I wondered why my fanheater kept melting sockets. First I blamed the socket, then the fuse, it was just oxidised pins on the plug. Should we really be using copper? Wouldn't stainless steel be better from the point of view of non corrosion?
Sorry I meant brass, not copper.
The plugs are designed so that the pins are "polished" as they are inserted or removed. You need to change the plugs and sockets together as the "hole" in the socket in this sort of case. must have relaxed so it is not polishing the pin. You can clean up the plug pins with a bit of wire wool but the sockets usually can't be cleaned.
You should watch out for heating on plugs and sockets, especially on heaters). If warm, check for loose connections (plugs and sockets) and that the pins are shiny.
Where was it kept?
Brass pins are found on all kinds of connectors. Corrosion isn't usually a problem.
It is also fairly obvious. Where was the plug stored? it would have to be contaminated by some chemical to corrode.
AB
They don't clean themselves at all in my experience. Of course it probably depends on where the item is stored when not in use, how often it's plugged in and unplugged, how much current it draws etc. It would be better to just use a metal that doesn't tarnish as easily as brass - just look how often people have to polish non-lacquered brass ornaments.
It gets used in many sockets, some of them quite new.
I successfully cleaned the pins with a fibre glass pencil I have for cleaning battery contacts. I could have poked it in the socket aswell but couldn't be bothered, since it no longer gets hot after cleaning the plug. Probably the plug only, as it's stored in the garage when not in use and will get damp.
Bad design if we have to do that.
Garage. Heated slightly, to 5 or 10C, I have birds in there.
It is on ornaments. Same brass surely?
I'm not weird enough to stare at pins on plugs to notice that.
Ornaments don't need chemicals to corrode.
That doesn't seem to mention tarnishing at all.
No because it is not a problem, not one severe enough to affect the conductivity.
On the plus point, now you know it is useful to stare at plug pins.
You could put it on a to do list, a bit like PAT testing.
If you were into preventative maintenance, you could even put them on the to do list for polishing along with the candlesticks.
A person such as yourself being so concerned regarding detail, may also want to consider the derating effects of repeated polishing.
Storing the plug in a plastic bag containing an inert atmosphere such as argon is not beyond the enthusiatic DIYer if derating effects are too great.
I wish you success on your attempts to remove this plague from civilised society.
Don't forget to share the details with the IEEE when you do achieve a solution.
AB
It did on my heater. Before fixing it, the pins were too hot to touch, and one had started to melt the plug, and had melted a socket enough to stop the safety covers operating, and had caused a smell. After polishing the pins, they don't get above about body temperature.
I assumed tarnishing would just burn off.
I never PAT test, even when I'm told to at work.
My to do list is too large. It'd never get done. Things go on there and get further and further down as I add more important stuff at the top.
I'm not concerned with detail at all, I'm completely the opposite.
I doubt I removed anywhere near enough to do that. I'd have to polish it 1000 times.
Easier to just change the plug every so often!
Society would be better inventing a decent plug.
They have enough f****ng rules already :-)
All wire is either copper or aluminium. I too wonder why a perfectly legal fan heater is getting warm at the plug/socket wire near the plug. Its not serious, but are you saying that you think the problem is the wire connections to the socket in the wall then? Its not melting but it is warm. I guess an extension cable would prove the point. If the socket was still warm and the plug not then its the wiring in the wall socket. Brian
Well are you sure they are copper or brass. I notice a number of plugs in my house according to my friends look like they are in fact either plated with a silver looking substance or are made of a material that looks silver. also of course modern shrouded pins are obviously narrower under the shroud. Brian
How old is your socket. When my socket got hot, it was because it was loose, not squeezing the prongs of the plug. In 1980 in a building built in 1930.
Also an electric heater, it actually got so hot it set fire to the hard rubber plug. 2 inch flames. I'm glad I woke up when I did. I'm trying to grab the cord to pull it out and a friend who happened to be there kept pulling my arm back so I couldn't grab the plug. But eventually I overpowered her and the fire went out. Nothing flammable in the way of
2" flames but still it seemed unsafe.
Don't bother asking he makes it all up in the first place.
I doubt if anything he posts is actually true.
No. Some is steel coated with copper
I'd pull the receptacle and check the wires to see if they're tight.
I've come across badly fitting plug/socket connections and also loose screws on the back of the socket.
Aha. Good to know.
I have had the same problem, but always found that the brass pins were all dirty - maybe corrosion, but sanding clean cured it.
When 13A plugs were introduced, they had to be made different from the old 15A round-pin plugs which were unfused.
However the 13A design has a much weaker grip in the socket and is not really fit for purpose in my opinion. It helps if the socket contacts are squeezed together to increase the grip, because after suffering overheating their springiness is much weakened.
That depends on the make of the socket.
I've only seen a few that are nickel coloured.
The shrouded EU safety bullshit must cause more resistive heating.
Oh do grow up.
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