Hardwyre Posted December 23, 2011 Report Share Posted December 23, 2011 This just happened. Hey folks, go around your house and check all your power bars and surge protectors. If any of them are warm, worn out, have warped plastic, or are just old, replace them. If any of them have failed to trip, replace them. I didn't think to check it out after it failed to trip when I shorted out my lab power supply, and today when I plugged in my soldering iron and it heated up, whatever failed in the bar failed catastrophically. I'm going to be getting metal bodied surge protectors from now on. This whole damn bar could have caught fire if I hadn't unplugged it. Quote Link to comment
metalmonkey47 Posted December 23, 2011 Report Share Posted December 23, 2011 Holy hell. Glad you caught it in time man Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted December 23, 2011 Report Share Posted December 23, 2011 Looks like the stock fuse box from a 521 with H4 headlights. 2 Quote Link to comment
Sinnful Posted December 23, 2011 Report Share Posted December 23, 2011 I have one of those new generation of "smart" surge protectors. and hope happened before you caught that Quote Link to comment
VintageRice Posted December 23, 2011 Report Share Posted December 23, 2011 Thats what you get for pugging a heavy load like a soldering iron into a (what I'm assuming) was a already pretty full power strip. I'd be more concerned about your breaker panel in your house. A 15 amp curcuit breaker should trip putting a big load on it like that. Did you have alot pugged into it?? Quote Link to comment
RedBanner Posted December 23, 2011 Report Share Posted December 23, 2011 15amp edisons should handle a Soildering iron no problem, some bigger ones have a 20amp plug tho (l.-) kinda like that Quote Link to comment
Hardwyre Posted December 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2011 Looks like the stock fuse box from a 521 with H4 headlights. GQTM! +1 GQTM = giggling quietly to myself, since "LOL" is vastly over used and hardly anyone actually laughs out loud. Thats what you get for pugging a heavy load like a soldering iron into a (what I'm assuming) was a already pretty full power strip. I'd be more concerned about your breaker panel in your house. A 15 amp curcuit breaker should trip putting a big load on it like that. Did you have alot pugged into it?? It had two AC->DC usb power adapters for a phone charger and a small alarm clock also plugged into it. The soldering iron was only 40 watts (plus a little bit for the power cord's resistance), so a third of an amp from the iron. The AC->DC wall warts were both 500 milliamps, and one wasn't plugged into the phone, so between those two, MAYBE 10 watts. So in total, less than a half amp AC was coming through the plug. Looking closer at it, it looks like one of the MOVs had a hole burned through a crack, so I think that's where the failure started. If that's the case, the short wasn't completely dead, explaining why the house breaker didn't flipped. Earlier in the week I shorted out my lab power supply when an LED leg clipping fell into it. Thinking about it after the fact, I remember a sound coming from the surge protector, but at the time I was focused on the smoke coming out of my power supply. This is where the surge protector initially failed, because it didn't trip, resulting in my power supply blowing MOSFETs. I've never dealt with this before (a bad surge protector), so I didn't think to examine it. It doesn't help that this thing is like 10 years old. Ultimately, I got damn lucky, and I'm using it as a warning to others to check these stupid things. I was at a friend's house today and I started looking at hers while I was there, and one of them was really hot, even though she only had her computer and monitor plugged into it. But again, it was one she's had for about 10 years. We replaced it, opened it up, and it looked like a bunch of the pieces had been slow roasted. We forget to check these things out because they're out of sight and out of mind, but this one had the potential to burn my house down. :/ Quote Link to comment
VintageRice Posted December 24, 2011 Report Share Posted December 24, 2011 Crazy, yeah they sell those "tamper resistant" surge protectors now. That would have prevented the "clipping" falling into the socket. Quote Link to comment
Hardwyre Posted December 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2011 Crazy, yeah they sell those "tamper resistant" surge protectors now. That would have prevented the "clipping" falling into the socket. The clipping feel into the power supply not the surge protector, two different devices. But yes, those "kids with keys" proof surgies are a bit nice for flying metal bits.. My lab power supply is a converted ATX computer power supply that I use for my low voltage DC prototyping. Problem is it has the vent holes all around the case. I've since replaced the board and now have window screen mesh over the vents. Quote Link to comment
pope_face Posted December 24, 2011 Report Share Posted December 24, 2011 Shame to hear about that, but good that you caught it in time... I agree, it's not one of those things I typically think about. I try not to use power bars though... I've got "three" in the house, although two of them are power conditioners (an older Furman unit for my audio stack, and a Belkin A/V coditioner for my television/cable box), and one is just a metal power bar/surge protector. I don't think I've ever tripped any of them, fortunately enough, but I suppose I should still check them... I suspect this is especially important around the holidays, when people have Christmas lights on their trees and houses, or decorations out front... A faulty power bar or an extension cord of the wrong gauge could be disastrous. Quote Link to comment
Hardwyre Posted December 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 25, 2011 Aye. One of my friends in Alabama was telling me he saw a neighbor who had daisy chained six together so he could plug in his little harbor freight welder. Ummmm.... dude? Really? The dude was getting pissed because the breakers kept tripping. Quote Link to comment
Ranman72 Posted December 25, 2011 Report Share Posted December 25, 2011 Alabama Enough said Quote Link to comment
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