Something I never saw before

Status
Not open for further replies.
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
Was looking at a lighting project for a friend who had a gfci receptacle that didn't work. I hit the trip and it tripped. I hit the reset and it reset. I said I think it works. She got her hair dryer and we plugged it in and got nothing however upon unplugging it I saw a big spark. Tried again same results.

You can guess if you like or the answer will be below
The receptacle only worked if I inserted the male end about 1/2". If I pushed it in further I got nothing. Obviously a bad receptacle but I have never seen that before and can't quite visualize what is going on.
 
I found the page-source code:

<div class="bbCodeSpoiler">
<button type="button" class="bbCodeSpoiler-button button--longText button" data-xf-click="toggle" data-xf-init="tooltip" title="Click to reveal or hide spoiler"><span class="button-text">
<span>Spoiler: <span class="bbCodeSpoiler-button-title">What I Discovered</span></span>
</span></button>
<div class="bbCodeSpoiler-content">
<div class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--spoiler">
<div class="bbCodeBlock-content">The receptacle only worked if I inserted the male end about 1/2&quot;. If I pushed it in further I got nothing. Obviously a bad receptacle but I have never seen that before and can't quite visualize what is going on.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div></div>
 
The spoiler -- go to the 3 vertical dots and choose spoiler. Enter a name and then you will be directed to type the text between the commands


SPOILER="Example"]Text Here[/SPOILER
insert above in [ ]
 
i.e. like this:

Code: 
[SPOILER="Click here to see the answer"]The Answer[/SPOILER]

(which example I made using the CODE tags to turn off tag processing in the CODE block)

Cheers,
 
wwhitney said:
i.e. like this:

Code: 
[SPOILER="Click here to see the answer"]The Answer[/SPOILER]

(which example I made using the CODE tags to turn off tag processing in the CODE block)

Cheers,
Click to expand...


We used to be able to use [noparse] [/noparse] but it is not working. I didn't know about the code /code
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Was looking at a lighting project for a friend who had a gfci receptacle that didn't work. I hit the trip and it tripped. I hit the reset and it reset. I said I think it works. She got her hair dryer and we plugged it in and got nothing however upon unplugging it I saw a big spark. Tried again same results.

You can guess if you like or the answer will be below
The receptacle only worked if I inserted the male end about 1/2". If I pushed it in further I got nothing. Obviously a bad receptacle but I have never seen that before and can't quite visualize what is going on.
Click to expand...
I have seen that in our house. On some cheap GFCI outlets, I think the front and back plastic halves of the housing start to pull apart. And apparently there is some connection that is held together by the two halves.

Push the plug in too hard, and the back of the receptacle is pushed away from the front. Or maybe when the plug is pulled out, the front pulls away from the back. And that seems to break a connection.

Anyhow, I think this is most common for GFCI's in the bathroom where the hair dryer is constantly plugged and unplugged. Some cheap hair dryers seem to have plugs that are really hard to push in and pull out.
 
steve66 said:
I have seen that in our house. On some cheap GFCI outlets, I think the front and back plastic halves of the housing start to pull apart. And apparently there is some connection that is held together by the two halves.

Push the plug in too hard, and the back of the receptacle is pushed away from the front. Or maybe when the plug is pulled out, the front pulls away from the back. And that seems to break a connection.

Anyhow, I think this is most common for GFCI's in the bathroom where the hair dryer is constantly plugged and unplugged. Some cheap hair dryers seem to have plugs that are really hard to push in and pull out.
Click to expand...

Except this is in a hallway where the cleaning person uses it for the vacuum. Certaingly not as much as a hair dryer but often enough.

It is odd because it makes contact at the front of the receptacle but then loses contact as the plug is pushed all the way in. Hard to see what is really going on. Unfortunately I wasn't there to fix it so whoever comes in to do the work will replace it.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Except this is in a hallway where the cleaning person uses it for the vacuum. Certaingly not as much as a hair dryer but often enough.

It is odd because it makes contact at the front of the receptacle but then loses contact as the plug is pushed all the way in. Hard to see what is really going on. Unfortunately I wasn't there to fix it so whoever comes in to do the work will replace it.
Click to expand...
I would SO want to do an autopsy on that!! What is the mechanism that disconnects inside the device when faulted or tested? Maybe that is partially activating because of a broken or loosened mechanical part inside the device.
 
I've had one do that but it was a cheap non GFCI. Opted to break it open and the crossed contact for use as a 20A was bent and the and only partially made contact don't know how it was done. Also had one that the end of a plug broke off inside and someone shoved another plug in and stretched the contacts only know this because the extra piece came partially out when I pulled out the plug
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top