3186: Truly Universal Outlet

Truly Universal Outlet

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Title text: Building Inspectors HATE This One Weird Trick

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Explanation

This is one of 60 incomplete explanations: This page was created by a confused international visitor. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

This comic shows a layout for a universal outlet which would theoretically fit any mains power-plug. Throughout the world, countries and regions have their own standards for outlets, including their shape, contact amount, and voltage. When traveling, or otherwise using devices from other countries, it is often necessary to have an adapter to connect one type of plug to a different outlet.

The comic shows an outlet with fifteen sets of holes merged together, so that any of those plug types might fit. In reality, it's possible that a plug may not be held securely, and it may fall out or lose contact. For example, the hole for types D, M, and O at the top of the outlet has three distinct holes, some of which are entirely contained within others; a prong for a smaller type would not make contact with the walls (without particularly spring-loaded contacts). Different outlets can also mean different voltages, which can risk damage if devices do not account for it. Though universal plug adapters actually exist, but none of them are as 'universal' as the one shown in this comic, most likely due to aforementioned safety concerns.

Also the comic seems to misrepresent type E sockets - it seems like the creator wasn't aware of (or ignored) the fact that type E sockets has a grounding pin that protrudes out from the socket, and rather represents it as if it were a hole in the socket instead. In reality it would be difficult to make a socket that safely grounds type E plugs without being simultaneously incompatible with a large number of other plugs that aren't designed to accomodate the grounding pin, probably requiring the prominant socket-pin to be a spring that retracts far into the socket when pressed by a plug's Earth-pin.

The comic also seems to not notice the lack of grounding for full compatibility with F plugs. This leaves them in he same state as type E above. This could be fixed by adding the extra pins for grounding. Given that most plugs in E and F regions are compatible with both standards (CEE 7/7) and have the E ground conected to the F ground through a front plate bigger then the hole for the E standard, it would be theoretically possible to make a mostly universal plug, with the exception of pure CEE 7/5 Schuko and some pure French-style CEE 7/6 that don't have the external metallic plate, but both of those are vanishingly rare, phased out by the CEE 7/7.

The title text references the classical clickbait format "<organization/role> hate this one weird trick," implying <organization/role>'s services will be no longer needed if the trick works out as it claims to, and therefore they (purportedly by the clickbait) do not want you to find out about the trick. In this case, however, building inspectors likely hate the design solely because of its grotesque safety problems.

Transcript

This is one of 33 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

[A diagram of an electrical outlet is shown, merging the holes of many international outlets. Dashed lines indicate individual standards' holes, which are labeled by their corresponding letter from A to N. The entire outlet is the combined area of these holes.]

Wiring tip: To make your building friendly to international visitors, cut holes in your outlet plates to make them compatible with all fifteen IEC plug types.

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Discussion

No comments yet, add the first comment! Caliban (talk) 16:25, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

I checked on the info.0.json and there doesn't seem to be a transcript for this one. I don't know whether that's normal, since I understand that most comics have one, but I wrote in a basic transcript. I might have just not looked in the right place. R128 (talk) 16:58, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

I try not to be nationalistic or jingoistic about anything, but I'm sorry—British plugs are simply the best plugs. Strong, easy to use and safe—fits snugly into the socket, can't expose live or neutral outlets without first connecting to earth, no overly sharp pins. I don't like myself for saying this, but I honestly think the rest of the world would be better off switching to our plugs.109.149.114.159 18:00, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

I'm American, and British plugs and sockets seem huge and clunky to me. I've also heard that (some?) Brits think US plugs are alarmingly flimsy. I'm sure that a big part of the differences of opinion is what we grew up with, and I'd love to hear a physics/engineering/UI/UX-based evaluation of which one is *actually* better. -- Dtgriscom (talk) 19:38, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

I am an American (soon to be a Gileadian after we will rename our nation to the Republic of Gilead —— ¡ChrisoFascism sucks!); so now I do not have a dog in this fight, but the | EuroPlug looks very space efficient, unlike the bulky American plus & sockets, & the ridiculously enormous UK-plugs.

I am also an American and I agree with the sentiment that British plugs/sockets seem huge and clunky, but it depends on the plug and socket in the US how flimsy they are. I have found some sockets where plugs will literally fall out of them, and other ones where it is hard to pull them out. But American plugs are dangerous from the lack of protection against contacting power and neutral at the same time while they're live. 2601:441:4b7c:7c6a::1009 (talk) 03:15, 27 December 2025 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I've heard this sentiment before, but I have no idea where it comes from. British plugs are ridonkulously huge and not exactly easy to use. From safety perspective, I find it odd only a handful of (European) socket types are recessed. 81.94.52.186 22:07, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

British plugs are just the right size for a hand (assuming you don't have very small hands, when you probably shouldn't be messing about with them) and the direction the cable emerges is much more convenient (e.g. handy for sockets behind furniture, outlets for worktop equipment in a kitchen or in server racks). At least that's my assesment, having had to use both US and UK systems in all cases. ;) 92.23.2.208 22:47, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

British plugs do not even meet their own design specs. This is why there is an internally different, but externally identical (apart from markings) BS 1363-2 plug for EV charging. This exists because if you draw the continuous rated current from a standard socket it is likely to melt.

British wiring has many problematic aspects. Ring final circuits, undersized wiring for the protective fuse, too many devices on the same circuit, too few outlets so people stack extenders for the one socket in the room and run extensions cords under the rug, excessively tolerant ground fault detectors. Most of the supposed safety features of British plugs are trying to compensate for other design flaws. Not to mention mechanically identical sockets with different continuous current ratings.76.180.39.133 23:20, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

Someone will probably address this, but voltage issues aside, I would guess that the USAGE of the various pins across countries is likely different in catastrophic ways. E.g. I imagine that one glob of pins is hot/live in one country but ground/earth in others so that plugging an appliance from different countries into the universal outlet would cause shocks, breaker trips, explosions, etc. I did laugh at the title text - yes, I'm sure building inspectors are constantly encountering this mess. ;) 47.248.235.170 18:39, 26 December 2025 (UTC)Pat

Nope. The ground pin is always intentionally made special in all mains plugs existing, and it's basic potty training for electricians to never, ever trust the two others. --88.65.244.212 20:24, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

Universal/travel plug adaptors do kind of look like this. Not quite as universal though. 220.244.124.170 19:50, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DAIOqOxI0K_I --88.65.244.212 20:24, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

Some come surprisingly close: https://tessan.com/products/65w-gan-universal-travel-adapter-wta09 https://canyon.eu/product/cns-ta1005w/ https://aluratek.com/products/universal-20w-travel-adapter (not an endorsement - I expect most if not all of these are dangerous) 2600:4041:351:4800:D040:FA1F:BB70:CDED 01:26, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

Just for my own amuesment, I tried to work out what bits were which, green for the pins, red for 'the aditional bits the pins would rattle around in' (the rest left black). Really not sure I got all the "D E M O" bits right. E, in particular, looks like it has a reverse pin that goes into the plug, but I'm also not as familiar with the old D+M different ampages/sizes (I'll only ever see them in stage-lighting, and I don't plug 'em in or out) as I am with the type-G I normally use. ...but, if anyone wants it, it'll be downloadable for the next seven days. Tidy it up, correct it as necessary, change the timings (currently 1 second a frame), recolour it (perhaps use different colours for Live, Neutral and (where there is one) Earth), whatever you want. If it's useful. And if that's done by anyone who can upload to this site (or someone does a better version off their own back). 92.23.2.208 21:03, 26 December 2025 (UTC)

FWIW, it is notable that this plug is officially not a cursed connector. --2001:A62:572:F601:905B:6D6D:6686:E863 00:14, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

These already exist outside of this comic: https://diyhardware.ph/cdn/shop/files/YAE0838_800x.webp?v=1686379936 2605:C740:90:F41:842D:1EC2:FEB9:2B80 04:16, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

You can also find them on airplanes.

You can also buy them for traveling.

(That travel plug also has "universal" prongs for plugging in to various different outlets, selected by those sliders on the side.)

—Scs (talk) 06:00, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

The comic doesn't actually specify *anything* about the internals of the universal outlet, it just says to cut holes in whatever outlet you have. I find this the funniest part of it. Rorrison (talk) 13:07, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

Oh boy there are 15 different plug types, better create a universal outlet that covers everyone's use cases! 2A02:3100:8698:AA00:7DEE:9693:120D:56C 14:58, 27 December 2025 (UTC)
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