Seriously – don’t buy a cheap plugpack…
Hello readers
Instead of a normal day involving fun and learning with electronics, I got the scare of my life and a very sore back. You’re probably thinking it was something to do with the bedroom, but (un)fortunately no. It was revenge of the cheap plug pack. (In Australia we call wall warts plug packs).
In the recent past I wrote about a couple of cheap plug packs from eBay – here. Foolishly I kept using the other working plug pack. Not any more!
Consider this photo:
Notice how there is the adaptor with the Australia pins – this slides on and off relatively easily. Today I went to unplug the whole thing, by gripping the small adaptor which would pull the lot out at once. However my grip was not strong enough and my fingers slipped, pushed down and pulled at the plugpack itself – just enough to leave a gap and the pins exposed. (see below) At which point my fingers slipped and grabbed the live pins.
Although I consider myself to be a large physical specimen (185cm tall, 120kg) the shock was amazing (in a bad way). I fell arse over and ended up flat on the floor, and some strange feelings in my chest. After a few moments I sat up and had a walk around. Luckily my doctor is only ten minutes walk away so she gave me a once-over and told me to relax for the rest of the day.
So – the morals of today’s story:
One – don’t cut corners on safety by using substandard equipment
Two – no matter how familiar you are with electronics or electrical work – ELECTRICITY CAN KILL YOU!
Three – always see a doctor, even for the slightest shock.
If you have a tale of woe to share, please leave a comment below or in our Google Group.
As always, thank you for reading and I look forward to your comments and so on. Please subscribe using one of the methods at the top-right of this web page to receive updates on new posts.
Otherwise, have fun, be good to each other, stay safe – and make something! 
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Ouch! My worst experience was trying to tighten the tip of a hot soldering iron, but your mighty zap must have been worse by several orders of magnitude!
True, but the soldering iron burn is a close second. Yowch.
Take care
john
Sorry to hear. But your issue is not the power unit, but the adapter. Otherwise the adapter is fine.
If these are from eBay I know them, I have and bought nearly 20 over the years, ne’er a problem with them. Stay safe.
Yes and no. The seller claimed they would have the Australian pins, not the adaptor. Moot really, won’t buy them again.
MIT? Nice one. Wish I went there
Cheers
John
I only made contact with 240v once, the only luck was my finger was already touching an earth clip, so I got a zap with no ill effects bar a numb hand.
A lot of cheap nasty switchmode type plugpacks around, buyer beware the device itself can be well made, but the power supply can be utter junk. Everything from the cable being too short, to shoddy plastic casings that crack and electronics that blow up.
Wow – you were lucky. It is getting harder to try and balance cost vs quality when shopping around, especially when there are so many dishonest manufacturers/wholesalers/sellers out there.
Thanks for your comment and I hope you enjoy the site.
Cheers
John
I got nailed by 240 volts once. I wasn’t paying attention when a friend decided to plug a non-attached cord into the wall socket to see if it was the right plug for the outlet(USA dryer plug, they make more then one type, go figure). Apparently he had know clue I was holding onto the other bare end of the wires while he was plugging in the wire.
Foolish on both our parts. Never trust anyone else!!! that is the moral of my story. Luckily like john, I had all three wires in my hand, so there was a quick route to ground. But man did it feel like I got hit by a mac truck. Took 15 mins for the tingling to go away and 5 just for my heart to return to a normal 80 beats a min.