I ran out of mains sockets recently so I decided to get a 6 way mains block. The Tacima 6 way Mains Conditioner has had good reviews so I paid £40 for one on Ebay. I asked the guy I bought it off if the mains plug was detachable as I needed to feed the cable through holes in my shelving. The seller confirmed the plug was detachable.
Anyway the Tacima turned up today with a moulded non-detachable plug !! In my haste to try it out - I cut off the moulded plug so that I could fit a detachable plug. I noticed that as well as the normal insulated Live, Neutral and Earth cable there was an uninsulated wire (the shield?). I decided to wrap the uninsulated cable with insulating tape and to insert it with the Earth cable. The Tacima seems to work OK.
However, I gave Tacima a ring to check if what I had done was correct. The chap at Tacima shocked me by telling me I had wrecked the Mains Conditioner and it now would not work properly. Can anyone with an Electrical background comment on this view.
Anyway the Tacima turned up today with a moulded non-detachable plug !! In my haste to try it out - I cut off the moulded plug so that I could fit a detachable plug. I noticed that as well as the normal insulated Live, Neutral and Earth cable there was an uninsulated wire (the shield?). I decided to wrap the uninsulated cable with insulating tape and to insert it with the Earth cable. The Tacima seems to work OK.
However, I gave Tacima a ring to check if what I had done was correct. The chap at Tacima shocked me by telling me I had wrecked the Mains Conditioner and it now would not work properly. Can anyone with an Electrical background comment on this view.
Bone said:
It sure looks as if all the components are in the block itself in a transparent window so can't see why they'd put any parts in the plug. You are talking about the plastic £40 one right?
I have one of these metal Tacimas (got it cheap from Ebay) and there's nothing in the captive mains plug.
So, I would say that mains leads are shielded and the reason they tell you it's 'wrecked' is that getting two conductors safely into the earth pin is not something that they consider safe for the general public to do themselves. In fact, I'm sure I read that on a lable somewhere on mine ....
Joined to say this
Just to confirm... Spent the past half an hour with a Stanley knife and a pair of pliers after chopping off the plug end to feed the cable through a hole.
I've peeled off the rubber casing to reveal a white pvc cover, inside is another rubbery part.
There are no additional bits of electronics or anything that would be extra to a normal uk plug apart from the extra rubber etc.
The shield wire goes to the Earth terminal along with the earth.
Of course I can't recommend anyone other than a qualified person should do this....
Just to confirm... Spent the past half an hour with a Stanley knife and a pair of pliers after chopping off the plug end to feed the cable through a hole.
I've peeled off the rubber casing to reveal a white pvc cover, inside is another rubbery part.
There are no additional bits of electronics or anything that would be extra to a normal uk plug apart from the extra rubber etc.
The shield wire goes to the Earth terminal along with the earth.
Of course I can't recommend anyone other than a qualified person should do this....
I also cut the plug off and re fitted a new 13amp good quality Uk plug after making the cable shorter as the mains socket was only 18 inches away and didn’t need 1.5 meters of coiled up mains lead. And can confirm the above the shield wire connection is to earth in mains plug. I used shrink tube over that wire inside the plug it’s self to insulate it.
To say you destroy the unit by cutting off plug is not true. There are no special features inside the moulded plug that comes as standard only the shield wire connected to earth.
Make sure you are confident in replacing the plug and also insulate the shield wire before fitting a new plug to cable. I have no idea how it’s done useing EU or USA plug so you would need to investigate your existing plug to make sure you have it correct.
Do they make a difference to your mains supply, I can only say being a radio ham I use one for my radios and on HF it did reduce my noise floor on the S meter by 1.5 S points after fitting so they do filter noise from your mains supply. No harm for the money on HiFi equipment for sure.
To say you destroy the unit by cutting off plug is not true. There are no special features inside the moulded plug that comes as standard only the shield wire connected to earth.
Make sure you are confident in replacing the plug and also insulate the shield wire before fitting a new plug to cable. I have no idea how it’s done useing EU or USA plug so you would need to investigate your existing plug to make sure you have it correct.
Do they make a difference to your mains supply, I can only say being a radio ham I use one for my radios and on HF it did reduce my noise floor on the S meter by 1.5 S points after fitting so they do filter noise from your mains supply. No harm for the money on HiFi equipment for sure.