Reverse Polarity

[Hubert]

Our local Aldi is selling a plug to check the socket wiring is correct, useful for checking for reverse polarity on foreign sites. Only £2.99 which I thought was cheap.

Hubert

 

[calikev]

Amazing what you can buy in aldi I bought a fire exstinguiser last year

 

[briwy]

Does the Aldi one work OK in the Cali?

The one we have works fine everywhere except in the Cali where it constantly trips the RCD.

 

[GeoffB]

We got ours from Kev, plus a plug that shows the polarity - very useful this (and last) year in France. Most of the power points we encountered (including during Calis in Champagne) in France were reversed; we found none in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany or Holland. So much for EU safety standards!

 

[briwy]

Thanks Geoff. Just seems odd it won't work in the Cali.
The French don't believe in wiring standards. We have a house in the Pyrenees and it has every coloured wire you can imagine except the correct ones. Tracking down a circuit is a nightmare. :evil:

 

[lewisnoble]

I thought these gadgets were supposed to check polarity on the site power supply, when you plug them in directly to the site power point . . . .is that right?

If so, that may explain why they trip the van RCD??

Lewis

 

[briwy]

The one we have is like a normal 13amp square pin plug with LEDs on it for plugging into a 13amp socket. I'm not sure if ones that plug into the site socket are available, never seen one.
It's definitely something in the van that's causing it to knock off the RDC as we also have an RDC protected 13A extension lead that plugs straight into a site supply and it works OK on that.