Despite being fairly careless when handling them, I've managed a fair few decades without once shocking myself.

With that being said, I would be delighted with CEE, BS or almost anything other than NEMA anything.

The 120v plugs aren't the worst thing since they usually have some good gripping points, and the 50 amp plugs usually have a handle on the back, but the 30 amp plugs typically have no finger indentation at all for gripping and I feel like my fingers are going to slip over and around every time I pull one out.

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Symbiote 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I'm only a tourist when I visit places with NEMA sockets, so I'm sure I see much more worn sockets than a resident of America.

But I often find sockets that have a loose grip on heavier plugs, like a phone charger, or a NEMA-CEE adaptor.

(Half my experience is in Central and South America, where maintenance is probably worse — though in Africa old CEE or UK sockets are usually OK.)

	▲	quickthrowman 7 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Residential grade receptacles are basically complete garbage, always buy commercial spec grade wiring devices at the bare minimum, heavy duty receptacles will last even longer. Video illustrating the much better device you get for $1.50 more: https://youtu.be/JoL7TzGhMt0 Hospital grade receptacles have extra strong contacts which make it more difficult to remove a plug, but I wouldn’t use them in a home.
	▲	Kaliboy an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I live in a Caribbean Dutch island, we grew up with NEMA, being a 127v/50hz distribution network. They suck. Like you said, eventually everything starts sagging in the sockets. Recently there's been a trend to switch to 220v based appliances here so modern homes have European plugs instead or alongside NEMA plugs. It's safer on so many levels. NEMA being 110v means generally higher currents compared to 220v. Then the socket being absolute shit makes it so you often, thanks to gravity, get a situation where you're passing too much current through pins that aren't making enough contact. Followed by fire.

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18 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

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