When to call an electrician?

[RF Lighting]

After you've burnt out a socket?

What about after you've burnt out two sockets?

Maybe after three sockets?

Nope. Customer waited until the circuit tripped and then lost half a days trading in her shop as all the tills were off

 

[xdave]

Shocking (I'm sorry - no pun was intended).
Out of interest, what was plugged in to them?

 

[securespark]

Surely a Master like you could have rigged up a temp. supply while you did your magic?

 

[Johnmelad]

The cause?

 

[RF Lighting]

It was a dodgy fan heater what dunnit!

Unfortunately the circuit was a dedicated computers supply feeding about 18 twin sockets for three till positions, three receipt printers, the router and network switch, and a few other associated peripherals.

I had her back up and running within no time of course

 

[xdave]

Did a single heater damage all three sockets?

If so, why would anyone plug it back into another socket after it melted the first one? And then to do it again a second time?

 

[RF Lighting]

Yep, same heater damaged all four outlets.

 

[333rocky333]

Wheres the picture of the plug

Why is it the stuff the sockets are made of always seems to crack like that, what temperature do you think that cracking happens

 

[xdave]

In that case the only correct answer to your question "When to call an electrician?" for the person who did that is: "Before you think about plugging anything into a socket or operating a wall switch or pullcord switch".

There needs to be a law that can be used to prevent certain people from operating electric equipment for their own safety. Then when people come across dangerous incompetance like this then you could confiscate all the plug fuses until they've passed a competancy course. It only needs to have two questions to secure a pass:

1. Are heaters, lawnmowers and/or hair straighteners suitable for plugging into a socket that is specifically marked "DATA ONLY" in very large writing.

2. When an appliance stops working and there are signs of burning along with the smell of melted plastic at the socket then should you isolate the appliance and test whether the circuit is still safe to use (or call an electrician if you are unable to test yourself), or should you just swap to another socket and see if it does it again?

Did she explain why she continued to use the heater after the first outlet burnt out?

 

[cajar]

Did she explain why she continued to use the heater after the first outlet burnt out?

Because she was cold

 

[xdave]

Because she was cold

She didn't need the heater - she could have just warmed up next to the socket.

 

[bernardgreen]

DATA = Daily Ambient Temperature Adjuster

 

[Chri5]

And this years Darwin Award goes to..

 

[johno12345]

The logic she was applying was that since the heater continued to work, its obviously the sockets that are faulty, not the heater

same when RCDs trip and MCBs trip, since thats the bit thats stopping the rest working, that must be where the fault is, so people replace them and wonder why it still trips

 

[ban-all-sheds]

If so, why would anyone plug it back into another socket after it melted the first one? And then to do it again a second time?

Because some people are as thick as s***. Go and look in the General Discussion forum if you don't believe me.