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Overheated Duplex Receptacle

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W6SJK

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A "friend of a friend" claimed that he left his cell phone charger plugged in all the time, even when not charging the phone, and claims that it caused this damage. Seems more likely to be a loose connection but I don't see how there would be enough current to cause this. The charger must have shorted out combined with a loose connection. Your thoughts? TNX
 

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Poor or loose connection. They probably forgot to mention the space heater or electric fry pan that gets plugged in sometimes too.:happyyes:
 
Actually, come to think of it, if this was feeding downstream receptacle(s), and it looks like it might have been, then the load on THOSE receptacles combined with a loose screw on this one would cause it to overheat...
 
Hard to tell anything from that pic, but do I see a loop of wire wayyy off the bottom neutral screw? If that's what I'm seeing, then I'd pull other receptacles from that circuit (and elsewhere in the home/office) to see if there are similar bad terminations elsewhere.
 
If the problem was solely the charger malfunctioning I would expect to see the same amount of damage to both the hot and neutral receptacle slots. I agree that a loose connection is likely the culprit especially with a downstream load.
 
Look at it carefully....

The center of the burned area is where the neutral plug blade contact WAS. The near screw terminal is still there and appears as though it was never used. Note the gap between screw head and plate. Then look at screw head, plate, and still-attached wire on the adjacent terminal.

I'd say whatever was plugged into the upper receptacle was arcing between the plug blade and contact.
 
I don't know why but I have seen this happen many times before.
It is always the neutral outlet slot that burns up. This happens a lot on water heaters for showers.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
 
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