Elf n' Safe Tea

ESBlonde

I was in Aldi at lunchtime buying biscuits and stuff when I noticed their offers this week include a mains socket tester for £2.99

Here

Now I already have two classy socket testers, but if any of you muppets don't own one yet, get your bottom down to Aldi (or indeed and retailer like B&Q) and buy one. You really have no excuse!

GuitarMonkey

£2.99?! How do you test a mains tester?

Seriously, are these made to any British Standard? Or am I being unduly critical?

Sporky

If they go BANG then there's mains there.

If they don't then there probably isn't.

ICBM

I would definitely want to see BS approval for them before trusting them to show up a potentially life-threatening fault.

One thing that puzzles me - usually they have three neons which are wired Live-Neutral, Neutral-Earth and Live-Earth, so a correct supply is indicated by on-off-on. This one has all three on for correct. Looking at the chart it's obvious that the outer two do what I would expect, but how does the middle one show on for safe?

bertie

Ive never bought anything (non food) from Lidl/Aldi or any other combination of those letters,   that lasts more than about 20 minutes.

In fact the food is pretty shite as well,  I assume it got 'supermarket of the year with votes from people with no taste buds

ESBlonde

As I said I have a couple of classy testers, but I can't imagine Aldi would risk selling something clearly made for our mains sockets which is inherently dangerous. I did suggest other retailers like B&Q too btw. It's your money and your life, I have my arse covered in this respect and anyone that doesn't can't say they cant afford one at the price of a pint or two. Anyone trying to dissuade people from being responsible for thier own safety might want to have a rethink!

Antique_Guitars

The German foodstuffs for sale in Lidl/Aldi is pretty good

bertie

Antique_Guitars said:

The German foodstuffs for sale in Lidl/Aldi is pretty good

however german food, is by and large.  Fucking awful

Antique_Guitars

Not really its just not particularly exiciting thats all, although I'm not really a fan of that schnitzel stuff.

Otherwise you know I like a good sausage bertie ;-)

bertie

I guess it could have been wurst

Antique_Guitars

oh dear god!

littlegreenman

bertie said:

Ive never bought anything (non food) from Lidl/Aldi or any other combination of those letters, that lasts more than about 20 minutes.

In fact the food is pretty shite as well,  I assume it got 'supermarket of the year with votes from people with no taste buds

The drill I bought from Dali last year is still going strong, seems to drill outwards though!

bertie

good man that work

chillidoggy

German food? What's that like? Is it all cabbage and sausages?

ICBM

ESBlonde said:

As I said I have a couple of classy testers, but I can't imagine Aldi would risk selling something clearly made for our mains sockets which is inherently dangerous. I did suggest other retailers like B&Q too btw. It's your money and your life, I have my arse covered in this respect and anyone that doesn't can't say they cant afford one at the price of a pint or two. Anyone trying to dissuade people from being responsible for thier own safety might want to have a rethink!

There's a difference between inherently dangerous and not reliable enough to be safe - when it's indicating the presence or otherwise of a risk. Something that doesn't work correctly might well not be dangerous itself, but could give a false sense of security.

I'm not saying this is definitely the case - it may well be fully certified and say so on the back, which you can't see in the pic - but I would want to check that before buying one. Unfortunately even if it appears to have a BS sticker it could be bogus, this is a known problem with a lot of cheap Chinese-made electrical products.

I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from being responsible for their own safety - quite the opposite, but trying to do it on the cheap could be worse than useless.

scrumhalf

chillidoggy said:

German food? What's that like? Is it all cabbage and sausages?

A not wholly inaccurate description of the residents of the country, too.

GuitarMonkey

ICBM said:

I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from being responsible for their own safety - quite the opposite, but trying to do it on the cheap could be worse than useless.

Yes, this. I think safety is very important and I'd want to know that my test equipment is going to give the correct results. 

It seems that BS EN 61010-1:2010 is the one it needs to meet.

PS I never skimp on tools, tyres or brakes.