A cautionary tale...
A couple of regular posters to uk.d-i-y occasionally warn against soldering wire tails where said tail is to enter a screw terminal. The usual reason given is "solder creep" and eventual development of a poor connection.
I have a washing machine plugged into a home-made extension lead. This lead has been in use for many years and is constructed using good quality materials (Duraplug 4-way strip, 2.5mm2 PVC cable etc.) I soldered the wire tails before fitting the plug; this was before I'd seen any of the warnings on uk.d-i-y.
The washing machine is plugged into this lead (no other appliances because of the load) as a temporary solution while I wait for my bathroom to be refurbished.
For some time I'd noticed an occasional faint "hot bakelite" smell but had not been able to trace it to a specific device. I've just had the kitchen refurbished, and had GU10 halogen spots fitted in the ceiling as part of that work. I assumed that one of those was failing, or that the smell was the lamp housing simply getting hot.
Today the smell was particularly strong and I traced it to the plug of the extension lead feeding the washing machine. The plug and first two inches of cable were hot, but the washing machine plug was cool, as was the 4-way block itself.
Opening the plug and checking showed that all three screws had worked loose, and that the live connection had begun to burn up. Photos at:
I cut the plug off, disposed of it and replaced it with a MK Safetyplug, where the wire tails wrap around the terminals instead of being held by a screw.