My Bedroom's Melting Receptacle

31b

so I was trying to take a nap when I could swear I smelled something burning.. I get up walk around and it's definitely the bedroom there. I get close to the outlet and can smell it.. yep that's it! I go downstairs and de-energize the circuit and pull out the receptacle.

The teeth on the alarm clock plug were hot too.. the hot terminal on the side was movable too as the plastic frame was melting. Just another 5 or 10 mins tops i'm sure, I would have had a fire.

I moved here about 6 months ago, and really wasn't impressed with some of the wiring methods in some areas (like the 30A breaker feeding the two outdoor receptacles among other stupid things here and there)

I had planned on re-wiring the whole house this year anyway, but this just gave further justification for it!

MALCO.New.York

Time for AFCI's!

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mickeyco

Clean that receptacle up a little and redress the wires and you're back in business.


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31b

oh yeah, just a little update on this, in tracing wire connections on the circuit down in the basement, I've come to find out there are other things attached to that bedroom receptacle circuit too... like the washer...

31b

yep just bought one as a replacement. I'll get more of them one by one over time as I can afford a splurge here and there. Hopefully they'll come down in price this year and next as the demand goes up with their requirement now.

22rifle

What made it overheat? The normal loose connection?

skyhook

Overload.

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22rifle

Could be. Yours is just a guess. Mine is just a guess. Both are likely culprits.

Only the OP can tell us.

31b

yeah gotta love that daisy-chaining too, eh /sarcasm

31b

couldn't really say if the connection was tight or not, as the whole hot terminal it self was loose around the plastic frame that was melting away, but the other connections on it that were still intact were tight. though between the window a/c and the other loads sharing the bedroom recep circuit, my guess would be overload.

22rifle

Were the window AC and the other loads fed through this receptacle?

None of this really matters. I am just curious.

I live in a rental home that cost me a $1,800 laptop due to bad wiring. It all turned out OK at no cost to me but still...

I called the landlord, she called a handyman to come fix it. I told him it was taken care of once I realized he didn't have a clue. Even though I could have fixed it right I did not want the risk so I hired a pro. Told him what was wrong and how I wanted it fixed and he did it. I paid him.

OK, relax. He is a friend of mine. The reason I told him how to fix it was that I wanted an extra outlet plus one on a separate circuit. I would never hire a pro and tell him how to do his job. I worded it that way just to mess with all those who are looking for a chance to catch me after all i said about hiring a pro.

31b

no the window A/C was on another receptacle by the window, though the one that melted was the first in the daisy-chain.

22rifle

OK, maybe I wasn't clear. But you answered my question.

I have never heard the term daisy chain used in electrical. Do you mean the practice of feeding the next outlet through the outlet instead of doing the connection with wire nuts and a leg to the receptacle?

In another lifetime I did a lot of wiring. (Not illegally of course.) I never fed the rest of a circuit through an outlet but I never knew it was illegal.

31b

yeah daisy-chaining would be using all 4 terminals on the receptacle, feeding one directly from the next.

It's not illegal though, nothing mentioned in the NEC forbidding it (though personally I believe it should be) - it's just not a good idea. Some towns may specifically require pigtails though for inspection.

EDIT: oh to add, beyond the safety factor, if you daisy-chain things on a circuit, and undo a connection at receptacle, you've also lost anything else down-stream of it. so it's just a good idea all-around to pig-tail your connections.

reveivl

Hey, Speedy, isn't that receptacle upside down? Maybe that's the problem?

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22rifle

Thanks man.

I need to post a thread asking about twisting wires before you put a wire nut on. I was taught you always do. But I see many electricians who don't and a few who do.

BTW, if you put a GFI receptacle in and use it to protect additional breakers, wouldn't you have to daisy chain then? Seems like I remember that was the only time I daisy chained.

Anyways, thanks for chatting. I like knowing why you guys do what you do. Especially because I have some of it in my background.

My start was rough. I got a copy of the NEC and studied it like crazy because I wanted to do it to code even if no code was enforced. So the electrical forum intrigues me.

mdshunk

Loose wires cause fires. When you see a receptacle all melted like that, it was just a loose connection that declared itself. It might just be an illusion, but the offending conductor seems to have been backstabbed and not wrapped around the screw. Was that the case?

Bkessler

On my screen it looks wrapped around the screw but the top screw is not even tightened down. Maybe it's just the angle. I have a collection of those and the one common denominator is that there always new plugs. Seldom its the original I usually find that it's been a "non electrician" who installed the plug.

neolitic

There was such a thread just
a couple of months ago.
A long one too.
Maybe you could resurrect it


EDIT: Okay,so maybe more than
a couple of months....
http://www.contractortalk.com/showth...ight=wire+nuts

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31b

no that was me initially trying to unscrew the terminal, only to find the terminal itself not very well anchored to the frame anymore. it was wrapped around the terminal though.