IEC connector under a bath.

It is acceptable to have a flex that has a trailing IP rated IEC connector and a panel plug on a control box that is the final connection for a whirlpool bath supply.


There cannot be a 13 amp plug and socket under the bath to connect the other end of the flex.


Are those two statements correct?


The difference between the two being that the IEC connector is a connector and the and the plug and socket is a plug and socket.


Andy B.

Let's look up the definition of socket-outlet. It is part of the fixed wiring, so if it is screwed down, it comes under 701.512.3. If it is a trailing socket, it is not included. If the bath is less than 6 m wide, it is impossible to be 3 m from the boundary of zone 1 under the bath.


So there is no problem with the connector shown, but the other end cannot plug into a socket.


That said, common sense would suggest that a departure might be reasonable.

So, everyone is in agreement that this IEC connector is acceptable, as I thought it is.


The issue is how the supplier has approached the potential issues at the other end of the flex. Two flexes have been supplied both 3.250 metres in length, one has a moulded 13 amp plug on it, the other has been supplied with the plug cut off.


The issue I have to take up with the supplier is that the moulded plug that has been cut off the one flex has been packed with the cable and sent to the customers house, it is actually shown on the photograph of the parts that have been dispatched and listed on the parts list.


So a discarded plug just like the one the killed the toddler Liam Boyle is being packed with the bath and dispatched to the customers home.

Plug death toddler Liam Boyle 'died in seconds http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-12765545


It was only luck that I spotted it on the bathroom window sill, the bathroom fitter had already connected the flex to the bath and had put the plug on the window sill. If there had been an incident with someone being injured or killed like Liam Boyle it is a fair assumption that I would have been interviewed in a police station under caution by now to find out if I was the person who cut the plug off the flex and left it lying about in the customers home.


Obviously the plug that has been cut off the flex is dangerous and is also completely useless, so the fuse should be removed from the plug and it should be disposed of in the factory, not sent to the customers home with the fuse still in it.

The BBC report suggests that in that tragic incident, the discarded equipment was more than that - "plug and cable with bare wires".