electric sockets

[tace]

What causes heating of electric sockets as well as melting of plugs on
the live connection

 

[CCHR Lover]

hi,   your appliance is drawing too much amperage.

or could be dirty  or corroded connections.
mark k

or it could be an issue with aluminum wiring?

 

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

Drawing more current than they are designed for or poor quality.

Here we used a special to Israel three square pin plug rated at 16 amps (230v).
When we moved into this apartment 12 years ago EVERY outlet was burnt.

The plugs are rated at 16 amps PEAK, not continous duty. So they work fine
for a tea kettle, etc, but they will burn out with a heater, dryer,
washing machine (if it heats water), and so on.

Israel has now moved to an equivalent three round pin plug, which I assume
is just as bad. I replaced all of the high current items that are used for any
length of time, with 25 amp continuous duty "air conditioner" plugs, even
if they only draw 16 amp or less.

Geoff.

 

[GregS]

What causes heating of electric sockets as well as melting of plugs on
the live connection

You were not very information on types. Bad connections,
and bad crimps will do it all the time.

greg

 

[f825_633]

What causes heating of electric sockets as well as melting of plugs on
the live connection

loose terminals in the socket / plug or appliance.

 

[z]

loose terminals in the socket / plug or appliance.

i've been having a lot of difficulties lately with the connection
between my electric lawnmower plug and the socket on the end of the
reasonable quality extension cord, resulting in arcing within the
socket, resulting in worse contact, resulting in worse contact, etc.
coupled with some melting of the socket until i finally get around to
chopping it off and putting a decent socket on the end of the
extension. happened with two cords. it seems to be the fault of the
socket, since the plug end of the cord doesn't have any problems and
the mower plug is fine with the new socket. (these are the usual
hardware store orange outdoor extension cords with the molded in
plugs and sockets.) evidently the sockets at least on the batch i got
just don't make good contact with the plug. i should do an autopsy.

 

[Ross Herbert]

:What causes heating of electric sockets as well as melting of plugs on
:the live connection


The real answer is "excessive volt drop at the plug/socket interface". This
could be due to excessive current being drawn or high resistance at the
connection interface points.