[BoxBoxBox]

I need to plug my 3 pin power plug, into a 2 pin converter. It only works if I plug it in upside down (so to bottom prong is sticking out while the top two are plugged in). Is this safe? 

 

[jaddie]

Safe is relative.  With that ground pin hanging out, it's not actually being grounded, so the entire purpose has been bypassed, which is safety and shock prevention.  However, the chances of shock are minimal, so in reality it's probably ok, but you didn't hear it from me. 

 
But it should work right side up, everything plugged in.  If not, perhaps the adapter is defective.  Might want to replace that, they're cheap.

 

[GrindingThud]

If upside down, neutral and hot will be swapped.....if there is a failure, the case of whatever is plugged in will be hot. Dropping the ground, although not a great practice, generally causes no problems.......but flipping plug polarity is asking for trouble. Often the plug has a wide blade and a skinny blade to prevent this.

 

[jaddie]

If upside down, neutral and hot will be swapped.....if there is a failure, the case of whatever is plugged in will be hot. Dropping the ground, although not a great practice, generally causes no problems.......but flipping plug polarity is asking for trouble. Often the plug has a wide blade and a skinny blade to prevent this.

 
That would be true if the case were tied to neutral, which would never be done intentionally on a device with a 3 wire cord because that would also it neutral to ground at the device.  A mis-wired outlet would cause a blown breaker just by plugging the device in.  Nothing made recently would be wired with neutral and case tied together. 

 

[GrindingThud]

True for most consumer devices. However, the WA3 ties them together....No telling how many other amp manufacturers do. At a minimum, check before flipping.

 

[jaddie]

True for most consumer devices. However, the WA3 ties them together....No telling how many other amp manufacturers do. At a minimum, check before flipping.

 
Hmm.  So they didn't even bother trying for UL, huh?

 

[GrindingThud]

Unknown, mine has no sticker, so I doubt it. I discovered this while chasing down a ground loop in my system. My flat screen TV has earth ground tied to chassis only and neutral tied to circuit ground. The Woo has circuit ground tied to earth ground. Connecting the two resulted in pretty bad hum.

Hmm.  So they didn't even bother trying for UL, huh?

 

[Steve Eddy]

Unknown, mine has no sticker, so I doubt it. I discovered this while chasing down a ground loop in my system. My flat screen TV has earth ground tied to chassis only and neutral tied to circuit ground. The Woo has circuit ground tied to earth ground. Connecting the two resulted in pretty bad hum.

Say what? Neutral is connected to circuit ground? Neutral shouldn't be connected to anything but the primary side of the power transformer.

se

 

[GrindingThud]

Thats what I thought too....Dynex TV... Go figure

Say what? Neutral is connected to circuit ground? Neutral shouldn't be connected to anything but the primary side of the power transformer.

se

 

[Speedskater]

I see that:
Dynex, is a house brand for Best Buy. You will Only find them there. The manufacturer is XOCECO, which stands for "Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronics Company."
 
I hope that "Grinding Turd's" was a one off defect.

 

[jaddie]

Oh, so the brand name is mistranslated.  Should be DieNext, not Dynex.