Extension lead ruined by sunlight

Just a minor warning: I had an extension lead on my desktop, in a sunny position. I've just thrown it out, as the plastic has crumbled away. Potentially very dangerous, as the conductors were showing.

Reply to
GB
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How long did this take, assuming your house is not on the surface of the planet Mercury of course! Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

Doesn't even require sunlight. I had a couple of (probably 5YO) works ones disintegrate and they lived in the bottom of boxes in a van - so maybe just heat or cold.

Seems to be the cheap nasty ones from China.

Reply to
Scott M

Only dangerous to someone so unobservant not to see it happening. Anyway, don't you have those namby pamby circuit breakers?

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

Actually I had one recently that seemed intermittent when plugs were in it. I had assumed it was just that the springyness of the contacts had reduced, so took it apart to see if I could respring them. However what had happened was that the plastic making up the bottom of the socket bar was crumbling away, and cracking where the pressure from the contacts had been. Nothing for it but the bin sadly. Not enough long tirm environmental testing, obviously. I suppose if these things never died, nobody would buy a new one? Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

We buy new ones when they get lost or stolen. Or plug in more things. Where I used to work I bought truckloads of the things, no doubt a lot of them disappeared into the homes of the staff. No sense trying to stop them, I could get them in bulk for a couple of quid each.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

About 5 years. It's a south facing window, on the top floor of the house, but that doesn't really increase the altitude significantly.

Reply to
GB

This was discussed here months ago. I think that the poster was dennis@home or something. It was suggested that some heavy object had fallen onto his extension lead. He posted a dropbox video of the crumbling plastic and his fingers removing little bits of plastic.

Reply to
Mr Pounder Esquire

Was "Chris B" - Multi socket extension lead - interesting failure mode

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Reply to
Adrian Caspersz

I stand corrected. Well done Sir.

Reply to
Mr Pounder Esquire

That sounds like most of the stuff you get in a pound shop: if it doesn't spectacularly fail to the job properly as soon as you get it home but actually seems quite reasonable and a real bargain - then after a period it will degrade to the point of being completely unfit for purpose.

Reply to
pamela

It's definitely crumbling of the plastic, not impact damage.

It's made by Masterplug, which I had thought was an okay make?

Reply to
GB

Apparently there wasn't impact damage involved in the earlier case, that OP found the item like that.

Does it look like

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Reply to
Adrian Caspersz

A bit like that, but mine is more crumbly, I think.

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Reply to
GB

That is why I find it amusing number of people will put t&e (not in conduit) external to their house to feed ashed or garage

Reply to
rick

Not ideal certainly, but the PVC sheath is fairly UV resistant, even more so if painted. Unlikely to be much risk, especially with RCD protection.

That failed spreader was certainly a very poor material.

Reply to
newshound

Yes.

Reply to
Mr Pounder Esquire

I've got a few melted ones. They never seem to be able to take as much current as the fuse.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

I had some T&E feeding an external light fail, even though it was painted and fastened up under the soffit, out of direct sunlight. There was no external evidence I could see, although it was short circuit.

Reply to
Huge

Did you expect it to last forever? When things wear out, you throw them away. Simple.

Reply to
James Wilkinson Sword

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