Why don't cheap sockets handle over 5amp with photos

[kai]

MB appears to be a cheap budget socket make, It may not have been designed for prolonged heavy duty use in a student residence etc. I've seen them on sale in various pound shops, but NOT in poundland though!

 

[JohnW2]

Undoubtedly true, although I doubt that anything would 'burn' at 13.1A, but not at 13.0A

No - wrong end of stick. ... What I meant was - with a minimum requirement of 13A and an obviously cheap manufacturing process some of the parts (switch contacts) may actually be capable of carrying a maximum of 14A and some, say, 19A. Consequently the product actually exceeds the minimum specifications but under a load of 19A only one contact would actually suffer damage.

I understood what you meant, but it was you who mentioned 13.1A -suggesting that was the maximum load that those at the very bottom of the specification range would stand without burning, whereas, of course, they would be expected to safely carry 13.0A.

However, as I said, I would doubt that the production spread would be such that severe overheating would happen at one pair of contacts but absolutely no signs of overheating at another pair which were carrying the same current.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[conny]

Looking at the first photo you can see the BS.1363 mark on the left hand side of the centre.

 

[JohnW2]

In some switchgear, L is supposed to break first and make last, so more likely to suffer arcing under load. I don't know if those cheap socket switches would be designed to do the same.

Very good point - and it could presumably easily be achieved (at no cost) even in cheap ones merely by bending the contacts appropriately. That could well be the explanation. I must say that, whatever the specs, I always feel a little nervous whenever I see anyone use the switch on a BS 1363 socket to turn of a circuit on-load (when the load is high) - even with 'good quality' sockets. It's something I would never do myself unless it was unavoidable.

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnW2]

MB appears to be a cheap budget socket make, It may not have been designed for prolonged heavy duty use in a student residence etc. I've seen them on sale in various pound shops...

Screwfix sell them (or, at least, did when I last looked). I must say that I'm struggling a little to understand what sort of 'prolonged heavy use' would be likely to produce the sort of damage we're talking about in this thread.

Kind Regards, John

 

[RF Lighting]

I shall fit an MB socket to my socket testing rig, test it to death and let you know how it does.

 

[JohnD]

run your welding transformer through it.

 

[JohnW2]

I shall fit an MB socket to my socket testing rig, test it to death and let you know how it does.

That will be interesting - thanks. However, to do the job properly you'll have to try to work out the nature of this 'abusing' which students are allegedly doing, and then reproduce that

Kind Regards, John

 

[RF Lighting]

That seems a bit unfair on the socket! I start off at 13A over the two outlets, then a single 13A load, then 26A over the two outlets and then a single 26A load. Each test for four hours with a pure resistive load.

 

[JohnD]

how often has the shed burned down?

 

[JohnW2]

That seems a bit unfair on the socket! I start off at 13A over the two outlets, then a single 13A load, then 26A over the two outlets and then a single 26A load. Each test for four hours with a pure resistive load.

We'd have to ask martinxxxxxx about the history of that socket, but I suspect that you might have to go on doing that for a few years, and throw in some of the alleged 'abuse', to reproduce whatever happened to the one we're discussing!

Some people would, of course, argue that the 26A test is 'unfair', in view of the belief that sockets are not meant to be able to cope with that.

Kind Reghards, John

 

[conny]

how often has the shed burned down?

And how big are your bills???

 

[EFLImpudence]

And how big are your bills???

Strangely enough - zero.

 

[RF Lighting]

Shhhhh......

 

[martinxxxxxx]

I was waiting for RF to come on board and sort this out. I am afraid I can add very little about history of the socket ( the house was empty when I was there). It had a high R1+R2 reading then I opened it up and smelled the problem before I saw it.
Fraid the socket is binned now as well