Scorched cable

[Martin Pentreath]

I just loosened the cooker FCU, and was alarmed to find that the neutral go= ing out (to the cooker) pretty much fell out of its terminal without any pr= ompting, to reveal blackened copper strands and blackened and brittle insul= ation.

I'm assuming that this was just the result of poor electrical contact, as e= videnced by the fact that the cable fell out. I'm going to just strip away = the blackened insulation, cut back the copper a bit, and screw it back in m= aking bloody sure it's screwed in properly this time. The FCU looks to be f= ine - neither the plastic nor the brass terminal itself seems to have suffe= red. It's a Crabtree fitting, so not cheap crap.

Anyway, I'm feeling grateful that house hasn't burnt down. I thought I'd ch= eck in here that this isn't likely to be the symptom of anything other than= a poor connection. Would the panel change the FCU just to be on the safe s= ide?

Cheers!

Martin

[harryagain]

I'm assuming that this was just the result of poor electrical contact, as evidenced by the fact that the cable fell out. I'm going to just strip away the blackened insulation, cut back the copper a bit, and screw it back in making bloody sure it's screwed in properly this time. The FCU looks to be fine - neither the plastic nor the brass terminal itself seems to have suffered. It's a Crabtree fitting, so not cheap crap.

Anyway, I'm feeling grateful that house hasn't burnt down. I thought I'd check in here that this isn't likely to be the symptom of anything other than a poor connection. Would the panel change the FCU just to be on the safe side?

Cheers!

Martin Well it's something you could try. Ideally you need to replace but if cash is a problem you couls clean up and refit. But you must check that no overheating is ocurring immediately after the cooker has had some heavy use. Ideally cut he burnt bit off and use a undamaged bit of the cable if there is enough length. This sort of thing is usually caused by the cable not being twisted up enough (and doubled if neccessary) to fill the terminal completely, ie, the screw has only got onto a couple of strands. Or, the cable has been waggled about, this happened in days gone by when the cooker switch/cooker cable was just hanging loose with no cord grip.

[John Rumm]

Almost certainly...

Chances are that will be fine, however it would not cost much to stick a new FCU in there to be sure.

Personally I would, but cleaning and re-terminating properly will also obviously be a significant improvement over what you had.