I just loosened the cooker FCU, and was alarmed to find that the neutral going out (to the cooker) pretty much fell out of its terminal without any prompting, to reveal blackened copper strands and blackened and brittle insulation.

I'm assuming that this was just the result of poor electrical contact, as evidenced by the fact that the cable fell out. I'm going to just strip away the blackened insulation, cut back the copper a bit, and screw it back in making bloody sure it's screwed in properly this time. The FCU looks to be fine - neither the plastic nor the brass terminal itself seems to have suffered. It's a Crabtree fitting, so not cheap crap.

Anyway, I'm feeling grateful that house hasn't burnt down. I thought I'd check in here that this isn't likely to be the symptom of anything other than a poor connection. Would the panel change the FCU just to be on the safe side?

Cheers!

Martin

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
...
I just loosened the cooker FCU, and was alarmed to find that the neutral
going out (to the cooker) pretty much fell out of its terminal without any
prompting, to reveal blackened copper strands and blackened and brittle
insulation.

I'm assuming that this was just the result of poor electrical contact, as
evidenced by the fact that the cable fell out. I'm going to just strip away
the blackened insulation, cut back the copper a bit, and screw it back in
making bloody sure it's screwed in properly this time. The FCU looks to be
fine - neither the plastic nor the brass terminal itself seems to have
suffered. It's a Crabtree fitting, so not cheap crap.

Anyway, I'm feeling grateful that house hasn't burnt down. I thought I'd
check in here that this isn't likely to be the symptom of anything other
than a poor connection. Would the panel change the FCU just to be on the
safe side?

Cheers!

Martin
Well it's something you could try. Ideally you need to replace but if cash
is a problem you couls clean up and refit. But you must check that no
overheating is ocurring immediately after the cooker has had some heavy use.
Ideally cut he burnt bit off and use a undamaged bit of the cable if there
is enough length.
This sort of thing is usually caused by the cable not being twisted up
enough (and doubled if neccessary) to fill the terminal completely, ie, the
screw has only got onto a couple of strands.
Or, the cable has been waggled about, this happened in days gone by when the
cooker switch/cooker cable was just hanging loose with no cord grip.

On 29 July, 17:39, "harryagain" wrote:
"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message

...
I just loosened the cooker FCU, and was alarmed to find that the neutral
going out (to the cooker) pretty much fell out of its terminal without any
prompting, to reveal blackened copper strands and blackened and brittle
insulation.

I'm assuming that this was just the result of poor electrical contact, as
evidenced by the fact that the cable fell out. I'm going to just strip away
the blackened insulation, cut back the copper a bit, and screw it back in
making bloody sure it's screwed in properly this time. The FCU looks to be
fine - neither the plastic nor the brass terminal itself seems to have
suffered. It's a Crabtree fitting, so not cheap crap.

Anyway, I'm feeling grateful that house hasn't burnt down. I thought I'd
check in here that this isn't likely to be the symptom of anything other
than a poor connection. Would the panel change the FCU just to be on the
safe side?

Cheers!

Martin
Well it's something you could try. *Ideally you need to replace but if cash
is a problem you couls clean up and refit. But you must check that no
overheating is ocurring immediately after the cooker has had some heavy use.
Ideally cut he burnt bit off and use a undamaged bit of the cable if there
is enough length.
This sort of thing is usually caused by the cable not being twisted up
enough (and doubled if neccessary) to fill the terminal completely, ie, the
screw has only got onto a couple of strands.
Or, the cable has been waggled about, this happened in days gone by when the
cooker switch/cooker cable was just hanging loose with no cord grip.

I'd reterminate after cleaning cable & terminal, and check the thing
runs cool with the cooker on max.


NT

En el artículo ,
Martin Pentreath escribió:

Would the panel change the FCU just to be on the safe side?

I would. Peace of mind for a couple of quid.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On 29/07/2012 14:50, Martin Pentreath wrote:
I just loosened the cooker FCU, and was alarmed to find that the
neutral going out (to the cooker) pretty much fell out of its
terminal without any prompting, to reveal blackened copper strands
and blackened and brittle insulation.

I'm assuming that this was just the result of poor electrical
contact, as evidenced by the fact that the cable fell out. I'm going

Almost certainly...

to just strip away the blackened insulation, cut back the copper a
bit, and screw it back in making bloody sure it's screwed in properly
this time. The FCU looks to be fine - neither the plastic nor the
brass terminal itself seems to have suffered. It's a Crabtree
fitting, so not cheap crap.

Chances are that will be fine, however it would not cost much to stick a
new FCU in there to be sure.

Anyway, I'm feeling grateful that house hasn't burnt down. I thought
I'd check in here that this isn't likely to be the symptom of
anything other than a poor connection. Would the panel change the FCU
just to be on the safe side?

Personally I would, but cleaning and re-terminating properly will also
obviously be a significant improvement over what you had.


--
Cheers,

John.

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