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Electric socket burnt and fused at neutral connection!

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  • 23-01-2013 4:42pm
    #1
    wexfordman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 490 ✭✭


    I'm not an electrician but tend to get calls from friends and neighbours whenever they have probably with telly's, phones, Internet and stuff.

    Anyway, neighbour rang me last night saying they had a problem with their sockets and had no power would I drop over and have a look.

    Anyway it turned out they had a toaster in the kitchen which the plug had started to warm up and they could smell burning. The toaster was off at the time. They went to unplug it and they couldn't, the plug was stuck, so they turned off the power at the consumer unit for the sockets.

    I had a look and ended out removed ng the socket from the wall, and found the neutral wires had melted their insulation and part of the socket also. The plug neutral pin had also got stuck in the socket and would not come out as I think it had been effectively glued into place with melting plastic.

    On closer inspection I found the plug itself to be in perfect condition no heating or melting, all the damage was confined to the inside of the socket around the neutral connection.

    To get them over the hump, I replaced the socket as I had a spare one, and cut back the damaged neutral wire. I told them not to use the toaster, (I cut the plug off it anyway) as I had non idea what caused the problem but told them it might be no harm to call an electrician to check things out.

    Anyway, anyone any opinion on what would cause the socket itself to melt at the neutral connection? Sems very unusual to me, and I told them that.


Comments

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    #2
    meercat
    Registered Users Posts: 4,745 ✭✭✭meercat


    fault most likely a loose connection
    possibly in the socket at the terminals or where the plug pins contact the socket receptors
    replacing the socket and plug top usually resolve this
    cutting back damaged cables is the correct thing to do and tighten connections


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    #3
    Bruthal
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,422 ✭✭✭✭Bruthal


    Yes loose connection at the back of the socket, or the plug contact pins as meercat says.

    Something plugged into other sockets further along that circuit, (assuming there was a cable into and out of the socket) as well as the toaster, would have been burning the connection if a loose terminal was the cause.

    Refitting a new plug onto the toaster lead and that should work fine as well now.


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    #4
    2011
    Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 12,593 Mod ✭✭✭✭2011


    As the other posters have stated, this is most probably due to a bad connection.
    A high resistance connection will have a heating effect.

    The amount of heat generated = the square of current drawn times the resistance of the connection (P=I^2 R)
    wexfordman wrote: »
    Anyway, anyone any opinion on what would cause the socket itself to melt at the neutral connection? Sems very unusual to me, and I told them that.

    Not unusual at all.
    The amount current flowing down the live conductor will be exactly the same size as the current flowing back on the neutral. This means that a bad connection on the neutral is just as likely to overheat as a similar connection on the live (often referred to as the phase).


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