On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:52:42 -0700, "
wrote:

Hi,

Bob's advice is good.

It's really hot here tonight and my kids air conditioners upstairs
have me worried. The outlets that they plug into are actually getting
hot and the plug is hot to the touch when I pull it out and feel it.

Here, I would think plug meant plug, but in the next line you use plug
to mean outlet, so I'm not sure. Here it doesnt' matter which you
mean, but it might.

I switched my son's plug to a newer plug in the bathroom that I had an
electrician put in. I know for a fact that that bathroom plug is
grounded and I trust that electrician.

Lack of grounding isn't the problem in this case, and grounding won't
solve the problem. There is a connection that isn't tight, between
the prongs of the plug and the outlet, or between the outlet and the
wires connected to it. Some of the electricity turns into heat trying
to get through the connection.

It was observant of you to noticed the heat. In 1980 I had a room
heater plugged into a 1930 outlet and didn't notice, and I woke up one
morning to find 2 inch flames coming from the plug. I tried to pull
the plug out, but just like in a comedy movie, my girlfriend kept
pulling my arm back just before I was able to reach the heater cord.
She was panicking about the flames. Fortunately I overpowered her and
after I pulled out the plug, the flames went out.

That one does not seem to be
heating up now. I had to run a long extension cord to reach it but
there is no heat anywhere now on that plug at either end.

A long cord is bad in itself, and since ACs use a lot of current it
should be heavy duty, and if not there will be heat generated along
hte whole length of the cord, although you won't be able to feel it
but it adds up. It won't start a fire, but in theory it could damage
the AC. But it depends on how long you mean by long, and what size
wires.

In my kids room they have grounded outlets but I've always had
problems with the circuit breaker cutting off with the air
conditioners both running at the same time upstairs. It am wondering
if our upstairs rooms may have been a do it yourself job. It's a

I think I read here that even some professional "electricians"
backstab the wires into the receptacle (outlet). They have sold
outlets with this feature for decades I think, and there must be
millions or maybe tens of millions of connections that used the back
stab part, and most don't cause any problems.

dormered out attic and the work is not so great. Not bad, but not
great.

I'm no electrician, but it seems like those units are drawing more
current than the current wiring is capable of handling and it also

No, the normal amount of current would make the outlet or plug hot if
the connection is bad.

seems like they are sharing the same circuit.

Yes, but if it doesn't blow a fuse, that is ok. My whole 6 room/3
bath apartment only had two circuits and that was fine. The problem
was that the metal parts in the socket no longer squeezed the plug
prongs well enough. And the plug prongs didn't have their own
springiness, as some do.

Obviously it's time to call an electrician but I would appreciate any
feedback on the hot outlets and on how big a job it would be to redo
some of the wiring to that upstairs dormer.

Thanks in advance,
Steve

Thanks