Are old plug sockets dangerous?
Age alone is not the hazard; condition and what sits behind them is. Cracked plates, loose grip on plugs, warmth in use and any round-pin socket are genuine flags, and sockets without RCD protection behind them carry yesterday's safety level regardless of how the plate looks. A visual check costs nothing; an EICR settles the whole question.
What the socket itself can tell you: cracks and chips break the barrier between fingers and live parts; plugs that sag, fall out or need wiggling indicate worn contacts (which arc, which heats); discolouration around the outlets records past overheating. Any of these earns replacement, a small-works job, not a project.
The round-pin giveaway deserves its own line: round-pin sockets in a house (as mains outlets rather than modern lamp-switching circuits) date the wiring to the 1950s or earlier, and the cable behind them is the urgent conversation, not the plate on the front.
The invisible half of the question: a pristine-looking socket on a circuit without RCD protection offers 1970s-grade safety, because the protection lives at the board, not the wall. Conversely, tired-looking accessories on a well-protected modern installation are cosmetic. This is why plate-judging misleads in both directions.
Proportionate responses: a couple of tired sockets, replace them (batched, cheaply); widespread wear, warmth or round pins, an EICR to test what is actually behind the walls; and while any electrician is there anyway, the quarterly RCD test-button habit is worth adopting, it is the one piece of preventative electrical maintenance a household can do.
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