bud-- wrote:
James Sweet wrote:


Story about spring loaded terminals: I helped a friend diagnose a
flickering lights problem at his house. It seems that one circuit,
heavily loaded was fed through a receptacle using these spring loaded
contacts (in one set and out the other). It was the first device on the
branch circuit and was easy to diagnose. Although nothing was plugged
into it, the device was hot (thermally)!


I just had a circuit go dead in my house the other night, tracked it
down to the very same problem. I decided that while I'd already messed
up all the clocks finding the right breaker, I'd use that opportunity
to shut things down and replace the last few of the original upstairs
receptacles I hadn't gotten to yet and in that process I found one
more blackened corroded wire that had been arcing and was a failure or
fire waiting to happen.

The contact area is simply too small, it heats up and then the spring
loses tension and it starts to arc and heat up more. These things are
a safety nightmare, I will never understand why the NEC is so nitpicky
about some things yet lets major issues like these slide right by.
Spend a few bucks more for decent receptacles, it's cheap insurance
and peace of mind, not to mention plugs won't start falling out in a
few years.

The problem isn't the NEC. The problem is UL allows these atrocities. At
least the hole isn't big enough for #12 wire anymore.


In Tallahassee a few years ago a local insurance agent had several
unexplained electrical fires in his office suite. Photos in the paper
showed an electrical outlet with the wall above it burned as if the
romex cable had burned. He hired an EE professor from FSU who postulated
that EM waves from a nearby cellular tower were concentrating energy
into his office! I think more likely he had those backstabbed outlets
and the office workers were plugging an electric heater into the outlets.



--
Joe Leikhim K4SAT
"The RFI-EMI-GUY"©

"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason."

"Follow The Money" ;-P