones is that they do odd combinations like 2-in, 4-out that Wago don't do which are useful for wiring up RS485 runs, and it's low voltage and current so you don't have to worry about whether they're up to spec or not.

[rhodges]

US story here. Here, an "extension cord" is usually a two prong plug, some feet of wire, and a three-outlet socket made with a tough and slightly rubbery plastic. They are useful and safe.

A couple decades ago, I bought one at the "dollar store". This one did not have the tough and rubbery outlet. It was thin and brittle plastic. After I hit the end on the floor, the outlet broke apart, exposing the conductors. This could certainly have started a fire.

And yet, there was a sticker on it "claiming" UL compliance.

[ArdWar]

The Chinese clones OTOH, which mostly seem to be 222s... I'd put maybe 48V at 1A through some of them but that's about it.

Must be some exceedingly bad clones. I've tested a couple decidedly cheap clones up to 80A, it ""survives"", the cable didn't. Notice that the crossbar inside goes to 240C.

[5U4GB]

Must be some exceedingly bad clones. I've tested a couple decidedly cheap clones up to 80A, it ""survives"", the cable didn't.

Oh, it's quite possible that some of the clones are up to Wago levels of performance.  However you have no way to tell unless you qualify each one you use...

Really scary is when you order an initial set for testing and they're the good-quality ones, and then when you order a container-load based on the initial testing they send you the all-corners-cut version.  A friend of mine was actually asked (not for Wago-connector clones but other electrical gear) whether he wanted the proper ones for compliance testing or the garbage ones for sale.