Today I was called into a cafe. They told me they had a plug that was smoking. When they gave me the address, I was a little surprised that I was called to that place. It is a cafe at the bottom of a condominium complex that was built just five years ago. That means everything in there was built new, according to today’s strict code standards. So something must not have been used right for a problem to occur, either that or a manufacturing defect.
I walked into a clean, new cafe with a strong, distinct smell of burning electrical parts. The owner showed me the plug, it was burnt out in the hot prong on top. This is a fairly common problem. Plugs burn out. Often it is from a lose connection, perhaps the plug loosening up by being treated to roughly. It is also often caused by liquid. When a receptacle gets wet, it can burn out. Basically, when you have a loose connection or liquid in a plug, little arcs can occur, the temperature of these arcs go up to 10,000 C, and they always cause damage, no matter how minute.
I told the owner that it was probably from liquid. The plug is in a bad location, about 16 in from the floor right under the counter where drinks get passed to the customers. Employees can bang the plug with their legs, they can also spill drinks on it, it can also get wet from cleaning after hours, from the mop and such.
We both figured that was the problem. So I ran to the hardware store two blocks away and got a matching receptacle. A white, rectangular, 15 amp receptacle. I put it in, and that is when I found out the real cause of the problem.
I tried to plug the case refrigerator in and realized what had happened. The plug at the end of the cord was designed for a 20 amp receptacle.
They had taken the horizontal prong for the grounded side, and had twisted it with pliers or to fit into a vertical slot. The slot they had twisted was the one that was burnt out. I immediately realized that that was the problem. I went and got a 20 amp receptacle and now I imagine they won’t have any problem with that outlet for a long time.
Whoever did this, they were making a quick, cheap fix. It worked … for 2 years and it ended up with a cafe full of smoke, which is located underneath many, many dwelling units. Someone wanted to save a few buck to have an electrician put in the proper plug, but they potentially could have cost a lot of damage. I mean, its thing
I walked into a clean, new cafe with a strong, distinct smell of burning electrical parts. The owner showed me the plug, it was burnt out in the hot prong on top. This is a fairly common problem. Plugs burn out. Often it is from a lose connection, perhaps the plug loosening up by being treated to roughly. It is also often caused by liquid. When a receptacle gets wet, it can burn out. Basically, when you have a loose connection or liquid in a plug, little arcs can occur, the temperature of these arcs go up to 10,000 C, and they always cause damage, no matter how minute.
I told the owner that it was probably from liquid. The plug is in a bad location, about 16 in from the floor right under the counter where drinks get passed to the customers. Employees can bang the plug with their legs, they can also spill drinks on it, it can also get wet from cleaning after hours, from the mop and such.
We both figured that was the problem. So I ran to the hardware store two blocks away and got a matching receptacle. A white, rectangular, 15 amp receptacle. I put it in, and that is when I found out the real cause of the problem.
I tried to plug the case refrigerator in and realized what had happened. The plug at the end of the cord was designed for a 20 amp receptacle.
They had taken the horizontal prong for the grounded side, and had twisted it with pliers or to fit into a vertical slot. The slot they had twisted was the one that was burnt out. I immediately realized that that was the problem. I went and got a 20 amp receptacle and now I imagine they won’t have any problem with that outlet for a long time.
Whoever did this, they were making a quick, cheap fix. It worked … for 2 years and it ended up with a cafe full of smoke, which is located underneath many, many dwelling units. Someone wanted to save a few buck to have an electrician put in the proper plug, but they potentially could have cost a lot of damage. I mean, its thing
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