thereifixedit
"""Fixed""" the melted plugs after my grandma went on a rampage with her 2000W grill
Discussion
Hi, health and safety college teacher and inspector. You NEVER plug anything that generates heat in a multisocket, even alone and especially a cheap one like this without any surge protection or an internal fuse. That's just asking for a fire and/or hurting yourself. Please tell to grandma to stop that ASAP.
Sooo Iâve had my toaster oven (two prongs no ground) plugged into one of these for years now. Can you please elaborate? Only have so much counter space for appliances.
You have to check the back of it and make sure it is rated for 15 amps or more. Many of them are really only intended for lamps and other low current devicesÂ
It can draw too much current, heat, melt and cause a fire. You should plug them directly into the wall so the breaker can stop it. You're putting a "weak link" with no protection between your appliance and the breaker.
Some insurance can even deny a claim since it's almost always written in the appliance's instruction manual : "plug directly into the wall, no multisockets, no extension cord".
That said: If you use it alone, stay in front of it and stop it at the first smell of burnt plastic, you should be fine....but still I AM NOT saying that you should do that...
Easiest way to stop it is pull up on the lever. It wonât break
Or if it has a knob timer turn it to zero
Itâs rated for exactly 15⌠this ok? Next biggest energy use plugged in is just a kettle.
Should I make the outlet a surge protector outlet like in bathroom?
Depends how much wattage it's pulling. I have a space heater plugged into a multi plug. Set on low (and I won't set it high) the plug doesn't even get warm.
Exactly what I already said below:
I mean you pretty explicitly said to never plug anything that generates heat into a splitter. It's less about what the thing does and more about how much wattage it pulls.
I said it because it's what is recommended by most (if not all) safety standards and manufacturers...
My PERSONNAL opinion (versus my professional one) is stated in the other comment...
As an electrician your logic is a little flawed and I would review electrical theory.
To expand on this the issue isnât that âyou are adding a weak link with no protectionâ anything connected to the circuit has the same level of protection as anything plugged into a receptacle is still getting over current protection from the breaker. The reason why multi plugs are more dangerous is because if you have inadequate protection it makes it much easier to overload a circuit. That combined with a larger possibility of a loose connection ect plug not fully inserted into the receptacle and the breakers trip curve + an aging breaker and you can be in trouble.
Thank you. I hope your comment gets as much attention as the flawed one but I don't bet on it.
Thanks for the insight, I come from an electricians family (4 generations), but I am not one myself (in fact, my main field is chemical protection, not electrical one). I just basically said what I learn in my various classes and trainings on that subject, but your answer is closer to reality. Cheers.
The guy that knows what heâs talking about is being downvoted, typical for Reddit lol
Just to clarify all types of electrical lids generate heat, heat is a byproduct of current and resistance all electrical loads have some level of resistance, some more than others resistive loads generate the most heat but even an incandescent light bulb is a resistive load.
What Iâm trying to say is it doesnât matter the type of load or appliance plugged in, what matters most is the amperage many appliances are setup so that they will use all the available amperage on a 15A circuit so if thatâs all you have on the circuit you are fine but when you add other loads combined with the breakers trip curve you end up with situations like OPs
I know that, I said "generate heat" to simplify it. I meant like a toaster, toaster oven, hair dryer, space heater, etc. They all pull "a lot" of amps...
I mean, if you were standing there with a fire extinguisher the whole time it might be ok, but yeah, don't plug a grill into an octopus outlet
Even a standard outlet without the splitter will not handle 2000W.
It will if it's a 20A outlet (one of the two slotted holes will be T-shaped)
They've been required in kitchens for a while now
20A outlets are NOT standard especially if you are not in a brand new house.
Not sure about your area, but the Canadian Electrical Code has required all outlets in a kitchen to be 20A and protected by a GFCI for over a decade now.
In the states it's within 6ft of a water source, usually.
A normal nema 5-15r is rated for ~1875w for attended short-term devices. Not far off 2000w, they didn't need a 20a (~2500w) outlet.
idk why the downvotes, this is easily verifiable info. You can also just look at the image and see it's a 5-15r and not a 5-20r
1800w (not 1875w) for short terms, yes. Only 1500w for extended periods though, such as what you'd need to run a grill.
2000w is more than both of those though, and has the potential to pop the breaker or create a fire hazard if you try to draw that much power on a 15A circuit. Which leads back to what I originally said, which is that 20A circuits have been required in kitchens for a while now, and won't have this issue.
I'm not sure why you think there's a 2000w griddle wired on a 1875w outlet. The entire thing I was pointing out is that it's close enough he was likely rounding.
Is it not obvious that he's not plugging a grill that large into a 15A socket and exaggerated the wattage he said? Do I really need to go over that?
Are we just pretending to be thick now, or is this for real?
jfc
What did you fix it with? Toothpaste?
Electrician here. Most cheap splitters are rated for 15 amps. Some older houses use 15 amp receptacles. It'd probably be worth having an electrician setup a dedicated 20 amp receptacle for her to avoid any danger.
I think you're focused on the wrong thing here OP....
A 2000w appliance shouldn't be able to plug into that socket, it should require a 20A outlet, which can take the proper plug for a device between 15-20A 120v. It's similar but the prongs are perpendicular rather than parallel. Which is why a 20 amp socket has that t-shaped slot on the one side.
But I could be wrong.
In Thailand, before standardization, we use 2500w on 230v with NEMA5-15 plug and no problem.
That may be fine. 230v * 15A = 3450w, which is plenty above 2500w. This looks like an American receptacle to me, which would be rated for 120v, 15a which is only 1800w.
But I am not an electrician nor well traveled so I could just be wrong, and I do not know what voltage other countries use with a same style electrical socket.
I did just look out of curiosity, and some countries (like yours, and a handful of others) do have listed as the same type of plug as we use here, but the higher voltage that we do not with our NEMA5-15. I was thinking of the NEMA5-20 for our 20A devices
TIL, lol. Thanks.
Needless to say that shit should not be melting/burning when you plug something into a socket. It's likely a loose connection causing high resistance and heat, replace it.
Also, the breaker should trip if you draw more current than what's safe for the wiring in the wall. But that's probably not what happened here.
Super janky, love it
Erm⌠you know that we have >2000W kettles that are used every day and multiple times per day in Europe? And can be plugged in to any socket in the house. What is up with you? Iâd have zero concern with a 2000W device here.
It's 120v, so 2000w uses 16A and a grill is being is being used continuously so this is the limit of what a 20A kitchen outlet should be able to provide. This splitter is probably not rated for that.
I was indeed having a dig at 120V. I believe electric kettles are slower in the US than elsewhere because of this. Iâm also used to simply being able to plug a 3000W space heater in absolutely anywhere, if needed.
The concept of melting a plug socket with 2000W just doesnât exist for me.
Part of the problem is the fact that splitters/extension cords don't need to have a fuse/current limiting device on them in the US.
I'm also being a little bit pedantic, but this failure was caused by pulling too many amps, not the voltage. That being said, the limited voltage led to this problem in the first place.
That is mad with regards to fuses. Pedantic is obviously fine: youâre correct.
It still would if you bought a crappy enough splitter.
I donât think you can buy something crappy enough here. I wouldnât think twice about a 3000W device in to literally any socket. And I live in an old house with old wiring and which still has ceramic fuses, for darnâs sake. Thatâs the point.
Replace that shit..đ
Just remove it and don't replace it. Grams doesn't need six things plugged at once.