'Popping' sound from electrical socket

[Tim Lamb]

Oldish fittings usually pong of fish at that stage.

[PeterC]

That's melamine getting hot and you smell amines. Useful indicator of a fault approaching.

[Jon Fairbairn]

That reminds me of when I was in the kitchen and heard a fizzing noise. I turned round to see a bright bluish white light shining through the plastic of one of the above-counter mains sockets. I killed the power pretty damn quick and went to investigate. It turned out that one of my housemates cats had ?sprayed? onto the wall above the socket and it had run down behind the faceplate.

The smell was ? particular, but I wouldn?t say it was of fish in this case :-P

[PeterL]

Dismantled the socket this weekend. No loose screws or wires and no sign of blackening. No re-occurrence of the 'popping' either.

Odd