Burnt Receptacle...

Status
Not open for further replies.
stickboy1375

stickboy1375

Senior Member
Location
Litchfield, CT
This is what I found at a service call I went on yesterday, owner complained of a burnt receptacle... This was located in his daughters bed room, and happened over night, nothing plugged into the receptacle but a space heater down stream, I told him he was a lucky man.













My guess is that the grounded conductor screws were never tightened from day one, but the damage made it very hard to tell what exactly caused the meltdown
 
Last edited:
Wow. Copper wire? If so then I would think that your's is a pretty good guess. There's also a lot of damage to a box that has a 2-hour fire rating. I wonder how long that thing was really faulting.
 
Looks to me like bad connection obviously. Probaly due to oringinal installer using quick connects or bad workmanship.

It wasnt part of a multiwire branch circuit was it?
 
jcole said:
Looks to me like bad connection obviously. Probaly due to oringinal installer using quick connects or bad workmanship.

It wasnt part of a multiwire branch circuit was it?
Click to expand...

No quick connects used, wires wrapped around the screws. You can see in the picture the problem was on the neutral side of the receptacle.
 
cowboyjwc said:
Wow. Copper wire? If so then I would think that your's is a pretty good guess. There's also a lot of damage to a box that has a 2-hour fire rating. I wonder how long that thing was really faulting.
Click to expand...

My guess is they turned the space heater on at night when the daughter went to bed. and they found the problem in the morning.
 
Holy smokes

Holy smokes

That is far beyond scary. The only other thing downstream was a space heater?

That guy was FAR beyond lucky!!!!!!!!! It'd be nice to know who did the work so they could see it for themselves.


WOWWWW!!!!
 
76nemo said:
That is far beyond scary. The only other thing downstream was a space heater?

That guy was FAR beyond lucky!!!!!!!!! It'd be nice to know who did the work so they could see it for themselves.


WOWWWW!!!!
Click to expand...

I agree nemo, that would be like pulling the trigger 5 times on a gun pointed at some one, thinking it was empty and then finding out there really was a bullet in it.
 
This took place in the daughters bedroom in the middle of the night. The MOST amazing thing is we're not reading about an accident with multiple deaths here.

If I would of saw this elsewhere, I would of just thought of it as a phony scare tactic to present bad workmanship. I can't get over this one!!!!!
 
This was my service call today, same deal, was for a through-the-wall combination heater/AC unit. Luckily, I was much better off than Stickboy and only had to trim one wire back. Not a backstab either, I can only assume a loose connection.

Rec1.jpg

Rec2.jpg

Rec3.jpg
 
Last edited:
If it was a MWBC then the connections should have been pigtailed. Atleast if done now. This would have prevented this from happening as long as the installer new how to use a wirenut.
 
Cow said:
This was my service call today, same deal, was for a through-the-wall combination heater/AC unit. Luckily, I was much better off than Stickboy and only had to trim one wire back. Not a backstab either, I can only assume a loose connection.

Rec1.jpg

Rec2.jpg

Rec3.jpg
Click to expand...



Jeezzzzz, it really looks like there were several miracles here. I have seen many fouled connections and devices, but none THAT bad without much more severe results.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top