"mc" wrote in message
. ..
Almost the entire wire gets hot within minutes and the circuit breaker
in the surge protector trips. (the cheaper ones can be reset and used
again, but the more expensive ones were copletely lost!). By the way, I
am in the US so I guess the "fuse in the plug" part does not apply to
me. How do I select the right plug to replace the old one. The socket
seems to be fine because other things are working fine with it.

This is a job for an appliance repairman.

Or rather an electrician, since the wall outlet is also suspect.