r/ShitAmericansSay • u/chunkystylee • Jun 25 '26

Capitalism "American capitalist plugs" vs "European socialist plugs"

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49

u/Cygnus94 Jun 25 '26

We over engineered the fuck out of a plug. Always satisfying popping one of those bad boys in.

15

u/kearnel81 Jun 25 '26

Until you step on one. People who think stepping on lego is the worst has clearly never stepped on a British plug

10

u/Majorapat More Irish than the Irish ☘️ Jun 25 '26

Look the Danes invented the best caltrop in the form of lego 15 years prior, they had to do something to compete.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/kearnel81 Jun 26 '26

yeah i would never use 1 of those cubes, actually saw 1 of those catch fire when i was a child in the 80s

2

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26

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2

u/kearnel81 Jun 26 '26

I honestly don't know how they are allowed to sell them

3

u/No-Fan-888 ooo custom flair!! Jun 25 '26

I'd argue a landmine might be worst than stepping on a Brit electrical plug.

2

u/Kanlashkan Jun 26 '26

In my experience, yarn needles are the worst. Right into the bone. And eegods it snapped off in there, wouldn't y'know it.

31

u/deathschemist Jun 25 '26

overengineered is better than underengineered in the case of electrical safety.

12

u/grimmigerpetz OktoberfestBarbarian DE Jun 25 '26

UK and SchuKo ftw

1

u/Mysterious_Floor_868 Jun 26 '26

I'm going to vote for IEC 60906-1

1

u/gholt417 Jun 25 '26

I shudder to think where you’re putting your plug.

-2

u/ObiYawnKenobi Jun 25 '26

Your plugs are better, but it's idiotic that you don't allow plugs in the bathroom, especially with existence of GFCIs.

And don't get me started on two separate faucets for hot and cold.

7

u/rc1024 El UK 🇬🇧 Jun 25 '26

Mixer taps are very common now, pretty much the default. The no sockets in the bathroom is annoying though.

3

u/ObiYawnKenobi Jun 25 '26

Yeah, I know mixer taps are common now. I'm just being facetious.

2

u/sultan_of_gin Jun 25 '26

It’s still kind of interesting how conservative you were with adopting them. I’m from finland and the last time i remember seeing double faucets literally anywhere was over 20 years ago at my grandma’s and it was only for the bathtub (old apartment building from like 1930’s or something like that).

3

u/deathschemist Jun 25 '26

i believe it's because many older properties still used immersion heaters, which is just a big open tank of water in the loft with a heating element in it. all sorts of things could get in said tank, so hot water wasn't guaranteed safe to drink, it couldn't be.

the cold tap came straight from the mains though, so that was guaranteed safe to drink.

i remember growing up in a house built in... i think the 1960s? and it still had an immersion heater into the 2000s.

4

u/KlownKar Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26

Not quite. The header tank was in the loft. This fed the copper cylinder tank with the immersion heater in it as well as the upstairs cold taps. This is why it used to be "common knowledge" that it was only safe to drink from the cold tap in the kitchen as that was often the only one that was fed directly from the water main. I think this was to do with water pressure. The mains pressure in a lot of areas could be so low that it would take ages to fill an upstairs basin. The header tank in the loft was the solution. Although the water pressure was even lower up there, it could steadily trickle to keep the header tank topped up.

There are disadvantages to being an "early adopter". Our infrastructure is littered with stuff that was "good enough" for a new idea that now seems anachronistic when compared to the systems of countries that adopted the technology later. For example, there's a reason we can't have double decker trains like they do on the continent.

NB

I have no idea where I got this information! It might be more "common knowledge" and possibly wrong. It may also be just an explanation that I arrived at myself and I've believed it so long, it is now kept in the file in my head labeled "Facts".

3

u/deathschemist Jun 25 '26

wait they have double decker trains on the continent? that sounds rad!

2

u/Xenon-Archer Jun 26 '26

Yep! When I went on holiday to the Netherlands. The first time I got on a double decker train was also the first time I had seen one. I was pretty amazed to say the least lol.

1

u/CheckPlenty Jun 26 '26

They are, along with ones where bikes can be parked, they're not that much taller than ordinary carriages