In the UK it's illegal to have mains sockets in the bathroom - the ONLY socket allowed is a special shaver socket, which is low power and isolated (and normally switchable for 110V/240V). So no hair dryers allowed.
The English legal system has loads and loads of archaic junk in it. This went out with RCD ( residual Current Detector) in the power box.
Not to be rude or anything, but don't you Brits know about them newfangled GFCIs? That's what we use (according to the code*) here in N. Ammurica.
* The National Fire Code, promulgated by the Nat'l. Fire Protection Assoc.
So why aren't RCDs deemed safe enough to protect occupants in a bathroom with outlets over there? We have them all over the place here, and from all accounts they work reliably.
And what's wrong with wire nuts? Properly installed, I've never seen one fail.
How do y'all connect your wires, anyhow?
The later wiring types used for domestic wiring in the UK moved from stranded cable to solid core, making wire nuts a poorer match mechanically and electrically. The US has however persisted in using them despite this change in their own cables. I agree though, if a properly made, stranded wire joint is formed and a good quality wire nut is properly fitted, it is about as safe as any other method in use today, but using them on solid cored wiring or anywhere subject to ground vibration is a risk in my opinion
[...] then you may as well fit an outlet and be exposed to high current should things go wrong or when you umm "accidentally" drop a hairdryer in the bath along with your complaining wife
As I've said, I've never experienced any problems with wire-nut connections (properly made, of course), even given our seismic conditions. And one doesn't hear stories in the news of any widespread problems with them. So I have to say that it seems that your (UK) precautions are a bit excessive ... maybe a little on the nanny-state side?
Hmm; that last bit there is positively Hitchcockian ...
The US had a bad time with Aluminium wiring and wire nuts for a period due to oxidation and galvanic reaction causing the joint to corrode, but I think they have sorted that now.
Not even if the bathroom is connected through a residual current breaker?
They use their small female appliances in the bedroom, theoretically at the dressing table, however often stood in the middle of the floor surrounded by an orbiting cloud of female things, which looks like chaos, but is actually a finely tuned engine of female going out preparation...
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