Failed Power Strip

[eccerr0r]

Re: Failed Power Strip

Honestly I have yet to ever have a power strip fail in flames at the outlet, though seen a lot of them (my sister has one that someone gave her, plus these photos here). I suppose I rarely put such a high load on it that causes the contact resistance to be so high to cause this failure mode... That 1500W heater is the closest I've gotten to cause a failure but even that I caught it before anything bad happened...

The circuit breaker did eventually trip despite it being less than 1875W ...

[kaboom]

Re: Failed Power Strip

goddam, what did he take these with a shoe?

It looks like he "condemned" that aircon, you know- "It went band and burned up my plugstrip."

Betcha someone can't get that comp to run, even though I see a dual run cap there...

Oh well, skystormfucksupagain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5m54viOJaE

Honestly I have yet to ever have a power strip fail in flames at the outlet, though seen a lot of them (my sister has one that someone gave her, plus these photos here)....

Then get a cheap one and spend some "Zinsco time" with it. Although a used one would be better since it'll be loose/oxidized.

[goontron]

Re: Failed Power Strip

<snip It went band snip>

what, you mean he played (c)rap through it?

[eccerr0r]

Re: Failed Power Strip

Then get a cheap one and spend some "Zinsco time" with it. Although a used one would be better since it'll be loose/oxidized.

I suppose most outlets will eventually fail with plug/unplug cycles. I guess just replace the outlets...

Speaking of loose outlets, I do have one that doesn't hold plugs in very well anymore. This may have to be the one to experiment with... However once again I've not really drawn more than 1A sustained total with all the outlets and perhaps this is why I've never seen issues...

[kaboom]

Re: Failed Power Strip

what, you mean he played (c)rap through it?

Oops... I meant "it went bad."

[thesloc]
Don't "cop" an attitude. Ya don't have to make a "skystorm," homie...
[/thesloc]



Speaking of blaming cheap plugstrip "accidents" on the loads plugged into them, the space heater from the strip in my pix still worked after that with a new plug. No cord heating or anything- it ran almost two more seasons after that til one of the elements opened up.

It had lots of hours on it- I think its owner picked it up at a yard sale.

Skystorm, or whoever, was probaly terrified of that A/C, since "it started the plugstrip on fire." I'd almost bet money that a new plug would've fixed it.

They tended to develop poor connections between the blades of the plug and linecord.

I managed to get a "discount" on a used one, years ago, for someone. "It's only worth so much with a plug like that- don't run it." "Ok, thanks for giving me something for it- I wouldn't want to sell someone a fire hazard- you look like you can take care of this."

[eccerr0r]

Re: Failed Power Strip

That's true too, the plug that's used in the outlet can also affect the resistivity. Some plugs have thinner blades or use other materials, it could affect resistivity too. Accept only brass prong plugs? And not those silver colored ones...

The plastic on the outlet still better not burn, regardless...

[kaboom]

Re: Failed Power Strip

Speaking of loose outlets, I do have one that doesn't hold plugs in very well anymore. This may have to be the one to experiment with... However once again I've not really drawn more than 1A sustained total with all the outlets and perhaps this is why I've never seen issues...

Pigtailed, looped thru w/ screws, or (gasp) backstabbed?

You could, if you want to experiment, make a mock up of a wall, with miniature 2x4 studs, sheetrock, and a box with that recep in it.

Feed the box with 12 or 14 NM, and use the cord & plug from junked equipment to plug your "test load" into this worn recep. Use a good Leviton, P&S, Hubbell, etc plug on the cable leading into your "test box" if you plug the whole set up into a recep. If you don't trust any receps to handle this, then borrow or add a spare breaker in the panel to feed this.

Keep pushing things till the mini-wall is on fire.

That's true too, the plug that's used in the outlet can also affect the resistivity. Some plugs have thinner blades or use other materials, it could affect resistivity too. Accept only brass prong plugs? And not those silver colored ones...

The plastic on the outlet still better not burn, regardless...

That reminds me of something else. Older appliances sometimes had plugs whose blades were "sprung" in the middle, probably to ensure a better connection with marginal receps. But some receps wouldn't accept the effectively wider blades. Or worse, the BS1363, which has no tolerance for wider-than-normal blades, and whose jaws permanently spread leading then to a loose connection for normal size blades.



Fake plug on the left. Current carrying blades are too thick and will deform recep contacts. Ground blade, when fully seated, will not make contact, since jaws will end up seating on the "insulated" portion. Since the ground is to be made first, the jaws for it are right behind the face of the recep, so it follows that when that insulated portion of the blade is also right behind the face, it will not make contact.

[japlytic]

Re: Failed Power Strip

Fake plug on the left. Current carrying blades are too thick and will deform recep contacts. Ground blade, when fully seated, will not make contact, since jaws will end up seating on the "insulated" portion. Since the ground is to be made first, the jaws for it are right behind the face of the recep, so it follows that when that insulated portion of the blade is also right behind the face, it will not make contact.

The earth pin should never be of the insulated pin type at all, considering the fact that earth fault current could be high.
Has the US adopted insulated pin plugs, or would there be a problem with reduced current carrying capacity?

[Gabriel]

Re: Failed Power Strip

I bought a Apc P5B a few weeks ago and since the cable was only 1.8 meters 3x1mm2 16A I decided to replace it with a 3x1.5mm2 2.5 meters 16A cable.

Why did they not solder the wires on instead of welding them ? I tried to add solder and it sticks perfect to the metal.

Would it be considered a risk soldering new wires on ?

[eccerr0r]

Re: Failed Power Strip

I think a *good* weld should be better than solder. Solder is resistive compared to copper.

Due to skin effect I'm not sure if adding solder to a weld is better or not...For DC, sure, but not sure about AC.

Then again the difference may be so low that you can't tell.

[ben7]

Re: Failed Power Strip

I had a power strip which had it's switch fail. My project had low voltage, and I thought I shorted something ... nope, transformer and rectifier diodes aren't complaining. Turns out the switch was half on ... luckily no large load was on it, so it didn't have time to get too hot. When I took the thing apart, one of the solder connections broke from brittle solder.

... Which can be summarized by the following ....







Laser printer, two laptop supplies, some phone and "accessory" supplies, and a space heater. Water was thrown on the arcing (flaming?) heater plug when it was "discovered." Talk about an elephant in the room.

Breaker wouldn't have tripped on the poor connection.

Loose jaws/connections in the strip & plug as well as the recep it was plugged in to. Both jaws of recep bad, but "noodle" (ok, grounded as it's single-phase) was worse.

[sarcasm]"I wasn't warning you for several months- I was being overly enthusiastic and talking for the hell of it."[/sarcasm]

FWIW, they don't do the same thing- junkers catch fire while the goods ones do not.

We've had multiple fires in our area started by extension cords and power strips. Mainly from people plugging a window AC unit into them...

Here's the old 2x3 power strip. Much more expensive to make...
Unfortunately I don't see a country of origin on it.
And yes it's overheating somewhere with a 1500W resistive load.

I know what's wrong.... the wires are back-stabbed. I hate those, I think they are a fire hazard. Also, they are daisy chained, so they ALL carry current if you plug something large (heater) into the last socket, increasing the power dissipation.

The earth pin should never be of the insulated pin type at all, considering the fact that earth fault current could be high.
Has the US adopted insulated pin plugs, or would there be a problem with reduced current carrying capacity?

I find it shocking (ha ha!) that they haven't done so yet, I've gotten 'bitten' numerous times from accidentally putting my finger(s) on the pins when plugging them in. Also it seems that maybe if they made the plastic flange around the edge of the plug larger, it would be harder to get your fingers on the blades when plugging the plug in (unless you have very thin/tiny fingers xD)