Electrician put a gfi outlet by sink.
I didn't try it till today. I can barely get a plug in. An inspector said its child proof. Fine, but it must be old lady proof too.
Are child proof outlets code? If not I'll ask the electrician to put a regular gfi in, that I can actually get a plug into.
Yea they are called tamper resistant. New code for residential. Push it in pretty hard, make sure all prongs are even as you send it in. It should loosen up after a few uses.
It seems difficult to find a suitable diagram indicating how these devices are constructed - (and not all may be made in the same way.)
However, the diagram in
http://www.electrical-knowhow.com/2013/02/receptacle-branch-circuit-design_18.html "4- Tamper-Resistant type" Exhibit 406.6 shows one form of construction.
In the diagram, the "Red" plastic barrier is pushed right by the left pin, moving that barrier so that a "slot" becomes available for the right pin while the "Blue" plastic barrier is pushed left by the right pin, moving that barrier so that a "slot" becomes available for the left pin.
Since the "actuating" part of each barrier is curved/sloped, it would ease the action of inserting the plug if the inside tips of the plug were to be sloped/rounded (i.e. Not "square" edged.)
Because of this, it may be that an old, worn plug could be more easily inserted than a new plug!
Filing a slight "chamfer" on the inside edges of the plug tips may also make plug insertion easier.
(A different design is shown in
http://www.google.com/patents/US8193445 but here, the edges of the actuator are also curved.)