On 1/9/2011 10:26 PM, wrote:
On Jan 9, 7:21 pm,
wrote:
wrote in message

...

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/54230006@N07/5341105173/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54230006@N07/5341718398/

Thanks

What types of devices to those plugs belong to? Not the outlets. The plugs.

It is connected to a power conditioner which powers some audio
devices.

What kind of power conditioner? Big sucker with a (constant voltage)
transformer in it? Note the posts about reactive loads (more apt to arc
I believe). All that means for you is a better plug and socket, with the
original fault lying in the plug. And perhaps do away with the
conditioner if it is a constant voltage type and your voltage is tolerable.

Jeff

The input to the power conditioner shows it is rated up to
30Amps but we actually do not have that many devices being powered by
this conditioner. So I doubt it is drawing the full 30Amps. Also the
20Amp building fuse would have tripped if the power drain was higher
than 20Amps.