Are you fused correctly ?

[nigelwright7557]

When i buy new equipment I am often shocked at the value of fuse inside the mains plug. Most have 13 amp fuses protecting equipment that only takes a few tens of watts.

Typically the fuse in ampos should be the number of watts divided by 240.

So a 100 watt amp should have no more than a 3 amp fuse.

A 900 watt light should have a 5 amp fuse.

Many units have quite thin earth bonds which means the earth bond could fuses before a 13 amp fuse went making the equipment lethal to tocuh.

[Jiggles]

i go by if its under 750W = 3A Fuse 751+ = 13A fuse

[Corabar Steve]

Nah! 13 amp in everything. YE HA! http://planetsmilies.net/person-smiley-1115.gif (http://planetsmilies.net)

[nigelwright7557]

The usual values of fuse you can get are 3, 5 and 13 amp.

Better the right fuse than a dead DJ !

[Corabar Steve]

A small nail usually does the trick

[Excalibur]

Nah! 13 amp in everything. YE HA! http://planetsmilies.net/person-smiley-1115.gif (http://planetsmilies.net)

The humorous and totally irresponsible reply which I was going to give has ben deleted by me before I gave it, on the grounds that someone might take it seriously. Suffice to say it involved wimps, and six inch nails!:p :D

[Jiggles]

No steve you have to drilll out a 3A fuse and solder a 30A fuse wire instead! http://planetsmilies.net/person-smiley-1145.gif (http://planetsmilies.net) http://planetsmilies.net/person-smiley-9646.gif (http://planetsmilies.net)

[Dragonfly]

The humorous and totally irresponsible reply which I was going to give has ben deleted by me before I gave it, on the grounds that someone might take it seriously. Suffice to say it involved wimps, and six inch nails!:p :D

you mean like this one??


A small nail usually does the trick

thats just .....tacky

seriously though i know very little tecnically but do get things checked over that i may endevour to do myself.

[Vectis]

A small nail usually does the trick

Or in an emergency 4 matchsticks wrapped in tin foil ;)

[Dragonfly]

I may be wrong and im no moderator or admin but maybe this thread is getting a little silly and off topic ...............................
























did I actually type that??

[Excalibur]

you mean like this one??



thats just .....tacky

seriously though i know very little tecnically but do get things checked over that i may endevour to do myself.

Steve said a SMALL nail. I specified six inch nails, last so much longer! Please read posts more carefully!:p :D

And cos Steve uses more fingers to type than I do, he appears to post faster than me!

[Corabar Entertainment]

I may be wrong and im no moderator or admin but maybe this thread is getting a little silly and off topic ...............................Yes, I suppose it is, but it's not the sort of thread that anyone could reply to, is it? And I doubt that anyone would take the advice of using nails, matchsticks, and foil seriously. I think that most members would know what fuses are and what to use in equipment.

[Vectis]

To answer on-topic.

Nothing I use has a fused plug on the end with the exception of a few AC-DC PSU's which are correctly fused.

Everything else is IEC. All my 'feeder' leads have their fuse rating written on the plugtop in indellible marker pen and I carry a selection. It only takes a few seconds when wiring up to make an intelligent choice.

As was pointed out by the OP, silly to protect a 50W piece of kit with a 13A fuse. Silly to protect it with a 3A fuse really TBH but it's rare to find 0.25A fuses that fit in household plugs...

Incidentally how many of you have plug-to-IEC leads with 13A fuses in them? I know I do. But the rating on the IEC connectors is only 10A....

[Corabar Steve]

Wait until I get voice recognition software :sj:

I think it's still on topic, we're talking about what fuses we use, we're just being stupid beyond belief.

[Dragonfly]

Wait until I get voice recognition software :sj:

I think it's still on topic, we're talking about what fuses we use, we're just being stupid beyond belief.

believe the unbelievable that way you are never disapointed I actually read the title of this thread and thought to myself .... most definately not ....but is that a bad thing?

voice recognition software for???

[Excalibur]

Yes, I suppose it is, but it's not the sort of thread that anyone could reply to, is it? And I doubt that anyone would take the advice of using nails, matchsticks, and foil seriously. I think that most members would know what fuses are and what to use in equipment.

I think you are crediting some of us with way more intelligence than we actually possess. And surely no-one ever expected this to stay on topic as long as it actually has, did they?:confused: :D

[Corabar Steve]

voice recognition software for???

Typing on forums

[Excalibur]

Wait until I get voice recognition software :sj:

I think it's still on topic, we're talking about what fuses we use, we're just being stupid beyond belief.

Nothing new there then!:D

[Corabar Steve]

What ya tryin' to say?

[PropellerHeadCase]

I suspect, Steve, that you will have to be very careful with your voice recognition software... by the third day it'll just be saying, "Shhh, he's coming!"

[Corabar Entertainment]

...and why would that be, Alan? :p

[Corabar Steve]

Dunno about that, but there would be a lot of *s on the forum :sj:

[BeerFunk]

I find it hard to believe a brand new product would be fitted with a fuse so far out from the rating that is suitable.

Which products are you talking about, Nigel? (Name and shame :D)

[Corabar Steve]

We bought a table saw that blew it's fuse every time it was switched on. After extensive research we found that the fuse it came with was rated far too low.

[sleah]

Nah! 13 amp in everything. YE HA! http://planetsmilies.net/person-smiley-1115.gif (http://planetsmilies.net)

Actually not as daft or dodgy as it sounds:eek:

If you put a 3A fuse in a 100W amp, then it may blow, especially when speakers are connected.
This is due to the surge at switch on. I'd never put less than 13A in an amp for this very reason.

At work a few years back, our contract PAT tester famously changed the fuses in the TV's for 3A, as they use less than 100w, I spent ages going round changing them back as they blew as soon as the TV was switched on!!!

Most appliances (decent ones anyway!) will have built in protection, usually an internal fuse of a suitable rating.

The plug fuse is more to protect the cable and the plug itself and the socket, i.e. to prevent more than 13a being drawn, as that's the maximum the connector can handle.
Lower rating are normally used when the cable is rated less than 13A, i.e. 3a, 5a and so on.

Don't worry too much about fuse ratings for the actual equipment, it's the cables that need fusing correctly to prevent melting and fire:eek:

[nigelwright7557]

Actually not as daft or dodgy as it sounds:eek:

If you put a 3A fuse in a 100W amp, then it may blow, especially when speakers are connected.
This is due to the surge at switch on. I'd never put less than 13A in an amp for this very reason.

At work a few years back, our contract PAT tester famously changed the fuses in the TV's for 3A, as they use less than 100w, I spent ages going round changing them back as they blew as soon as the TV was switched on!!!

Most appliances (decent ones anyway!) will have built in protection, usually an internal fuse of a suitable rating.

The plug fuse is more to protect the cable and the plug itself and the socket, i.e. to prevent more than 13a being drawn, as that's the maximum the connector can handle.
Lower rating are normally used when the cable is rated less than 13A, i.e. 3a, 5a and so on.

Don't worry too much about fuse ratings for the actual equipment, it's the cables that need fusing correctly to prevent melting and fire:eek:


Most equipment does not have internal protection !!!!!!

100w device is only 250mA and wont blow a 3 amp fues, you are talking nonsense.

There is a surge at pwoer on as caps charge up but a normal fuse will cope with this.

Did you know a 13 amp fuse cant take upto 250 amps for a short period of time ? The fuse wire takes time to heat up and melt !

[Corabar Steve]

Most equipment does not have internal protection !!!!!!!Maybe not 18 years ago, or possibly home made equipment, but you'll find most modern disco equipment has at the very least an internal fuse.

[sleah]

Most equipment does not have internal protection !!!!!!

100w device is only 250mA and wont blow a 3 amp fues, you are talking nonsense.

There is a surge at pwoer on as caps charge up but a normal fuse will cope with this.

Did you know a 13 amp fuse cant take upto 250 amps for a short period of time ? The fuse wire takes time to heat up and melt !

Yeah, sorry I forgot experience counts for nothing:mad:
I was actually generalising a bit, couldn't be botherd doing the acurate maths:) even so, you can still get a huge surge!
I take it you know about internal fuses that don't actually look like normal cartridge fuses, that are often soldered in? (e.g. Denon DN2000F)

I was just trying to make the point you can't base a fuse rating simply on the average power requirement of the device for the reasons mentioned, and it's more to protect the cable and plug anyway.

[rob1963]

Hardly any appliances that we plug into the mains actually need 240 volts.

[Corabar Steve]

I just thought I'd better point out that all the suggestions involving nails, matchsticks & foil etc at the start of this thread were jokes & that the only thing that should go in a fuse holder is a fuse.

[Vectis]

What's with the sudden attack of conscience?

Is it all this talk of being sued for flashing your disco light at someone? :p

[Tom]

you never know. you will get some stupid person who will try the ideas in this thread

[Corabar Steve]

Just incase anyone was foolish enough to hink it might be safe practice