ACE Hardware Discriminates Against Adapters

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
Do not ask for double ended male adapters at ACE Hardware, they are a fire hazard, illegal, dangerous and immoral. Yes, I said “immoral.” Wait a second, maybe ACE Hardware isn’t against same sex adapters, they probably meant “immortal.” Yeah, that’s it.
 
That's the first time I've ever seen an illegal electrical device as immoral. The only reason they are illegal is because of the fear of incidental electrocution/fire due to the blades being energized. This doesn't stop anyone from making them which takes 5 minutes to do.
 
There is virtually no way to read it that doesn't make it look like it's talking about homosexuality, but if you try very hard to put yourself inside the mind of the person who wrote it, it is possible to understand it as saying "It's immoral of you to take such risks in safety precaution and you could be putting your friends and family at risk." More likely, though, it's someone pissed about the state of popular acceptance of gays and lesbians.
 
Methadras said:
That's the first time I've ever seen an illegal electrical device as immoral. The only reason they are illegal is because of the fear of incidental electrocution/fire due to the blades being energized. This doesn't stop anyone from making them which takes 5 minutes to do.
Click to expand...

Get thee to a nunnery!
 
StellaTerra said:
There is virtually no way to read it that doesn't make it look like it's talking about homosexuality, but if you try very hard to put yourself inside the mind of the person who wrote it, it is possible to understand it as saying "It's immoral of you to take such risks in safety precaution and you could be putting your friends and family at risk." More likely, though, it's someone pissed about the state of popular acceptance of gays and lesbians.
Click to expand...

"and possible immoral"

More likely, it is a language issue. Not so funny or controversial, but I'm going with Occam's razor on this one.
 
Sounds to me like someone with very strong opinions on gay marriage tried to be funny with the "your doing it wrong" sign for their front door.
 
There are several reasons such a device could be considered immoral - safety issues-possibility of causing fire/killing someone, also possibly aiding someone in the theft of electricity. Of course when same gender adapters are mentioned in popular culture, the issue of homosexuality also comes to mind. This begs the question what would the policy be towards female to female adapters? Anyway, it's just a stupid sign about stupid plugs; no big deal, and I'm glad that the majority commenters are focusing on the safety aspects of why such a device might be considered immoral (as I hope the sign was intended).
 
Cool, I have found some immoral usb cables in my basement:eek: I don't know what they are used for (like what usb device has a cord with two of the same male heads on them) but I'll give them to the cops if they relinquish me of them:p
 
Wonder how many customers asked for them before they decided to make that sign.

Honestly I don't see what the problem is, you can plug one strand into another that's inside the tree, but no "ass to ass" action? Its not like xmas lights draw that much current to really pose a hazard.
 
I think it's as simple as a blade exposure issue... Having live, exposed blades and the immorality being as reckless as one would have to be to justify sloppy wiring jobs.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Wonder how many customers asked for them before they decided to make that sign.

Honestly I don't see what the problem is, you can plug one strand into another that's inside the tree, but no "ass to ass" action? Its not like xmas lights draw that much current to really pose a hazard.
Click to expand...


You have not seen the Christmas lights my neighbor puts up. At 5:30 every night, the time when his lights were timed to go on, the lights in my house dimmed and my UPS kicked on for a few seconds. You could hear his electric meter spin from 50 feet away. Snow turns to rain b4 it hits his driveway. Squirrels come out of hibernation thinking it's spring. And I think I might have actually got a sunburn walking to my car on Christmas Eve at 10:30PM.

On a serious note, sell adapters like that and an idiot will burn down some thing or kill someone and you will get sued.
 
Rabid Badger said:
Am I the only one that thinks the "immoral" part is probably just an attempt at humor?
Click to expand...

That was my thought. We made similar signs when I worked at Home Depot. Occasionally, someone would "get" it and we'd have a big laugh (or ass-chewing from the store manager- whatever the case).:D
 
I've had to make a temp one for my garage until I wired it permanently to the panel. It can be dangerous if you are not careful and of course we know how careful the average human is.
 
Yes, it's dangerous. The problem with it is it basically exposes the 120 VAC to the air. Immoral in this context probably means it would be immoral to sell these to the public.
 
Never seen such an adapter and I agree that if you need one you have done something wrong (with your electrical system, not talking about sexual preference here). I wonder if the person who made that sign was aware of how it could be (mis?)interpreted?
 
Were you people serious in thinking that this had anything at all to do with homosexual issues? It's hard to tell sometimes.
 
why did everyone take immoral to be a reference to homosexuality in this case?

if you have a double ended male adapter then you can plug one end into a wall and have the other end lying out. someone can pick it up then get electrocuted. thats the immoral part. i got that right off the bat because i accidentally wired up an old lamp wrong and right before i plugged in the male end opposite the male end i was holding in my hand i realized my error.
 
Rabid Badger said:
Am I the only one that thinks the "immoral" part is probably just an attempt at humor?
Click to expand...

ya, thats exactly what i thought, i laughed.... some people might be reading into it a little *too* much lol
 
i've never seen such an adapter, what are they good for?

all the power chords I know are one end female and the other end male..
 
frenzy said:
i've never seen such an adapter, what are they good for?

all the power chords I know are one end female and the other end male..
Click to expand...


Burning down your house or killing you. There are ways of setting up Christmas lights that might require an adapter like that. Wrong ways.
 
Vryce said:
Were you people serious in thinking that this had anything at all to do with homosexual issues? It's hard to tell sometimes.
Click to expand...

Are you seriously telling us that you considered we might be taking this too seriously?
 
frenzy said:
i've never seen such an adapter, what are they good for?

all the power chords I know are one end female and the other end male..
Click to expand...

The ony reason you would need such an adapter is if you put up two strains of lights and put one up backwards so that instead of going female to male you end up with female to female with the male at the other end. Some people are either not smart enough, or two lazy to turn the second strand around to be able to plug in it. So instead they get a male to male adapter, or try to get one, so that they can connect the two strains with the male end at the other end just hanging there ready to shock anyone or anyt thing that touches it.

If you are in need of one of these to put up your lights then you probably are too stupid to be putting up lights in the first place.
 
Project_Nightmare said:
Cool, I have found some immoral usb cables in my basement:eek: I don't know what they are used for (like what usb device has a cord with two of the same male heads on them) but I'll give them to the cops if they relinquish me of them:p
Click to expand...

I had an external enclosure that used one of those.

As to the topic.. who wouldn't think it immoral to sell something that only has blatant irresponsible uses that could kill someone?

Its like selling someone a car tire that has a patched sidewall and is bald.
 
These are handy in a power failure if you have a generator, it's better if you use a dryer plug. In a power failure you turn off your main, plug in the male adapter into your dryer outlet, plug the other end into your generator, start the generator and power your house, in that order. I think the immoral part is some weird attempt at translating "can cause death".
 
What will happen if someone strings chrismas lights backwards with a male to male adapter, then plugs in the AC at both ends?
 
Methadras said:
That's the first time I've ever seen an illegal electrical device as immoral. The only reason they are illegal is because of the fear of incidental electrocution/fire due to the blades being energized. This doesn't stop anyone from making them which takes 5 minutes to do.
Click to expand...

Not so. These are often (illegally, and possibly immorally) used in conjunction with generators during power outages. People plug one end into the outlet on the generator, and one into a house outlet, powering all the devices through the house wiring. Sounds good, yes?

No. When the linemen come along to repair the wiring, they think it's dead. But your little Honda generator has powered the lines, and they're live. This kind of setup causes a couple fatalities a year, last I checked. Thus, immoral.

The proper way to do this, FWIW, is with a transfer switch. They need to be installed by a licensed electrician, which is relatively expensive, but a lot less likely to kill someone.
 
ShocWave said:
What will happen if someone strings chrismas lights backwards with a male to male adapter, then plugs in the AC at both ends?
Click to expand...

Since you're likely on single-phase power, I don't think there would be any problem with this... other than the obvious ones. Male-to-male adapters are never a good idea.
 
unhappy_mage said:
Since you're likely on single-phase power, I don't think there would be any problem with this... other than the obvious ones. Male-to-male adapters are never a good idea.
Click to expand...


That would depend on whether the two outlets were on the same leg or not. If the two outlets are on are on different legs, you just either bridged them or shorted them, depending on how the house's electrical was set up. If you are lucky the breakers will pop with out damaging anything else on those two circuits. Even being on a different circuit of the same leg could cause serious issues depending, again on how the house is wired.
 
acme420 said:
why did everyone take immoral to be a reference to homosexuality in this case?

if you have a double ended male adapter then you can plug one end into a wall and have the other end lying out. someone can pick it up then get electrocuted. thats the immoral part. i got that right off the bat because i accidentally wired up an old lamp wrong and right before i plugged in the male end opposite the male end i was holding in my hand i realized my error.
Click to expand...
Yanno, never even realized that... that 120 was easy to touch. That being said, and that I'm a fairly smart guy (occasionally I miss the obvious ones... :D)... I doubt that's immoral if I did it... idiotic yes, but did I do it on purpose? Nope, so how can it be immoral?


unhappy_mage said:
No. When the linemen come along to repair the wiring, they think it's dead. But your little Honda generator has powered the lines, and they're live. This kind of setup causes a couple fatalities a year, last I checked. Thus, immoral.
Click to expand...
Don't linemen test the lines before working? Again, I'd not confuse idiotic (the person w/ generator not the tech guy) with immoral. I wonder how many techs got a little jolt from solar panels that went up in a DIY fashion?

As to the generator I would just run an extension cord to whatever appliances I had, and not try to power the whole fricking house.... wait where's my Prius thread! :D
 
sfsuphysics said:
Yanno, never even realized that... that 120 was easy to touch. That being said, and that I'm a fairly smart guy (occasionally I miss the obvious ones... :D)... I doubt that's immoral if I did it... idiotic yes, but did I do it on purpose? Nope, so how can it be immoral?



Don't linemen test the lines before working? Again, I'd not confuse idiotic (the person w/ generator not the tech guy) with immoral. I wonder how many techs got a little jolt from solar panels that went up in a DIY fashion?

As to the generator I would just run an extension cord to whatever appliances I had, and not try to power the whole fricking house.... wait where's my Prius thread! :D
Click to expand...
What happens when they are working on a dead line, someone gets home, and starts the generator?;)
And depending on which lines your working on, things can get even worse.
Just like small transformers; those big transformers work both ways.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top