Having relocated from the UK to Poland, the change in mains plugs has never quite been resolved. All the equipment that came from the UK has 13A plugs on it, and all the local sockets are the CEE 7/5 type. Then there are locally-acquired bits and pieces which generally have two-pin Europlugs. No matter how many adapter cables and extension leads I make, or change the plug or socket on, there’s always something that doesn’t fit, or won’t reach the nearest compatible socket.
Of particular annoyance are various chargers and wall warts. They’re all bigger than a standard Europlug, and there’s no standard for which way the ‘lump’ of the charger will be attached, so connecting several of them in to a multi-socket extension lead doesn’t work well. Often one charger will obscure one or more sockets in such a way that all the things you need just won’t fit, or the whole assembly becomes so big and unwieldy that things start falling out under their own weight.
It is therefore with some relief that I announce the debut of the Euroquadraped: one 13A plug with short cables to four Europlug sockets. It reminded me of an octopus but only has four ‘legs’, hence the name.
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Getting all four cables in to the 13A plug was a bit fiddly, but choosing a roomy plug helped. The little Europlug sockets are neat. I’ve only seen them here in Poland. The finger ring to discourage pulling on the cable is a nice touch, and doubles as a cord grip internally. They even (finally) have safety shutters on the socket holes, roughly 60 years after shutters became standard on the British 13A socket…
The great advantage of this thing is that each socket is independent of the others and can find its own equilibrium with whatever electrical carbuncle is plugged in to it.
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It’s trivially simple, but it’s going to save a lot of frustration in the workshop.
