Jump to content

Aussie Plugs


Stephen Marais

Recommended Posts

Hi All,

We arrived in Canberra on the 11th of Feb 2012. We are having a great time. The rain is putting a bit of a dampener on things though. Anyway besides that our container ship docked in Sydney yesterday so we are starting to prepare for the arrival of our furniture and one of the things that I have been looking at is the replacement of the SA plugs with Aussie plugs. I have had a look at Bunnings and Magnet and note that plug tops are quite expensive ($2.95 -> $12).

Does anyone know of where these could be obtained cheaper in bulk. I estimate I will need at least 30 of these.

Thanks

Stephen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IT is cheaper to use a RSA power board and just change the one plug - especially where you have the TV, DVD, Apple TV etc etc all near one power point... Do the same in the kitchen for the microwave, kettle etc. You'll eventually replace all of these so not a permanent "problem".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really shopped around for these and the ones at bunnings are the cheapest.

I tried Ebay, electrical wholesalers whom my company has an account with, online places etc etc.

I was hopinng to find a wholesaler who would sell them in bulk but could not beat Bunnings prices surprisingly, especially when you take shipping into account.

The white HPM side entry 10A ones are the ones I used and I also used about 30 of them.

Being an electrical engineer I could not bear having adapters all over the place :cry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And dont forget you need to get a qualified electrician in to change the plug for you. :rolleyes: If you have a fire and dont have a certificate and the problem is caused by the plug you wont be paid out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And dont forget you need to get a qualified electrician in to change the plug for you. :rolleyes: If you have a fire and dont have a certificate and the problem is caused by the plug you wont be paid out.

That is probably one of the things I might struggle to get use to. Who do you phone to change a light bulb ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for all the input guys. I am a little worried about the certificate for the plug. This sounds like an expensive exercise. I have wired plugs all my life and have never had one catch fire. I am not sure if the outlay is really warranted.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for all the input guys. I am a little worried about the certificate for the plug. This sounds like an expensive exercise. I have wired plugs all my life and have never had one catch fire. I am not sure if the outlay is really warranted.

Couldtn agree more. Would love to know if anyone ever actually went the elctrician route?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seriously? You need to get an electrician to certify your plugs?!

I've re-wired plugs my whole life and wouldn't dream of getting certificates LOL. I think the ideais just make sure you do it VERY properly so that nothing can go wrong with them (which isn't difficult to do).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And dont forget you need to get a qualified electrician in to change the plug for you. :rolleyes: If you have a fire and dont have a certificate and the problem is caused by the plug you wont be paid out.

Ha Ha! and how would anyone ever prove that a plug wired incorrectly caused a fire? :blush:

I wonder what sort of certificate an electrician here would produce if you asked him to wire a plug. I think he would fall on the ground laughing. :ilikeit:

Wiring a plug has 4 possible combinations.

Some of the Aussie plugs even show what colour wire is needed.

2 will trip the circuit breaker immediately.

1 will work but not be strictly 100% correct but never the less safe.

1 will be correct.

There are rules in Aus and fortunately there is also still some common sense.

Seriously I think it is very good that every appliance I have ever seen in Aus has an Aussie plug on it. Cellphone chargers, small appliances etc. :ilikeit:

In SA you often had to buy plugs and adapters for some electronic goods because they were imported.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's called Testing & Tagging. You actually don't need to be a qualified sparky to be able to do testing and tagging. I think it's a 3 day course and there are various training centres who offer the course. Ever noticed those tags at the end of your Aussie electrical cords? Those are the tags you need. I think households and businesses are supposed to have the test and tag done annually. There are several businesses who offer the service and it's not that expensive. Even Jim's has a franchise version of Test & Tag.

And one of the main reasons for this is because the majority of houses here in Australia are built with timber frames and gyproc walls instead of bricks and plaster. It's one of the things that struck me when we first arrived - the number of house fires. Also, if you rent a property, it is law that there are smoke detectors fitted to the dwelling. In NSW there is also an annual campaign to replace the battery in your smoke detectors - it coincides with changing your clocks for daylight savings time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Stephen,

Where in Canberra are you? did we meet at the coffe club last weekend? Sorry we met so many people.

We have also just received ourcontainer and will be changing plugs this weekend too. :whome:

Pm us if you would like to get together for coffee.

T

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Stephen,

Where in Canberra are you? did we meet at the coffe club last weekend? Sorry we met so many people.

We have also just received ourcontainer and will be changing plugs this weekend too. :whome:

Pm us if you would like to get together for coffee.

T

Hi T

We are located in Bonner in the north of Canberra.

Do you know when your container arrived in Sydney. We are trying to work out some sort of time frame as to when our furniture will be delivered to our house. We know our container was offloaded on the 3rd of March. How long did your container take to clear customs.

We didn't attend the last CCC get together as we were otherwise engaged, so we wouldn't have met there. We will PM you during the coming week to set up a time to get together for coffee.

Regards

Stephen & Margie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also dispaired at the prices of plugs - and got the Bunnings plugs in the end.

We are risking life and limb having changed them outselves ;-) the cost of the plugs was bad enough.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We just did it ourself - no dramas. Everything in Australia is over-regulated and especially the insurance companies would do anything not to pay out, so they're making all these impossible exclusions and rules to make sure they keep their money in the bank! Even their "fine print" has fine print!! :blink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...