On Jan 9, 7:18*pm, " wrote:
We recently had one burnt electrical outlet at our office. The
appliance plug is also burnt as well. All the outlets at our office is
rated at 20Amps and have fuse protection. The fuse did not trip.
Anyone has a clue why the outlet and the plug are burnt? I am planning
to just replace the burnt outlets and the appliance plug, but I really
prefer to know what caused the burning in the first place.

Here are 2 photos showing the plug and the outlet:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/5423000...07/5341718398/

Thanks


Bad (high resistance) connection between the plug & receptacle neutral
contacts.

I'm betting that it took a fair amount of time (many months) for the
problem to manifest.

Get a better grade of receptacle & plug.
Make sure that the plug withdrawal force is good.

The fuse (circuit breaker?) never did its job because the amperage
draw was lower than its rating.

cheers
Bob