> I'm typically not a big EU defender but it's one of the thing that is really oh-so-much better in the EU: every time I go to the US having to plug stuff into electrical outlet feels like I've been beamed back to the 1950s or something. Plugs don't fit properly: they simply feel loose.

IIRC, the US electrified first. So a lot of its standards are kinda the first attempt, but they've stuck because the switching costs are too great. Other countries had the benefit of being able to improve on an existing system.

But I'm not sure if that really applies to plugs (IIRC British [giant] and Japanese [no grounding] ones are worse). But my understanding is the US 110v thing is kinda limiting, and 220v is way better.

> Plugs don't fit properly: they simply feel loose.

Let me guess: it was in a hotel? Hotel plugs are shit and worn out, because they get used far more heavily than pretty much anywhere else.

> Or you need to use super bulky, non-sensical, plugs.

For what? The only bulky US plugs are for weird things like dryers and electric ovens.

u wot m8? bri'ish plugs best in the world, not that you bloody yanks would understand.

But in all seriousness they are comprehensively safer. The earthing and exposed live benefits are shared by most EU plugs, but as a bonus you've got:

- Built in fuse that can be sized to the appliance, not the socket

- Sliding gates on live and neutral that stop your 5 year old jamming a fork in there

- The gate is moved by the earth pin, ensuring it's long enough to make first contact

- An internal wiring arrangement that avoids floating the whole appliance at live if a cable is forcibly ripped out

Yes, it's a bit bigger but I can't recall this having caused even one dead child worth of inconvenience across my life.

They are however, even worse than Lego to step on in the night. I'll concede that as their one true weakness

The US plug is uniquely bad in that you can have live contacts exposed on a partially plugged in plug

I'd call both the British and the Schuko better. But they both come with tradeoffs. The British plug is huge, in part because of the built-in fuse. The Schuko is aesthetically less clean because the outlet is not flush, and because the plug is reversible you can't design around polarity. Both excellent plugs that are huge improvements over the US plug design in most ways, but both come with their own tradeoffs

Japanese electrical is better in many ways than the US. We have insulated pin sleeves so kids can't touch electrified pins and whole-home GFCI instead of just one or two outlets in the kitchen/bath. The standard wall switches are also so much nicer.

Along those same lines, I still don't really understand why so many people call it 110v and 220v when the US hasn't been those voltages for around 100 years and it's been 120v and 240v for about 60 years (it was gradually stepped up the voltage starting in the 1930s).

> the US 110v thing is kinda limiting, and 220v is way better

More efficient with copper certainly, but 110V is safer: cf. Ohm's Law. Lower voltage penetrates skin less readily, so you're more likely to escape unscathed from a 110V zap.

In Ireland, on worksites, the corded tools are 110VAC/50Hz (115V, 120V... mains/2 on a transformer-- and 'mains' varies wildly according to my several years of data captures in a range between 214-240).

Speaking of copper efficiency, the British Isles do all kinds of silly things like running ring mains to enable the use of smaller conductors for higher loads on domestic electrical sockets, and notionally to provide a safety factor.

> But my understanding is the US 110v thing is kinda limiting, and 220v is way better.

120V is safer (not "safe", "safer"[1]) than 240V. And for the times when 240V (or 208V) is a better fit, we have that available to us relatively easily.

> For what? The only bulky US plugs are for weird things like dryers and electric ovens.

Or the locking plugs, but I think that still fits your point: These are high-voltage and/or high-current things, which aren't being unplugged/plugged too much.

[1]: https://youtu.be/jMmUoZh3Hq4?si=JyZIge5lQXda4D0E&t=811