Lucky to still have a roof on the house

[Garfeild]

Last night i woke up at about 3 am to a horrible burning smell,eventually traced the problem to a socket in my boys room,the socket had his elecrtic heater (no rads in loft room) with one of those double socket connectors in.The connector was red hot and was burnt around the live pin,i disconnected it straight away.
Looking at the socket today,its burnt a hole in the plastic around the live connector,so ive replaced it with a new one.
Now,the questions are,why would the problem have ocurred in the first place?i cant find anything obviously wrong with the double socket connector after taking it apart,and the more worrying thing,the trip switch on the consumer unit didnt trip, i know it works as every time a light bulb goes,it trips,would the problem not have caused a trip?
TIA

 

[hairyben]

Probably cheap/badly made/old etc. Was it one of those multi-way blocks, and does it have a fuse at all?

High-load appliances should always be plugged straight into the wall.

 

[RF Lighting]

Which country do you really live in?

What type of sockets / circuits / fuse sizes do they use in the netherlands? I am unfamiliar with foreign wiring practices.

 

[electronicsuk]

To add to the above, the consumer unit wouldn't be expected to trip unless there was an earth fault (sounds like a recent loft conversion to presuming you have an RCD) or an overload. It sounds like you either had a poor quality socket or cheap multiway adaptor, leading to poor, high resistance contact and overheating.

 

[RF Lighting]

Was it as bad as this one?

Oh, and there will have been a low risk of fire.

It is burnt, yes, but sockets are made from flame retardant plastics to prevent fire.

 

[Garfeild]

To answer all the questions in one hit

RF Lighting : Yes it looked exactly like that one.

I actually live in Kent

Electronics UK : Its not a recent loft conversion,been like it for years,its a Victorian house with an original loft room (the wiring isnt victorian though )although i refurbished it approx 8-9 years ago,with new wiring and sockets.

Hairyben : Yes it was one of the cube type blocks that you can plug 2 or more appliances into,then plug into the wall socket,are the trailing lead type a safe bet?

Thanks all for the replies.

 

[GaryMo]

Which country do you really live in?

I actually live in Kent

 

[Garfeild]

 

[Steve]

The trailing 4-way sockets certainly have a reputation, and they have the added benefit that they must be fused, since they have a BS1363 plugtop. Cube adaptors apparently dont always have fuses.

 

[hairyben]

Hairyben : Yes it was one of the cube type blocks that you can plug 2 or more appliances into,then plug into the wall socket,are the trailing lead type a safe bet?

A decent quality extension lead should be fine, but a lot are pretty badly made nowadays- a high load appliance should ideally be plugged directly into the wall socket. The "cubes" are frowned upon especially as many older ones are unfused.

One of the beauties of a BS plug is that the live pin clips directly to the fuse- thus, if a poor connection is made at the socket, the heat transfers directly to the fuse and is more likely to blow it.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I actually live in Kent.

So the reason you're lying to everyone about being in The Netherlands is what, exactly?

 

[plugwash]

Hairyben : Yes it was one of the cube type blocks that you can plug 2 or more appliances into,then plug into the wall socket,are the trailing lead type a safe bet?

They are better because they don't put physical stress on the socket (a multiway block can put a lot of stress on the socket, especially if power bricks are plugged into it) and they are always fused. Having said that the cheap end ones probablly aren't up to handling a full 13A continuously.

 

[holmslaw]

I actually live in Kent.

So the reason you're lying to everyone about being in The Netherlands is what, exactly?

Bas, he's also lying about his name, garfield is a dog in a cartoon strip, cartoons are fiction and dogs don't use computers.

Also, my name is not really holmslaw, and I don't live in the Congo.

Is ban-all-sheds your real name?

I hope I have'nt dissappointed you too much, but don't worry Father Christmas is coming soon.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Holmslaw - if you don't have the intelligence to distinguish between a nom-de-plume and giving false information on a matter highly relevant to electrical advice, i.e. geographic location, I pity you.

 

[holmslaw]

Holmslaw - if you don't have the intelligence to distinguish between a nom-de-plume and giving false information on a matter highly relevant to electrical advice, i.e. geographic location, I pity you.

Overheating electrical connections occur in every geographic location, therefore the ops location is highly irrelevant.

That is why hairyben, electronicsuk and steve were able to give their good advice, its called sorting the wheat from the chaff - and the ops location is irrelevant chaff.