Power Strips

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infinity

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Can someone explain why plugging anything into a power strip should melt the power strip? This article suggests that power strips are hazardous becuse they can easily be overloaded. I don't understand why? The power strip has a 15 amp receptacles and should therefore be rated for 15 amps. The only thing that I can see as an issue is when these are plugged into a 20 amp branch circuit. My feeling is that these things that cost $4 in IKEA are not really capable of carrying the loads that they're rated for. Opinions?

www.cnet.com

Keep Your Air Fryer Away From Extension Cords—Here's Why It's Dangerous

Using extension cords with appliances that have heating elements can cause fires, according to an expert.
www.cnet.com www.cnet.com
 
I know of a house fire that completely destroyed one home and significantly damaged two others, because a heater was plugged into one of these things.

The quality varies greatly, I've taken one apart, there's not much there. I'm guessing they can't handle the continuous load.

I know fire inspectors will issue a violation notice if they see these used in a cascaded fashion.
 
Seen a lot of power strip failures over the years. Some were from overload, more were because there had been repeated tortion on the plugs causing heating. A lot of people have assumption that the switch is a fuse or gfci, a few are but most that have failed were not. Seen some real odd failures, the power strip had been used with window AC units and there was some sort of short that reversed polarity and back fed the neutral of a MWBC. Most HO used are the real cheap unlisted ones I've seen with catastr
ophic failed.
Not to be confused or compared to UPSs or quality surge protection strip.
Ken_S said:
I know fire inspectors will issue a violation notice if they see these used in a cascaded fashion.
Click to expand...
Seen this, had one that was a house fire too that had multiple of them plugged together.
 
IMHO, the really cheap ones might not carry a continuous 15 amp load, but the better ones will. There's also the environment- crud falling in the slots can cause higher-resistance connections and I know from watching that spilling diet coke in does them no good.
 
zbang said:
IMHO, the really cheap ones might not carry a continuous 15 amp load, but the better ones will.
Click to expand...
Yes this is my point and is parallel in discussion to the standard 50 amp receptacles being used for EV's that are burning up too. It seems like the listing agency needs better standards or better testing. When companies start making heavy duty receptacles because the regular ones are burning up then the regular ones should be removed from the market because they cannot safely carry what they're rated for. Same should apply to these power strips.
 
Ken_S said:
I know of a house fire that completely destroyed one home and significantly damaged two others, because a heater was plugged into one of these things.

The quality varies greatly, I've taken one apart, there's not much there. I'm guessing they can't handle the continuous load.

I know fire inspectors will issue a violation notice if they see these used in a cascaded fashion.
Click to expand...

I took a cheap one apart once, and it was just three slotted copper rails in the back of the housing, and when something was plugged in I'd bet there was maybe 1/8" of contact between the rails and plug. I can imagine it doesn't take much pressure to bend the rail, decrease the contact, and increase the likelihood of arcing.
 
To me, the biggest risk is the small ones. They are not required to have a circuit breaker if ?3? or less receptacles. Easy to overload those, especially if on a 20A circuit or daisy chained. For any I plan to possibly load heavily, I try to buy one with a metal chassis and receptacles that look like a normal 5-15 duplex. I also make sure they have a 14ga cord. I would hope the ones with 16ga cords have 12A breakers, but many times they don't say, even NRTL listed ones with 16ga cords. I could see the 12A rated plastic ones burning up with a space heater load.
 
Space heaters are hard on about anything you plug them into. Even spec grade receptacles fail at times.

Air fryer like was mentioned in OP, yes draws similar current. Seldom do they draw for more than 5 to 10 minutes at a time though. Space heater can potentially draw for an indefinite amount of time.

Use a power strip in your office or for your entertainment center - most items are not high power draw some may be for relatively short time, seldom is there a continuous high current draw in those applications as long as a space heater is not involved.
 
An issue with extension cords I think is the low quality of the receptacles on them. I had one that was "Heavy Duty"; i.e., it was 12 AWG. The receptacle was one of those transparent ones with a small neon bulb inside. Since it was transparent I could see that the contacts had overheated and some of the transparent insulation had discolored. Cut it off and replaced it with a better one.
 
There has been an explosion (literally) of cheap crap power strips being sold on-line direct from China with no NRTL listing and zero accountability for QC or design integrity. I have always preferred what used to be SL Waber power strips with a steel case, a switch and a circuit breaker on board. I have NEVER had a failure in one. I have my 3/4HP bench grinder plugged into one and I have tripped the built-in CB a few times. Reset and away we go…

Waber is now owned by Tripp-Lite and although the Tripp-Lite brand are of lesser quality, they are all UL listed at least and they still offer the steel case Wabers too. I have a couple of their cheaper all plastic ones, they seem to hold up, but I only use them for lab sessions to plug in PCs and demo units.
 
Jraef said:
There has been an explosion (literally) of cheap crap power strips being sold on-line direct from China with no NRTL listing and zero accountability for QC or design integrity. I have always preferred what used to be SL Waber power strips with a steel case, a switch and a circuit breaker on board. I have NEVER had a failure in one. I have my 3/4HP bench grinder plugged into one and I have tripped the built-in CB a few times. Reset and away we go…

Waber is now owned by Tripp-Lite and although the Tripp-Lite brand are of lesser quality, they are all UL listed at least and they still offer the steel case Wabers too. I have a couple of their cheaper all plastic ones, they seem to hold up, but I only use them for lab sessions to plug in PCs and demo units.
Click to expand...
In a tour of UL at Northbrook, they showed us an imported extension marked as 14AWG with a listing sticker, that only had 20AWG conductors. Of course the listing mark was counterfeit.
 
I have had even "quality" power stripts fail, such as Woods and Southwire. They were the "cheap" molded kinds and the plastic became brittle over the years and the case just fell apart.

I now only buy "real" power stripts, the kind that have actual individual outlets, in steel cases.

The insurance industry apparently hasn't had to pay out enough claims on these yet for them to do anything about it.
 
Fred B said:
Seen a lot of power strip failures over the years. Some were from overload, more were because there had been repeated tortion on the plugs causing heating. A lot of people have assumption that the switch is a fuse or gfci, a few are but most that have failed were not. Seen some real odd failures, the power strip had been used with window AC units and there was some sort of short that reversed polarity and back fed the neutral of a MWBC. Most HO used are the real cheap unlisted ones I've seen with catastr
ophic failed.
Not to be confused or compared to UPSs or quality surge protection strip.

Seen this, had one that was a house fire too that had multiple of them plugged together.
Click to expand...
Wonder if the one that backfed that neutral had surge suppression and a had failed MOV that developed low resistance between hot and the neutral. I've seen a few catastrophic failures of those devices. Getting a little off-topic here, but it seems that it was once common practice to install surge suppression directly after the main breaker without proper protection for the conductors, supplying the surge suppressor.
 
J2H said:
Wonder if the one that backfed that neutral had surge suppression and a had failed MOV that developed low resistance between hot and the neutral. I've seen a few catastrophic failures of those devices. Getting a little off-topic here, but it seems that it was once common practice to install surge suppression directly after the main breaker without proper protection for the conductors, supplying the surge suppressor.
Click to expand...
Don't know as I don't have it around but I do know removed the power strip and just plugged the AC in directly and no reversal. Don't recall any indication of a surge protector just a power strip/
 
Power strips used to be three real duplex receptacles in a steel case. Now it's just flimsy copper making gentle contact against the prongs in molded plastic. Whatever it takes to make our corporate overlords more profit.
 
CoolWill said:
Power strips used to be three real duplex receptacles in a steel case. Now it's just flimsy copper making gentle contact against the prongs in molded plastic. Whatever it takes to make our corporate overlords more profit.
Click to expand...
Most common issue I come across, Want it as cheap even it is not correct or worse not safe.

Not sure how old you are but I remember the time when a toaster, radio, or tv was repairable for very little; and a refrigerator would last decades not just 3-5yrs.
It's called planned obsolescence, design it to break down, not repairable, to sell another one.
 
Fred B said:
Not sure how old you are but I remember the time when a toaster, radio, or tv was repairable for very little; and a refrigerator would last decades not just 3-5yrs.
It's called planned obsolescence, design it to break down, not repairable, to sell another one.
Click to expand...
This. Our first microwave oven lasted about 30 years but we are now on our second one since it died, and neither replacement has worked as well as the first one did.
 
CoolWill said:
Power strips used to be three real duplex receptacles in a steel case. Now it's just flimsy copper making gentle contact against the prongs in molded plastic. Whatever it takes to make our corporate overlords more profit.
Click to expand...
The low end plastic power strips just have 3 brass strips punched to accept attachment plugs.
 
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