British electrical plug: What happens if you swap the live and neutral wires?

Question

I wired a plug to an old hoover, and found that in the old plug, the blue (neutral) wire and the live (brown) wires had been swapped. What would have happened if i plugged it in??? I'm curious but wasn't brave enough to try!

Answer 1

Any appliance would still work correctly, the safety difference is that in the case of e.g. an old fire with elements that could be touched, they would be live when plugged in and switched on, but not working, as the switch on the actual fire ( now on the neutral side instead of the live ) would be breaking the circuit on the return. This would not apply in the case of double pole switching.

Girlie - you're not quite right with your answer, unusual for you!!

Answer 2

1) called "Neutral" - it is uncharged and is effectively connected to earth ground. 2) Ref # 1 - connecting a charged (live) wire with neutral is the same as connecting a charged wire with an infinite capacity (ground). The current flow is maximum (tends toward infinity). In house wiring this would be called a direct short (circuit) and would blow the fuse or circuit breaker. 3) Same effect as # 2 above 4) hot wire with hot wire in normal house wiring => answer is IT DEPENDS. Nothing would happen if the two hot wires were from the *same* 120 vac feed line. But there are TWO(2) different 120 VAC feed lines coming into each house along with a Neutral line. The two different 120 VAC lines are 180 degrees out of phase. This is so 240 volts AC can be obtained across them. This higher voltage is necessary to power certain large household appliances, motors, heat pumps, etc. Having the live sides of these two out of phase sources contact each other would make a 240 volt short circuit causing immediate shut down by circuit breaker but not without a large arc, and some likely melting of wire,etc. 5) repeat of question # 1 (see above) 6) "a half-wire"?? This is technology I've not heard about - maybe 1 & 1/2 wire :>)

Answer 3

It would still work; problem comes when the plug fuse blows.

Correctly wired, the 'live' electric from the wall stops at the blown fuse in the plug before it gets to the hoover.
Incorrectly wired, the 'live' still stops at the plug, but AFTER it's been through the hoover.

Answer 4

The hoover would work OK but if the off switch was only on the live wire then the whole machine would be potentially live even when switched off.

Answer 5

As the mains power is A/C - Alternating Current, on a hoover there will be no difference, however certain products containinhg electronics require correctky observed poarity to operate correctly.
REMEMBER - Electricity kills, always observe correct polarity and instructions

Answer 6

Its hard to tell, I'm thinking like with an electric razor plug you can plug it in either way and it works. But its probably not safe to try, especially with something as high wattage as a vacuum.

Answer 7

reverse polarity wont make any difference to the working of a double insulated appliance, But when wiring up a plug its always good practise to do it right, not just for safety, but to ensure you get in the habit of doing it right.

Answer 8

.if the switch on the vacuum is double pole then no danger to the user would occur . the only danger would be if the vac is dismantled while being plugged in

Answer 9

This wil not make a difference to most appliances, although you could get a buzzing sound through certain radios etc...

Answer 10

Not a lot. An AC electric motor wouldn't notice.