Tweakers' Asylum

Hospital grade, Shmoshpital grade

72.211.237.239

13th Duke of Wymbourne

A

In Reply to: RE: yes posted by Story on January 18, 2024 at 09:30:25

I've looked many times to understand what makes a mains connector 'hospital grade'. The only thing I've seen that might be the difference is a specification of clamping force on the connector so that it could support a certain weight of equipment if it fell off of it's shelf. I think there are many 'grades' of outlets, I expect the ones fitted at my eye doctor's are 'Optician grade'.
Cryo'ed connectors are called that because that is what you do when you see the price.

Edits: 01/18/24

Follow Ups:

Shmoopy - Story 03:45:53 01/19/24 (1)
clamping force is noticeably better even with the Lowes 20 amp, and it's important when your wife vacuums every single morning out of the same outlet.
The standard 15 amp ones lose their weak clamping force to begin with and the plug literally falls out of the socket. I also have an extension outlet where one single outlet melted because the air cleaner plugged into it was falling out. Saying the connection was 'loose' doesn't tell the story. The resistance inside the outlet and plug built up heat over time and...that's what you get when most everything today is cheap crap from China.

In 15 years I've replaced that same 15 amp socket she uses to vacuum 3 times with the one's they sell at Lowes. Where my stereo rig is I put in 20 amp sockets EVERYWHERE and have never had a single problem. I soldered them ALL in place after telling the electrician to run 20 amp wire from the breaker box.
Hospital grade is overused now but it has real history. My Uncle was a Doc and Surgeon in WW2 and he told me all about it since then. That's why I posted an FYI. Experience is a good teacher

Edits: 01/19/24
- Reminds me of a story ... - 13th Duke of Wymbourne 16:30:27 01/19/24 (0)
  ... of a hospital in South Africa. They noticed an increase in mortality in the surgical recovery ward and as they monitored the data more closely realized there was a spike happening a regular times. Closer monitoring still, they found it was a new cleaner who came in a regular times with a floor polisher and unplugged vital equipment in order to plug in the polisher.
  So, maybe, the ether thing was the start of 'hospital grade' and now they persist for no reason other than to sell expensive outlets to audiophiles (and for hospital visitors to plug in their phone chargers).
  
  Edits: 01/19/24 01/19/24

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