1A fuse in a 13A plug - what will happen?

[Discharged]

I'm trying to explain to my kid (8) why were have fuses in plugs, and he found a 1A glass fuse lying 'round and he asked me if we could put that into a 13A plug. I said 'no' it would blow if you plugged into the mains.

Then I wondered if that really would happen... So thought I'd better ask here for clarification.

What does happen if you put a too-lower rated a fuse into a plug? To my mind, what happens depends on the appliance being supplied - what current it draws.

Any idea on this, please?

 

[poppypiesdad]

Glass fuses should not be used as they do not comply with any B.S. , being glass they can shatter leaving glass , creating a danger , hence why they are ceramic to retain the molten metal and can be removed without danger of injury

What would happens depends on the rating of the glass fuse 12v 3amp , would pop if you put it in a toaster plug, 240v 13amp glass fuse would work , but not advised

JAmie

 

[Cyberprog]

Ceramic body, and Sand filled iirc for BS1362

 

[kippaxkid]

Sorry about that. My mistake. Didn't realise that 20mm was an inch........ (better half will be quite pleased with the reassessment.)
Back to the fuses.

(Why do I get sucked in??????)

A HBC fuse is not a plug top fuse.
Go round the house and see if you can find a three pin plug that doesn't have scrunched up baco foil in it, take out the fuse and measure it. You may notice a difference.
Ever wondered why there are so many styles of fuses?

 

[SirKit Breaker]

BS1362 fuse must be fitted to a Plug. 3a up to 700w, and 13a above 700w, unless the appliance manufacturer instructions state otherwise.

Cheers...........Howard

 

[Cyberprog]

BS1362 fuse must be fitted to a Plug. 3a up to 700w, and 13a above 700w, unless the appliance manufacturer instructions state otherwise.

Cheers...........Howard

I do wonder about that over 700w should be 13A, had a Belt Sander from B&Q with .75mm2 cable, and a 13A fuse...

 

[ian.settle1]

Sorry about that. My mistake. Didn't realise that 20mm was an inch........ (better half will be quite pleased with the reassessment.)
Back to the fuses.

(Why do I get sucked in??????)

A HBC fuse is not a plug top fuse.
Go round the house and see if you can find a three pin plug that doesn't have scrunched up baco foil in it, take out the fuse and measure it. You may notice a difference.
Ever wondered why there are so many styles of fuses?

You can not be serious ? 25mm is an inch 20mm is roughly 3/4 inch think you need to back to school:33:

 

[overskilled]

I do wonder about that over 700w should be 13A, had a Belt Sander from B&Q with .75mm2 cable, and a 13A fuse...

The reason I got for a similar situation was that "it will likely fail within the plug or the appliance and therefore failsafe" I still don't like it at all, especially when some 2377 tutors are telling students to swap any plug fuses for 3 or 13 amp fuses using the <700W = 3A and >700W = 13A unless its IT kit and to do the swap to "look like your doing something"....personally it feels like watering down of safety and a serious dumbing down of standards, I could understand if say all new appliances were supplied with either 0.75mm2 and a 3A fuse or 1.5mm2 and a 13A fuse, but a lot of own brand stuff is coming with H03.... 0.75mm2 flex and 13A fuses sometimes with a load exceeding 2Kw....I won't be surprised to read of someone killed in a house fire due to overheated flex starting a fire, or a shock due to degraded insulation.......

 

[Discharged]

I guess this is going off-topic, but what is the reason you have such a tiny wire in the fuse (any fuse), yet all that current can pass through all the larger wires in the cabling without blowing the fuse the moment ANY power is switched on.

Perhaps this is a rhetorical question - we all know what fuses are for, but I was interested in the mechanics of it... but then...

Why have cabling such as 1.5mm or 2.5mm when the fuse size does not alter? What does the larger cable permit that the smaller does not?

 

[KFH]

"Why have cabling such as 1.5mm or 2.5mm when the fuse size does not alter? What does the larger cable permit that the smaller does not?"

The larger cables have a lower voltage drop than smaller cables so if you had a long piece of fuse wire (small) it would have a relativly high resistance compared to say a 1.5mm wire and get warm/hot thereby dissapating some of the energy you want to get to your appliance. Fuse wire gets warm in the fuse if it is run near its capacity but the length involved is so small the voltage drop is negligable.

 

[Geordie Spark]

You can not be serious ? 25mm is an inch 20mm is roughly 3/4 inch think you need to back to school:33:

It's due to the "dumbing down" of our education system in the first place that our Friend lacks knowledge, so sending him back to school wouldn't help.

 

[Rampage]

Why would they teach about inches/feet in school? Its been replaced for years! They don't teach about shillings etc do they?!

 

[ian.settle1]

Why would they teach about inches/feet in school? Its been replaced for years! They don't teach about shillings etc do they?!

But there are still imperial conduit, nuts/bolts etc still out there.

 

[Des 56]

Why would they teach about inches/feet in school? Its been replaced for years!

My Mrs had better stop pestering me for my 6 inch todger and start getting metricated then

 

[Geordie Spark]

Why would they teach about inches/feet in school? Its been replaced for years!

My Mrs had better stop pestering me for my 6 inch todger and start getting metricated then

When the Government ordered us to all go metric back in '73 (I think) I was working in engineering.

All out Company did was redraw all the engineering drawings onto metric sized drawing paper & change the Imperial dimensions to Metric.

All our measuring instruments (micrometers etc) were all Imperial, as were the graduated dials on all the machines, so whenever a drawing for a component arrived on the shop floor, the machinist would spend half an hour or so with his calculator & pencil changing all the Metric dimensions back to Imperial.

The only other concession our boss made with regard to "Going Metric" was to buy one 25mm - 50mm external micrometer which he then insisted on calling the "1" - 2" Metric micrometer" !!!

I worked in a further 5 engineering companies up until 1982 and none of them had fully embraced the Metric System.

(and why should we?? ........... the Americans didn't!!)

 

[kippaxkid]

you need to read the postingI was replying to, and the sarcasm in my response will come shining through like a beacon...............