In my kitchen above the counter are three receptacles. The other day the first receptacle (far left) got hot an showed 'serious' melting an burn damage. When facing the wall the circuit runs left to right. These three receptacles are all that is on this circuit. Circuit is on a 20 amp breaker. Wiring is 12-2. We had the coffee maker running as always on the 3rd (far right) receptacle. The far left is NEVER used because of it's location. My wife had just used the center receptacle to plug in a griddle and made pancakes. Both coffee maker and griddle are less then a year old and show no damage. A few year ago we remolded our kitchen and I had these receptacles replaced. THEY WERE THE WRONG TYPE. The receptacles are standard 15 amp type not 20 amp as they should have been. In replacing them today I found that the center receptacle also was seriously burned where the hot (black) wire was connected. Here's my questions: The source was wired into the top of the first receptacle and then another wire from the bottom on to the second (center) receptacle and then the same on to the last. (a) Doesn't this cause the entire load of the circuit to be pulled 'through' this one receptacle? If I put the leads from the source and the leads to the center receptacle together and run a pigtail to the receptacle would this prevent the receptacle itself from carrying the entire load of the circuit? The center receptial was wired the same way thus it way carrying the full load for itself and the last receptacle. The first receptacle was a complete meltdown. Even though a 15 amp receptacle was on a 20 amp circuit I would not have expected this kind of damage. I would have expected the breaker to trip first. Especially since this circuit has been in this configuration for years. Should I suspect that the breaker failed and replace it also?
- posted
17 years ago