The short version
- A four-gang lead has four sockets and one fuse. RoSPA puts the ceiling for everything plugged into it at 13 amps, or 3,000 watts in total.
- A kettle on its own is most of that 3,000 watts, so the other three sockets are for small stuff.
- Electrical Safety First says a cable reel still wound on the drum is rated “typically as low as 3 or 4A”. The reel in this guide is sold as 13A, and nowhere on the listing does it say what the wound figure is.
- Don’t run one extension lead into another. Electrical Safety First says the plug in the wall socket is what overheats.
Extension leads are having an October. A plain DESIRETECH four-gang sat at number 6 in Amazon UK’s whole DIY & Tools chart when we read it on 7 October 2026, and it was still at number 6 when we read it again on the 8th. Look at what else is in that top 30 and the reason is obvious: four of the thirty slots are Command picture hanging strips and hooks. People are putting decorations up, and decorations need a socket that isn’t there.
So this guide is about the leads, and about the thing almost nobody selling them will tell you. Four sockets does not mean four appliances’ worth of electricity. The whole strip runs through one 13 amp fuse in one wall socket, and that is the real limit.
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Prices and specs last checked 8 October 2026 · next check 3 December 2026 · how we picked
Four sockets, one fuse, and the number on a reel that isn’t the number
RoSPA’s own household leaflet is blunt about it. Don’t plug things into an extension lead if together they draw more than 13 amps or 3,000 watts. That is the total for the strip, not per socket. RoSPA sorts appliances either side of 700 watts: lamps, televisions, computers, fridges and radios on one side, and kettles, irons, toasters, microwaves, hair dryers and vacuums on the other. Its advice for the second group is that they shouldn’t share a lead with anything else at all.
Put a figure on it. A 3,000 watt load for an hour costs 79.0p at the cap rate this site tracks, and 3,000 watts is the entire capacity of the lead. That’s the whole point. One kettle is not a rounding error on a four-gang strip, it is nearly the lot.
The reel is where it gets worse, and this is the part we’d call the finding. Electrical Safety First states that a cable reel’s current rating “is typically as low as 3 or 4A when wound”, and that reels should be fully unwound if you need the full current. Three amps is about 700 watts. We then read the listing for the Masterplug 10 metre cassette reel below. It calls itself a “13A medium cassette reel”. It advertises a thermal cut-out that “prevents cable overheating when fully reeled”. What it does not do, anywhere, is tell you the wound rating. So the headline number is the unwound one, the protection against the wound one is a cut-out that trips after the cable has already got hot, and the buyer is left to guess the gap. We’re not saying the reel is unsafe. We’re saying the useful number is missing.
One more, since people do it every December. Electrical Safety First advises against plugging one extension lead into another, and names the failure point: the plug sitting in the wall socket is what overheats. RoSPA says the same about adaptors in adaptors. If one lead won’t reach, the answer is a longer lead, which is why there’s a 10 metre pick and an outdoor pick below.
For completeness on the legal side: the plug on the end is covered by the Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994, and regulation 8 requires a notified body to be satisfied that plugs of a type conform to BS 1363 before approving it. The Regulations also carry a list headed “excluded electrical devices” in Schedule 1, and the first item on that list is “any plug, socket or adaptor which incorporates any other electrical device (other than a fuse link, switch or indicator light)”. So a fuse, a switch and an indicator light are written back in by name, and anything else a strip has inside it is not. We read the Schedule rather than a summary of it, and we are reporting what it says rather than drawing a conclusion about any particular product.
How we picked these
We read the Amazon UK DIY & Tools bestseller chart on 7 and again on 8 October 2026 and took the extension lead entries from it. Then we searched for the shapes a household actually needs, which is not six versions of the same 2 metre strip. Every ASIN below was opened at its own product page on 8 October 2026, and the title, price and stock were read off that page rather than from a search listing. Prices move, so treat them as read on the day.
We haven’t tested these leads electrically. We don’t have a loaded test rig, and we’d rather say so than imply a lab. What we have done is read the safety guidance from Electrical Safety First and RoSPA at source, read each listing against it, and say where a listing leaves out a number you’d want.
At a glance
| Lead | Best for | Price, 8 Oct | Sockets | Cable | Surge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masterplug four socket, switched | Most households | £9.50 | 4 | 2m | Yes |
| Masterplug six socket, switched | A TV wall or a desk | £12.49 | 6 | 2m | Yes |
| DESIRETECH 4 gang, 10 metre | Reaching an awkward socket | £14.99 | 4 | 10m | No |
| Tower lead, 3 mains and 2 USB-C | Phones and a laptop | £28.99 | 3 plus 2 USB-C | Not stated | Yes |
| Masterplug 10 metre cassette reel | Jobs in the garden or garage | £16.69 | 4 | 10m reel | No, thermal cut-out |
| Masterplug weatherproof box | Outdoor lights left out in the rain | £17.99 | 4 in a sealed box | 10m | No |
The six we’d buy
Masterplug four socket extension lead, 2 metre, surge protection, individual switches
£9.50 when we checked on 8 October 2026
This one was in the DIY top 30 on 7 October and had slipped out of it by the 8th, which says more about how fast that chart turns over than about the lead. It’s still the sensible default. Four shuttered sockets, surge protection, and a switch per socket so you can kill a standby load without crawling behind the sideboard. Masterplug is a Luceco brand and these have been the boring British default for years, which is roughly what you want from a thing carrying 3,000 watts.
The catch: the per-socket switches look like a safety feature and they are not one. The whole strip is protected by the single fuse in the plug, so a switch cuts power to a socket but adds nothing to the lead’s capacity. Two metres is also short, and the temptation when it won’t reach is exactly the mistake above.
Masterplug six socket extension lead, 2 metre, surge protection, individual switches
£12.49 when we checked on 8 October 2026
Three pounds more than the four-socket for two more sockets, which is the right trade behind a telly. A television, a soundbar, a console, a streaming stick and a router are all small loads, so six of them together sit nowhere near the 13 amp ceiling. This is the shape of load a strip is actually designed for.
The catch: six sockets on a 2 metre lead encourages you to gather everything onto one wall plug, and the fuse doesn’t care that the devices are individually harmless. It’s fine for electronics and wrong the moment a heater or a kettle joins them. Chunky plugs can also crowd each other on a six-way bar.
DESIRETECH black electric extension lead, 4 gang, 10 metre cable
£14.99 when we checked on 8 October 2026
The 2 metre white version of this lead is the number 6 best seller in DIY & Tools, and the 10 metre is the one worth owning. Ten metres is the difference between reaching the tree in the front window and giving up and chaining two leads together, which is the thing you’ve just been told not to do. It’s wall mountable, and the cable is a flat run rather than a coil.
The catch: no surge protection on this one, so it’s the wrong lead for a computer or a television you care about. Ten metres of loose cable across a room is also a trip hazard, and a lead draped along a skirting board collects dust in a way a 2 metre one doesn’t.
Tower extension lead, 3 mains sockets, 2 USB-C at 30W, surge protected
£28.99 when we checked on 8 October 2026
A tower stands up, which matters on a desk where a flat bar ends up under the monitor stand. The useful bit is the two USB-C outputs at 30W, enough for a phone at full speed or a small laptop, and they don’t eat a mains socket to do it. Three mains plus two USB in a footprint the size of a mug is a good answer for a home office.
The catch: the listing doesn’t state a cable length, so you’re buying without knowing how far it reaches, and the 30W is shared across the two USB-C ports rather than 30W each on most units of this shape. At £29 it’s three times the price of the Masterplug four-socket, and you’re paying for the chargers, not the lead.
Masterplug four socket, 10 metre premium cassette reel, thermal cut-out
£16.69 when we checked on 8 October 2026
If you need 10 metres and you need it tidied away afterwards, a cassette reel beats a loose lead. This is the Pro-XT build with an impact-resistant case, a wind handle, four shuttered sockets and a thermal cut-out that needs a manual reset once it’s fired. For a pressure washer or a hedge trimmer at the end of the garden it’s the right tool.
The catch: this is the one the whole guide is about. The listing calls it a 13A reel. Electrical Safety First says a wound reel is often rated as low as 3 or 4 amps, and the listing never prints its own wound figure, so unwind the whole 10 metres before you put any real load on it. Running a 2,000 watt washer off a half-reeled drum is how the cut-out earns its keep, and you don’t want to find out that way.
Masterplug weatherproof electric box for outdoors, four socket, 10 metre lead
£17.99 when we checked on 8 October 2026
This is the pick that saves people from themselves in December. A sealed box, 351 by 220 by 126mm, with a four-socket 10 metre lead inside it, so the connections for your outdoor lights sit in a dry enclosure instead of in a carrier bag under the hedge. Run the lead out from an indoor socket and the joins stay out of the weather.
The catch: the box protects the sockets, it doesn’t protect you. The supply still wants to come from a socket on an RCD-protected circuit, and if your outdoor sockets aren’t RCD protected that’s a job for an electrician rather than a box. It’s also bulky to store for eleven months of the year.
Questions people actually ask
How many things can I plug into a four-gang extension lead?
As many as fit, provided their total draw stays under the lead’s marked rating. RoSPA gives that ceiling as 13 amps or 3,000 watts for a typical UK lead. The count of sockets is irrelevant to the limit. Five low-draw electronics are fine and two kettles are not.
Is it safe to plug one extension lead into another?
Electrical Safety First advises against it, and the reason is specific: the plug sitting in the wall socket is the part that overheats, because everything on both leads passes through it. Buy a longer lead instead.
Why does a cable reel have to be unwound?
Coiled cable can’t shed heat, so its safe current drops. Electrical Safety First puts the wound rating “typically as low as 3 or 4A”, against a label that usually says 13A. Reels should be fully unwound if you want the full rating, and a good one has a thermal cut-out for when you forget.
Do I need surge protection?
It’s worth having behind a television or a computer and it’s wasted on a lamp. Be aware that the joule ratings printed on consumer strips aren’t something a buyer can verify, so treat surge protection as a cheap extra rather than a specification you’re comparing.
Can I use an indoor lead for outdoor Christmas lights?
The connections need to stay dry, which an indoor bar lying on wet ground will not do. A weatherproof box with the lead inside it, like the Masterplug above, is the usual fix. The supply should come from a socket on an RCD-protected circuit.
More from us on what the electricity in that socket costs: the UK running cost index holds the rate behind the figure above, energy monitors are how you find out what a lead is really drawing, and smoke alarms are the other job worth doing before the decorations go up.
Sources
- Electrical Safety First, overloading sockets, read 8 October 2026, for the wound cable reel rating and the advice against chaining leads.
- RoSPA, Don’t Overload, read 8 October 2026, for the 13 amp and 3,000 watt total and the 700 watt appliance split.
- Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994, regulation 8, read 8 October 2026, for BS 1363 as the named plug standard.
- Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994, Schedule 1, excluded electrical devices, read 8 October 2026, for the wording quoted above.
- Amazon UK DIY & Tools best sellers, read 8 October 2026, for the chart positions quoted.
Prices were read at Amazon UK on 8 October 2026 and change without notice. Look Into is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme and earns from qualifying purchases. That doesn’t change which products we pick or what we say about them.