Cordless appliances

[BiblioCat]

Everyone who clicked on this thread thinking it was about vibrators, sorry, it's not. ;)

I have a question about cordless stuff.
My Dustbuster sits on it's charger/base; the base has a real thin cord that ends in the plug, which is big and square and has to go in the bottom outlet. If you plug it into the top outlet, it blocks the lower outlet.
All my other "cordless" stuff that sits in a charger is the same way: battery charger, flashlight, cell phone charger, hand mixer, whatever.
Why? Why doesn't it have a regular cord and plug like, say a lamp or a radio?
Thanks!

[jasonb94]

That box is a transformer which steps down the voltage from 110v to whatever voltage is required to safely charge batteries.

[Arjuna34]

And the reason everyone uses a wall adapter to step down the voltage instead of running 120 volts into the device itself is because it's cheaper and easier. If 120 volts has to go into your dustbuster charger/base directly, it's got to meet safety standards, and should have UL approval, which takes time and money. It's much easier to package a $4 wall adapter with your product that already has the approvals; then your product only has low voltage applied to it, and is (relatively) inherently safe, with no long, drawn-out UL approval process.

Arjuna34

[casdave]

You normally get a unit that plugs into the outlet and this deals with changing the supply volts to a lower level, it then kicks out a much lower voltage say around 5-10volts to the appliance holder which to, the vast majority of users, is quite safe even if it were to be exposed hence the thin cord.

[BiblioCat]

Thank you all!
:)

[mangeorge]

You can buy a receptacle which has four outlets, each at 90 deg, aligned to the outside. Pretty cool, but ugly.
Bottom row, third from left.
http://www.hubbell-bryant.com/930_bry_prod.htm
Peace,
mangeorge