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Outlet Meltdown...

7K views 65 replies 28 participants last post by  RWolff 
#1 · (Edited)
I live in an older house that was split into 4 units in Calgary, Alberta Canada and I rent. I have had a problem with this one outlet before in my place in which I phoned the landlord to get somebody to fix it; she did. But, another outlet has blown in a different location, in which case it blew and melted the outlet and casing. I ended up not phoning when this one happened due to the fact of the riga-moroll it took to get her to fix the initial one. Now, just last night the outlet that she supposedly got the guy to fix was melting and smoldering but nothing was plugged into it. I had a friend over and both me and him could smell it but no sign of the meltdown until after. How is this possible? Should I be quite worried of fire? I have 2 pics but dont know how to attach them here. Any suggestions will help, thank you.



 
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#34 ·
Call the landlord, tell them you want a licensed electrician over - NOW.

If they so much as hesitate, call your fire department and tell them you smell smoke and that the outlet melted.

It'll ruin the landlords day.

Calling the fire department for something that is not really burning is a crime. All he has to do is contact the landlord and let him decide how it will be fixed.

Why do you want to "ruin the landlord's day"?
 
#16 · (Edited)
Wiring from the breaker panel is daisy chained from one receptacle to the next.

There was a loose or corroded connection at the receptacle that had the meltdown.

Loose connections offer resistance to electrical current. When electricity encounters resistance, heat is generated. The more amperes drawn the hotter it gets. You can get the meltdown that is pictured up above before enough amperes are drawn to trip the breaker.
 
#4 ·
That's dangerous, obviously. It's especially troublesome that it does this while nothing is plugged into it (although I think I know why). Landlord can choose: electrician RIGHT NOW (24-hour on-call service) or fire department and hotel for you at the landlord's expense.
 
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#8 ·
Space heaters are the bane of any electrical circuit. They HIGHLY stress EVERY connection and splice from the point of power all the way back to the panel.

Think of it like having 90mph rated tires on your car. Every time you run the space heater it's like you are either stopped, or going a full 90 miles an hour.
 
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#10 ·
If your having that much difficulty getting issues repaired promptly, In this particular case, I would immediately call 3-1-1 and have them direct you to the Calgary Office of Fire Marshal. They are responsible for enforcing the code, and a call from them to your landlord will probably scare her enough to act immediately. In addition, they will follow up to ensure compliance! Don't feel bad, you pay money to reside in a safe dwelling, and its the landlords responsibility to ensure your safety while living there. So don't wait, make things happen now, before something tragic happens.
 
#14 ·
My experience was that the wiring was too light to support a heavy draw (for you, the heater, my case an air conditioner).

As wire heats very high, plastic coating around copper gets brittle, starts to melt. Copper then corrodes and builds up a black insulation on itself and resistance rises to the point where you are passing a lot of current through the equivalent of a very small wire which causes great amount of heat. And melting. And maybe worse.
 
#47 ·
crescere said:
The thing is fixed. An official “electrician" is not needed here. In most instances a general handy man is more than qualified for this type of work. Even a knowledgeable landlord can work on his own properties.
In many states you need a licensed electrician to work on any rental property or multi-family structure. In NJ a homeowner can only do their own electrical work if they live in a single family detached residence that is owner occupied with their immediate family only. Everything else is off-limits to DIY even if you are the owner/landlord of the building.
 
#5 ·
Something is very, very wrong for this to have happened.
Are you sure there was not some form of a space heater plugged in when this happened.
If there was nothing pluged in then this is really bad.
 
#7 ·
Yeah. The other outlet is fed through the burning one, so the space heater is causing the problem. Ironically it might be better to plug the heater into the burning outlet!
 
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#9 ·
But this is something the landlord needs to fix right? And should I be looking at different space heaters or it just comes down to old wiring or heavy draws from heater..thanks to everyone's suggestions and help..appreciate it as kinda worried, have no fire insurance and am an artist with equipment, tools and material etc.
 
#11 ·
But this is something the landlord needs to fix right?
Yes, they need to fix it. It is dangerous!

And should I be looking at different space heaters or it just comes down to old wiring or heavy draws from heater..thanks to everyone's suggestions and help..appreciate it as kinda worried, have no fire insurance and am an artist with equipment, tools and material etc.
It's likely a combination of things, old wiring and heavy draws are a part of it. There may be some bad connections elsewhere too, such as at the other outlets.

At least turn off the heater!
 
#24 ·
AllenJ has it, nail on the head, if you want to deal with this on your own then get to panel shut down circuit, remove bad outlet if wires are long enough then cut and strip clean section and wire back to new but not cheap 29 cent outlet. then only use space heater that is not like a toaster. Slow heat oil filled first setting only 500watts.
 
#29 ·
The lengths of wires are probably okay between the outlet boxes. But you would want to inspect the wires inside the box to find out how far towards the back of the box the insulation of each wire got melted.
 
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