Burnt Receptacle...

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iwire said:
That sounds pretty low, you sure about that?
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Actually, it's a bit hotter than that. Around 350C for the denser woods. The pyrolysis of wood is dependent on external factors like the type of wood and the manner in which it is heated. It doesn't have an exactly uniform combustion ignition temperature. :smile:
 
iwire said:
I trimmed out a condo only to have a short when I was done, traced it back to a end of the run receptacle I had installed, landed black and white on the same side of the receptacle. DOH! :smile:
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About 4 years ago, I was terminating a resi panel. Got about 25 breakers installed before I realized I had put the 14s on 20s and the 12s on 15s.
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celtic said:
If you back stabbed you wouldn't have to concern yourself with over tightening :D
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When times get that bad that i need to back stab then i will find a better job. Backstabing is just cheap and lazy.
One point i did not see here is were all the others pulled out and checked ? They just missed out on a fire, how many others are in same condition ? Costly yes, worth it ??????????
 
you know those guys who only install receptacles on gen branch circuits??

I hope they take note ... I always mix it up so that flickering will be noticed , should there be a loose connection .. I tell all my customers flickering equals loose connection and that, that equals heat ,..and that heat equals fire ...

I can't help but to wonder if there were any lights on this circuit and if they flicked in the days /months leading up to this very scary event..??

I will be even more diligent when making connections,.. thanks for reminding me.
 
iwire said:
I bet we all would be guilty of that 99.999999% of the time. :cool: That other time you get interrupted in the middle of tightening and you forget, or you think you are tight on the conductor when actually the threads in the device are just binding or whatever.

I know your careful, I am careful, I bet 480sparky is careful but we are all humans doing repetitive tasks. :smile:
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Same reason I tape wirenuts :wink::D
 
We all make mistakes. Did one few days ago on my own house. Installed new gfci receptacle because wife got paint on old one (upset me) . When i finished ,plate cover and everything i found it would not stay set. Took it back out and i had placed one of the wires under slave. Just simply being careless. Do hundreds of receptacles day after day and it will happen. This is where an afci might have helped. Luckily no fire for this family. Had fire started then we hope the SD works or dog barks.
 
Strahan said:
Agreed but pigtailing both would have prevented this and certainly in the case in Marcs pic it appears it was the neutral.
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Pigtailing may or may not have prevented it, I've seen many a wirenut burnt to a crisp in j-boxes. Res grade receptacles are not designed for heavy loads anyway, as most on average do not have a heavy load plugged into them, with the exception of kitchens and bathrooms. I always use spec grade there.
 
iwire said:
I trimmed out a condo only to have a short when I was done, traced it back to a end of the run receptacle I had installed, landed black and white on the same side of the receptacle. DOH! :smile:
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I can still remember tripping a breaker on a WH probably more than 10 years ago. When I took it back apart I had wired nutted line to line and load to load. :roll: I think I have checked every WH since at least twice. :smile:
 
stickboy1375 said:
I would tend to think a 15 amp receptacle is good for 15 amps no matter what type of building I install it in.
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It's a quality issue, plug into a res grade receptacle, then plug into a com or spec grade. You will immediately feel the difference. It does not take long for the res grade receptacle to degrade under load from loose fitting plugs.
 
480sparky said:
How would pigtailing prevent it? A loose connection is a loose connection, pigtail or not.
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Nothing was plugged into this recept right? Agreed if there was a load on this recept and there was a loose connection then the same would result. In this case the recept was responsible for a low resistance connection to keep continuity and if it were pigtailed the wirenut would have been. All and all this loose connection would have eventually showed up should have explained sorry.
 
Strahan said:
Nothing was plugged into this recept right? Agreed if there was a load on this recept and there was a loose connection then the same would result. In this case the recept was responsible for a low resistance connection to keep continuity and if it were pigtailed the wirenut would have been. All and all this loose connection would have eventually showed up should have explained sorry.
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In this particular case, pigtailing may have prevented it. But it was still a loose connection, and pigtailing cannot cure loose connections. It merely relocates them.
 
480sparky said:
In this particular case, pigtailing may have prevented it. But it was still a loose connection, and pigtailing cannot cure loose connections. It merely relocates them.
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Yes I agree I just don't rely on the recpt for feed through applications I'd rather pigtail everytime just my opinion everyone has there own way. Plus makes it easier to change.
 
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