Hot wire

[Stuart]

Can someone tell me why the wire and plug from a room air conditioner in a 220v circuit gets so hot? Thanks, S2

[m Ransley]

Circuit - wiring near overload. Your wire leading to the socket may not be rated high enough and you are not getting proper voltage, voltage drop is bad for motors. Or the socket is bad, or a loose wire. Check it out, and no load and running load volts. Hot is dangerous. Fix it before you need 911.

Daves Heatings advise is also dangerous, 911

[Edwin Pawlowski]

So it can burn your house down?

Overheating is a sign of electrical problems. Undersized wires, poor contact, defective receptacle. Get it fixed. NOW Ed

[dbird]

all the amps being pulled though the wire...... the more amps. the hotter its gonna get....

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

Poor connection at the prongs at the receptical. Change out b9oth Receptical and plug.

TURTLE

[m Ransley]

What is Hot to you may be wanm to us, How hot? If its more than warm dont run it. But ck it anyway, 911 gets alot of calls from this

[barry martin]

Stuart:

S > Can someone tell me why the wire and plug from a room air conditioner S > in a 220v circuit gets so hot?

As the others indicated, there's a problem and it need to be corrected immediately.

I presume you are talking about the a/c's plug getting hot and the adjoining wire (within a few inches of the plug). I would probably replace the plug as the conenction where the wire connects to the prongs is probably damaged (wiring stressed by kinking, failing connector).

It is also possibly the 220v outlet is damaged and causing the plug and wire to feel hot (heat transference). Replace outlet, maybe plug too if appears damaged.

Until this is fixed I would unplug the a/c.

- ¯ barry.martinþATþthesafebbs.zeppole.com ®

• Sign at Tailor's: As ye rip, so shall we sew.

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

If a wire, plug, or receptical is warm to hot, in any case. It is the beginning of a

911 call in the future.

TURTLE

[Stuart]

The wire connects to a double 20amp breaker. What size wire is recommended? S2

[Chip C]

12 gauge is usual for a 20-A circuit, unless it's beyond a certain length, or bundled too tightly with other cables, or the appliance is considered a "continuous load", or the cable gets too near a heat source...in any of which cases it ought to be 10 ga or maybe even heavier. However, if it's the plug and appliance cord that are too hot, I agree with the other posters: you probably have a problem in the outlet, the plug or the cord.

Chip C

[Ron Hardin]

I solved a hot outlet with a rice cooker once by cleaning the plug with Caig DeoxIT brush-on vial

put it on the plug, and insert plug with appliance OFF in outlet as many times as it takes for it to come out clean. You're using the plug to clean the outlet.

The stuff takes off oxidation, which, when it causes resistance, gives you heat when you draw current.

You want the appliance off when you do this so that there's no spark while the solvent (not the active ingredient but a carrier) is still there. Just a hunch on my part. It may be fine, for all I know.

It claims to be benign. I use it on all electrical stuff and have no problems with it. It is used like a contact cleaner, but it actually deoxidizes too.

If the problem is at that contact, that will probably fix it.

[Stormin Mormon]

High current draw going through a resistance.... that's how a space heater works. How an AC plug gets hot, too.

As the ohters have suggested, having an electrician replace the plug and socket is a very good idea.