Blown socket - advice please

[clueless78]

I have a two plug socket in the living room. In the right hand socket the wireless router is plugged in and in the left hand socket there was a square plug extension socket with a cordless phone base permanently plugged in.

Tonight I plugged the iron in the square extension and when I finished ironing I went to pull the plug out and there was a big bang. The plug of the iron is burnt, the square extension socket is burnt as is the plug from the cordless phone. The actual wall socket was not burnt and the right hand side is working as normal - I haven't plugged anything back in the left hand side as yet as am slightly scared to!

Firstly - would it be wise to get an electrician in to check/test the socket?

Also, with regards the iron - can I just change the plug or would it be dangerous now that it has had a surge of electricity?

Here are pics of the square extension thingy and the plug from the iron...

Thanks for any input

 

[wotan]

Is the power cord to the iron damaged in any way?
as the flash over appears to have been from the live to the earth.
(btw it's an adaptor block not an extension)

Wotan

 

[Steve]

The iron should be PAT tested before you use it again, after the plug has been changed.

Throw away that socket tripler, they arent the best thing to use to increase capacity of sockets.

Use a 4-way trailing lead.

 

[clueless78]

The cord of the iron looks unaffected. I know absolutely nothing about electricity so not sure of the significance of "the flash over appears to have been from the live to the earth."

 

[333rocky333]

Get the iron checked out or replaced.
Open the plug and get someone to test the fuse.
If that has blown then it is likely the iron or lead caused the problem.

 

[clueless78]

I'd rather buy a new iron for safetys sake if it seems it was the iron that caused it.

Is a trailing lead safer than an adaptor block/socket tripler?

Is the consensus that there is no need to get an electrician to test the actual socket then?

 

[333rocky333]

If the back pins of the adapter looks ok then the socket may be ok.
Some of them adapters have a fuse on the back by the pins.
if so that would help save the socket.

Looks to me the smoke mark blew out from the gap around the pins of the iron plug.
open the iron plug and look inside.
its proberly all black now

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I think PAT testing is a bit extreme - what damage could the iron have sustained? Looks like there was arcing between the plug pin and the adaptor as the iron was drawing current as the plug was removed.

I doubt it went on long enough to cause heat damage to the flex, but cutting back a few cm when the plug is replaced would remove any worries.

Clueless - replace the plug, throw away that adaptor, and replace the socket with a 3-gang one (they make converter ones, which fit over the same sized flush box as a 2-gang.)

For future reference, if you were going to use that adaptor you should have plugged the router and phone into it, and put the iron directly into the socket, and you should have switched the socket off before pulling the iron plug out. Or if it has no switch, you should have turned the iron down to it's coolest setting before unplugging.

 

[Steve]

Is a trailing lead safer than an adaptor block/socket tripler?

Yes. A socket cube puts additional strain on the socket front, and when fully loaded will pull away from the socket possibly causing poor connections.

They are often made very cheapy, and often contain no fuse.

4-way trailing sockets have a british standard, and always contain a fuse (in the plug). They are made to a better standard (although being cheap) and cause no additional physical strain on the wall socket front.

Doesnt matter about testing the wall socket. As said above, it is probably the socket tripler that caused this. The contacts inside them can be very close. There may well be nothing wrong with the iron, but the only way is to get it tested by an electrician (Called a PAT test - Portable Appliance Testing), normally done in commerical premises for insurance purposes. If you want to have an electrician check it out, I wouldnt blame him, but get him to examine the iron and the socket, and the circuit on which it resides.

 

[clueless78]

Well I opened up the iron plug and it is immaculate inside. Although the back of the adaptor plug, ie the outside pins, looks clean the inside is blackened.

Not sure if that changes what was the probable cause of the fault?

Pic of adaptor...

 

[Monkeh]

Replace the plug, bin the adapter, and don't use them for large loads ever again.

 

[clueless78]

Thanks for the info on sockets/extensions etc I will definitely replace the square adaptor with a trailing socket if that is safer and will also turn the switch off before unplugging things in future.

I'm really paranoid about a fire and have even got the cat basket down from the loft in case I have to rescue my cat if the socket causes a fire overnight!

 

[Monkeh]

The socket is almost certainly undamaged.

Always switch the socket off before unplugging things, especially large loads like kettles and irons.

 

[ericmark]

I note damage is to line pin only. This likely means it all started through a bad connection on the fuse inside the plug. It is a chain reaction the fuse starts the heat, because it is hot it anneals the springs which grip pin and so second bad connection results. This heat has likely also fried the cable and the big bang likely was when insulation on cable failed. Explaining the marks on earth pin.

I would expect you will find the cable is damaged and needs cutting back. If not damaged then likely a fault with iron. Most Irons are only around 750W far too small to normally cause this type of fault unless the plug was faulty so unless the cable shows signs of damage I would consider replacing iron.

750W is just on limit for 3A fuse so to prevent any further "Big Bangs" I would fit a 5A fuse rather than 13A. Of course you need to check rating of iron but 5A is good up to 1000W or 1Kw (1150W).

The adaptor needs binning as likely now lost some of the grip and could cause a repeat of the fault. In theory these adaptors should fuse all outlets but in practice many don't comply with British regulations and only fuse some of the outlets. They also strain the wall socket. The short extension lead with multi outlets is far better.

I would inspect the cable at iron end as continual flexing is likely to damage cable near to where it enters iron and if you can feel any lumps or unevenness under the outer sheave then likely cable needs renewing. Irons are so cheap likely cheaper to buy new iron.

 

[ericmark]

Only just seen picture of inside of adaptor and it seems adaptor was illegal import and both faulty and bad design.
If you know where it came from the trading standards should be informed as it is extremely dangerous.