Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Electrical cable getting warm Ask Question. Asked 5 years, 11 months ago.
Active 3 years, 6 months ago. Viewed 20k times. Improve this question. Celeritas Celeritas 5 5 gold badges 12 12 silver badges 17 17 bronze badges. OP: "It must be the electrical outlets problem, I bought a new heater and still I feel its connection cord getting warm.
See Wolf's answer. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Do not plug electric heaters into a power strip or extension cord. I didn't mean that they should use a heater for an extended period in a power strip or extension cord. Only to test the plug for a good tight fit. But if a power strip or extension cord is rated for 15 amps there would be nothing wrong with that either.
Heaters sold in the US cannot exceed watts which is really watts, 12 amps times volts, but they let the manufacturers market them as watts.
It's very possible the wire near the rigid end that's connected to the plug is in the process of becoming broken i. Where the wire enters the plug and transitions from the bendy wire to the rigid plug is a bad spot for this to happen. Usually, there is some strain relief to help, but over time, it could be failing. If such a situation persists, it can lead to overheating. Poor connections are dangerous because you cannot detect them. They may go unnoticed until a disaster occurs.
Some places are hotter than others. For instance, temperatures can spike in the attic, especially in the summer. Some people do not realize that the ambient temperature can cause the wires in their homes to overheat. Hunke r believes that coiling can cause overheating. It blames the issue on the fact that coiling increases the resistance in a wire. You see this in extension cables. Their cords are more likely to overheat when you roll them up while they are in use.
Coiling also generates a magnetic field. According to Wikipedia , sparks or electric arcs can occur between wires. This can happen in situations where a wired connection has broken.
In such a scenario, overheating is the least of your worries. The spark is more than capable of igniting the combustible components in the area. Circuits have a fuse that is designed to blow whenever the electrical supply exceeds the rating of the circuit breaker. However, if the fuse fails to respond as expected, the high voltage can cause the wires to get very hot. You may encounter similar disasters whenever wet arc tracking occurs.
This is where a conductive liquid invades the circuit, allowing the current to leak. Some homes use just one or two circuits to power every appliance in every room on their property. That includes the refrigerators and microwave in the kitchen, the AC units in the bedrooms, and the entertainment system in the living room.
Such configurations are more likely to overload the circuit, causing the wires in your home to overheat. If your wires keep overheating because more current than they can handle keeps flowing through them, a circuit breaker or fuse is the perfect solution. It will stop all the current if the amount of electricity passing through the circuit breaker exceeds a particular limit.
If poor connections are a concern, you can prevent them from igniting combustible items in the vicinity by covering them with a suitable enclosure. A professional electrician can recommend an effective cover depending on the location. You can prevent overheating by using wires with a greater gauge. This is because wires that have a larger diameter offer less resistance.
They can replace the wiring in your home where necessary. Plus, if you can't see a cord, you won't be able to tell if it is damaged or getting overheated. Should a plug be hot when you unplug it?
The most important thing to do if an electrical outlet is hot is to find the circuit breaker that controls that outlet, and turn it off. Then unplug everything from the hot outlet. These devices can actually cause an outlet to become warm, though never too hot to touch. Are hot plugs dangerous? Whatever the cause of an electrical plug getting hot, a hot plug is a potentially dangerous problem. The cause of a hot plug can be the plug or the socket. Poor connection inside the plug or socket.
Wire size inside socket too small can't carry the current. Can an outlet cause a fire if nothing is plugged in? Answer: An outlet always has power to it as long as the breaker is turned on, so yes it can start a fire when there is nothing plugged into it. A light fixture that is turned off, on the other hand, would be very unlikely to cause a fire. What causes a dryer plug to burn? If your electric dryer outlet and cord are getting hot but your dryer is not, it may be because of loose electrical connections.
Poor electrical connections, both at electrical terminals and the connection point of the cord and outlet, are often the cause of electrical fires in homes. How do you extinguish an electrical fire? To put out an electrical fire, unplug the appliance or shut off the power to disconnect the electricity. Consider calling emergency services before putting out the fire, just in case it gets out of hand. You can smother a small fire with baking soda if you have that nearby.
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