Bob Adkins said:
They must be the world's worst plug design.
well they are really, when you think about it, the fag lighter socket in
cars was put there to run... a fag lighter, simple thing that's in use for 5
to 10 seconds, so the socket can get hot as the current isn't drawn for long
enough to melt things,
they the fag lighter plugs come out for running 12 volt items, and they are
slightly different in the way they contact the connections in the socket
(the fag lighter is gripped by the sides as it's pushed in.. otherwise the
element would be damaged), the accessory plugs rely on friction of the earth
part to hold the little positive pin against the end of the socket,
They are not a very positive holding connector, and so you get bad
connections, resistance, and melted plugs and sockets when you try to pull
any decent current for an extended time.
I had a campervan and had just one fag lighter socket in it, for running a
mobile phone charger in the back, so i could use the same charger in the cab
off the vehicles fag lighter socket, all the other 12 volt sockets were
proper motorhome (RV) ones, designed to have a good hold on the plug, and
work reliably with the low voltage/high current found with 12 volt
accessories,
i did have one of those electric coolboxes for a while, they come with fag
lighter plugs on them, so i made up an adaptor to go from fag lighter socket
to the proper RV style 12 volt plug, problem was i still had a fag lighter
plug and socket connection, and the coolbox only pulled 4.5 amps, but the
connector got very hot in use,
i cut the fag lighter plug off the coolbox and fitted one of the proper RV
plugs, then made up a connector going from an RV 12 volt socket to a car fag
lighter plug for the occasions when i used the coolbox in a car.
I'd sooner use proper boat or RV 12 volt plugs and sockets, they will be
marked 12 volt, and probably easily recognizable as 12 volt outlets,
The UK mains plugs and sockets are rather bulky, but i guess you do have the
advantage of having a fuse in the plug.. which i don't think many other
countries do with mains plugs (we still have circuit breaker panels, RCD,
earth leakage breakers etc, but just one breaker for a circuit, usually half
the downstairs rooms will be on one breaker, so the fuses are occasionally
handy), just remember to replace the ceramic fuse that's comes with the plug
with a glass DC type fuse, those buggers go off with a bang when ruptured by
high DC current.