Having dealt with a lot of power strips and laboratory grade equipment, I've dealt with a lot of big AC plugs. This little 8 outlet strip (my electrician suggested a more typical "bathroom & kitchen" strip with plugs every 8 inches--sorry but that does nothing for me i want my 8 plugs right by the sink for all my specialized lavatory equipment) is the perfect form factor for me, with a few exceptions. One of them is the 10 foot cord (it seems like 16 feet) when I only need about 6 inches (I'm going to cut the cord and use a Marinco hospital grade plug) and the other is this rather unfriendly plug. It can't not be deliberate that the plug is designed in such a way as you are NOT going to plug in another big plug. It's as if this plug is saying, "I'm taking over here, you can't add another big one to this box."
This diagonal plug is a good way since it doesn't or doesn't necessarily block the use of a smaller plug. Maybe I could plug my water pick in there. But the plan was to plug in my hair dryer straight to the wall. It too comes with a massive plug, with built-in GFCI (redundant--my entire bathroom circuit is GFCI, as is every outlet in the kitchen, outdoors, and Bedroom 3), and is perfect for plugging in to the lower outlet. BTW, I'm sure the hair dryer instructions say to plug straight into the wall, and the maximum draw might exceed the breaker of some power strips.
But Tripp Lite has decided to block anything big from the other outlet, despite my plan to use the strip only for the smaller stuff that I keep plugged in like my Shaver/Cleaner and rechargeable toothbrush.
I rather resent this. It's certainly Tripp Light being my mother. Or maybe it's even required by UL or ETI.
Anyway, I guess I've got to do more of which I have strenuously avoided. Changing plugs. At least by this I know never to do anything half assed. But my previous strategy, of never changing plugs, was easier, and avoided leaving me explicit things to worry about.
BTW, it's also funny how if you attach this Tripp Lite to the wall, and if you want the plugs going the normal way with ground on the bottom, you must have the Tripp Lite name and all the lettering upside down. Mom wants the plugs upside down too! (Do you have a better explanation?) I'm well beyond caring if things like factory lettering on an outlet strip are upside down. I use whatever however. For quite a long time I used a large chunk of abandoned sidewalk as my turntable seismic base. Now I use a nicer looking state block…which was likely originally cut to be sold for a tomb stone but never engraved.
Actually, I can jam in the hair dryer just well enough for it to work, and that's what I've been doing so far. That does not seem good to me at all. But I bet that's what some people keep on doing.
So a bypassed safety trick becomes a safety issue.
It also looks like in order to plug the hair dryer (which I only use on low or medium heat) into the outlet strip I'll need to have 3 free bottom plugs. The plugs are spaced sufficiently closely and next to the switch on one side that you can't plug in a big plug even next to a small plug or the switch.
Why didn't I just get a straight outlet box, all I really need? I do try to get the simplest things possible, but after two days of searching I couldn't find any simple outlet box with 8 outlets in a small space like the Tripp Lite Isobar. But it could be a tad larger for the plugs (and less for the switch and logo) so as to give the plugs themselves more space for larger plugs and wall warts. The whole reason I outgrew my previous "solution" (two 1-3 outlet adapters) was not because I literally ran out of plugs but because I had to space out the 4 plugs and even then there wasn't enough room for the hair dryer.
All that surge suppression is become redundant. I've had whole house surge suppression since 2009.
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