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Comedic "things you would ban": minor things that irritate you

dangie

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Purchases, that when you buy, you need to buy something else to make them work satisfactorily.

For example. Have just bought a set of cycle mudguards. They are ok, but to make them good for purpose they need a front mud flap which they don’t come with. That is an optional extra :frown:
 
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py_megapixel

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Purchases, that when you buy, you need to buy something else to make them work satisfactorily.

For example. Have just bought a set of cycle mudguards. They are ok, but to make them good for purpose they need a front mud flap which they don’t come with. That is an optional extra :frown:
When I first saw the start of the second line, I was somehow expecting it to read "Have just bought a set of cycle mudguards. They are ok, but to make them good for purpose they need a bicycle which they don't come with." :lol:
 

DannyMich2018

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It's called "Door to Door". They (Royal Mail) get paid extra to deliver it. Posties tend to do a few different roads each day, otherwise they would be out after tea time.
Yes I understand but it's very annoying for me and many others and often the adverts are irrelevant etc and just go straight into recycling.
 

bearhugger

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Yes I understand but it's very annoying for me and many others and often the adverts are irrelevant etc and just go straight into recycling.
Indeed, I occasionally used to take out of my posties hand and dump it straight into our recycling wheelie bin, I suspect posties hate having to deliver it too,
 

OhNoAPacer

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Purchases, that when you buy, you need to buy something else to make them work satisfactorily.

For example. Have just bought a set of cycle mudguards. They are ok, but to make them good for purpose they need a front mud flap which they don’t come with. That is an optional extra :frown:
I remember when electrical items didn't come with a plug.
 

AM9

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I remember when electrical items didn't come with a plug.
Maily to save production costs but with the excuse that not every buyer would have a single type of socket to plug it into. In the '50s and '60s, there were plenty of 2A, 5A and 15A round pin sockets (BS546) as well as 'normal' rectangular pin 13A sockets (BS1363) which were introduced post war (WW2).
In fact, the need for buyers to fit their own plugs was a major cause of domestic electric shocks and fires as the average homeowner paid little attention as to how a mains plau should be fitted. The advent of the moulded 13A plug was a major contribution to improved electrical safety in the home.
 

OhNoAPacer

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Maily to save production costs but with the excuse that not every buyer would have a single type of socket to plug it into. In the '50s and '60s, there were plenty of 2A, 5A and 15A round pin sockets (BS546) as well as 'normal' rectangular pin 13A sockets (BS1363) which were introduced post war (WW2).
In fact, the need for buyers to fit their own plugs was a major cause of domestic electric shocks and fires as the average homeowner paid little attention as to how a mains plau should be fitted. The advent of the moulded 13A plug was a major contribution to improved electrical safety in the home.
I don't doubt the safety improvement. My nana used to plug her iron into the overhead light socket.
 

jfollows

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I don't doubt the safety improvement. My nana used to plug her iron into the overhead light socket.
And I'm sure plenty of people used 13A fuses in everything because they didn't have a clue other than that they always worked for everything.
 

gg1

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I don't doubt the safety improvement. My nana used to plug her iron into the overhead light socket.
Very common at one time. When UK homes started to be electrified on a large scale in the 1920s, the primary purpose was lighting, it was common for an entire house to only be fitted with a handful of plug sockets, or in some cases no sockets at all. You could but adaptors which allowed you to simultaneously power a lightbulb and an appliance from a light fitting.

I remember one of my aunts & uncles had christmas tree lights powered from such an adaptor as recently as the 80s.
 

dgl

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And I'm sure plenty of people used 13A fuses in everything because they didn't have a clue other than that they always worked for everything.
Of course what some people don't realise is that the fuse required is to protect the cable and not the device itself and as such some devices need a larger fuse than the rating would suggest to allow for inrush currents.

As someone who does portable appliance testing as part of their job I do know how to properly wire a plug, see attached photo,

20240501_155127.jpg

The earth wire should always have some slack in it so it's always the last wire to get ripped out of the cable is tugged, conversely the live should always be the shortest so that it disconnects first.

Morphy Richards made much noise about their items having a plug fitted from the factory "the iron with the plug on".
Naturally the plug being fitted in the factory does not guarantee that it's wired properly as I've seen a few devices that have poorly wired plugs from the factory.
 

dcbwhaley

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And I'm sure plenty of people used 13A fuses in everything because they didn't have a clue other than that they always worked for everything.
I have heard "It is a thirteen amp plug so it needs a thirteen amp fuse" spoken seriously
 

dgl

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I have heard "It is a thirteen amp plug so it needs a thirteen amp fuse" spoken seriously
Yes that 22" LED backlit LCD TV really needs a 13A fuse, we had a lot of Cello? ones that were powered by a small 12V 4A inline PSU that had 13A fuses fitted, I naturally downgraded them to 3A or 5A when I tested them.
 

dangie

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Naturally the plug being fitted in the factory does not guarantee that it's wired properly as I've seen a few devices that have poorly wired plugs from the factory.
At the power station where I worked for 40 years, every electrical appliance which came with a conventional pre-fitted plug was opened and inspected before use. If it had a moulded plug fitted, that was cut off and replaced with a conventional plug.
 

Ediswan

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The earth wire should always have some slack in it so it's always the last wire to get ripped out of the cable is tugged, conversely the live should always be the shortest so that it disconnects first.
Agreed. Which begs the question why there were (are ?) some plugs where the internal routing of the wires is so constrained that this is not possible.
 

Hadlow Road

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Yes that 22" LED backlit LCD TV really needs a 13A fuse, we had a lot of Cello? ones that were powered by a small 12V 4A inline PSU that had 13A fuses fitted, I naturally downgraded them to 3A or 5A when I tested them.
Really you upgraded them and the level of protection subsequently afforded!
 

Ediswan

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Yes that 22" LED backlit LCD TV really needs a 13A fuse, we had a lot of Cello? ones that were powered by a small 12V 4A inline PSU that had 13A fuses fitted, I naturally downgraded them to 3A or 5A when I tested them.
Strictly, the plug fuse is to protect the cable, not the appliance. No other country has plug fuses.
 

AM9

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I remember that too, & i remember the subsequent successful campaign, which brought a change in the law that forced manufacturers to fit plugs to electrical items as standard.
The legal obligation wasn't until 1992, - it wasn't practical in the '60s when there was still a plethora of mains socket types in British domestic dwellings.
 
Last edited:

AM9

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Somewhere in the house I have a redundant wire stripper.
Sometimes it was made even worse when a product has the outer sheath cut back and the three wires perfectly stripped and tinned. That meant that the consumer thougfht that they just needed to put them in their respective terminals in the plug. So not only was there the lottery of whether they got the three connections correct but also, unwilling to trim them correctly to the right lemgth, the cable clamp bar would often be holding the individual wires and it was pot luck as to which one pulled out first, (ref. @dgl 's post #7391).
 

dgl

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Sometimes it was made even worse when a product has the outer sheath cut back and the three wires perfectly stripped and tinned. That meant that the consumer thougfht that they just needed to put them in their respective terminals in the plug. So not only was there the lottery of whether they got the three connections correct but also, unwilling to trim them correctly to the right lemgth, the cable clamp bar would often be holding the individual wires and it was pot luck as to which one pulled out first, (ref. @dgl 's post #7391).
Also really the ends should not be tinned as they can work loose over time, instead bootlace ferrules should be used, properly crimped on.
 

Gloster

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The increasing number of headlines about someone revealing ‘tragic news’ or ‘heartbreak’. They usually turn out to be that some minor celebrity’s uncle’s dog has died or a TV programme that few people watched will not get another series.
 

jfollows

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The increasing number of headlines about someone revealing ‘tragic news’ or ‘heartbreak’. They usually turn out to be that some minor celebrity’s uncle’s dog has died or a TV programme that few people watched will not get another series.
I agree with you, the majority of rubbish news (Reach in particular) reports “horror crash”, “young thug”, “beloved restaurant” and so on, we need to be told (by them) how to feel, it’s not enough just to report news. I hate it.
And don’t get me started on “train station”!
 

Mr. SW

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Please ban the phrase "Close-knit".

Every. Bloody. News. Programme.

Close-knit community. Close-knit society. Close-knit golf club. Close-knit bus stop. Close-knit armpit. Close-knit pencil case. Close-knit toilet roll. Close-knit milk bottle.

Please Stop.

Please.
 

43096

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Please ban the phrase "Close-knit".

Every. Bloody. News. Programme.

Close-knit community. Close-knit society. Close-knit golf club. Close-knit bus stop. Close-knit armpit. Close-knit pencil case. Close-knit toilet roll. Close-knit milk bottle.

Please Stop.

Please.
In a similar vein, ban use of “at pace” in news reports. As in “Police are working at pace to find the perpetrators of the murder”. Really. I thought they would be investigating slowly!
 

The exile

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I agree with you, the majority of rubbish news (Reach in particular) reports “horror crash”, “young thug”, “beloved restaurant” and so on, we need to be told (by them) how to feel, it’s not enough just to report news. I hate it.
And don’t get me started on “train station”!
No one is “surprised” any more - we all apparently jump straight to “shocked”. And wouldn’t it be refreshing to hear that someone who has died in tragic circumstances was “really a bit thick and a right pain in the a*** but I’ll still miss them terribly” rather than the models of perfection people suddenly become when they die (not “pass”!). So much more meaningful and sincere…
 

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