charles wrote:

I understand "anecdotal evidence" perfectly. It does not apply to what I
found since that was a first hand experience. I equally uinderstand why
you may consider it to be anecdotal. But, we aren't in Court of Law - so
what's your problem?

That you are presenting as fact something that is anecdotal and in part
hearsay. And in part balderdash. From that mish-mash someone is
attempting to make a case that is not supported by the tale that you
have told.

It's poor science, poor evidence and misleading.

You state that the "socket server pins were two (sic) big" but offer no
measurements of these pins, nor indeed any objective evidence that there
was a socket cover in use. You also do not provide any objective proof
that the socket cover pins had damaged the conductors in the socket.
That possibility is just guesswork on your part. I doubt that you
dismantled the socket to examine and measure the contact condition and
spacing.

I've seen sockets overheat when there has been no use of socket covers.
Many different types of abuse can damage the conductors. As othrs have
stated bent pins can do it, hammering plugs into the socket can do it,
yanking on the lead to remove a plug from the socket can do it. Jamming
wires into the socket using matchsticks to hold in the wires can do it.

Can you eliminate all other possibilities as possible cause of the
damage to the conductors? No you can't.

Another common source of overheating is a poor connection within the
plug top. This is less common than it used to be with moulded in plugs
but still possible. Heat is then conducted along the pin and causes the
same damage to the socket that is seen when the conductor in the socket
is damaged. In my experience more overheating is caused by faulty plugs
than by faulty sockets.

So, you are left with this observation:

You were passing a room. You noticed a smell typical of overheated
thermoseting plastic. A plug/socket combination had overheated. The root
cause of the overheating is not known.


So why are you trying to make a definite statement that the cause of the
overheating was a device that you have not proved was the cause?