Ooops!

[securespark]

These two wall warts were plugged in side by side. The L/H one has an output socket for a string of LED's that you plug in. The R/H one has a fixed lead on the secondary and is for something else.

Mrs Secure unplugged the string of LED's last thing then plugged them in yesterday morning.
They didn't come on and she thought nothing of it.

In actual fact, the plug on the output lead of the right hand WW was identical to the lead on the LED string.
What she had done (I'm sure you have guessed) is connect the output of the RH WW into the output of the LH one, as shown.
When I investigated why the lights weren't on, I found two extremely hot wall warts and a strong distinctive stench of burning electronics.
They were so hot, I put them outside to cool off.
Neither are working this morning.

 

[SUNRAY]

Nice...
If it was Mrs Sunray I'd be getting the blame...

Oh well Happy New Year (without lights).

 

[JP_]

A friends house had a bad fire on Christmas day, most likely Christmas tree lights - all that was left of the tree was a puddle of plastic. Destroyed lounge, lots of damage to rest of house. Plastic windows melted. Will need to be totally refurbished, I assume rewired, maybe re-plumbed if plastic was used.

 

[bernardgreen]

re-plumbed if plastic was used.

Joints on copper pipework can fail during a fire. The solder melts and pressure from super heated water blows out through the joint.

It is staggering how many wall warts have no protection against faults that could result in fire.

 

[sparkwright]

Very distressing, these kind of wall warts, the flimsy wiring they supply, and general Chinese tat, all need addressing this new year as far as I can see.

 

[JP_]

What is the alternative to wall warts? I have a lot, most on things I do not use much, such as external USB HDDs and I think the kids' keyboard has one.

 

[sparkwright]

What is the alternative to wall warts? I have a lot, most on things I do not use much, such as external USB HDDs and I think the kids' keyboard has one.

In many cases nothing, unless you want to build your own version,

Wall warts are a good design in principle, but often shoddily made, and clearly not user friendly to the general public if they have they interchangeable plugs/outlets on them.

 

[EddieM]

Of course the answer is it shouldn't be possible to do this.

 

[sparkwright]

With the vast number of manufacturers and products out there, there are only so many small outlet plug designs available I suppose, so this small outlet plug option really needs vastly reducing.

 

[bernardgreen]

In many cases nothing, unless you want to build your own version,

Or buy a larger wall wart where the design of the electronics of the power supply is not compromised by the need to fit into a very small space. This often means safety devices such as fuses and thermal shutdown are not included in the design.

Avoid warts with switch mode power supplies and instead opt for units with a wound transformer ( 230v to the required output voltage ) and bridge rectifier with smoothing capacitors.

 

[JP_]

Or buy a larger wall wart where the design of the electronics of the power supply is not compromised by the need to fit into a very small space. This often means safety devices such as fuses and thermal shutdown are not included in the design.

Avoid warts with switch mode power supplies and instead opt for units with a wound transformer ( 230v to the required output voltage ) and bridge rectifier with smoothing capacitors.

I think that is the problem - most people (myself included!) don't understand any of that.

 

[JohnW2]

...Avoid warts with switch mode power supplies and instead opt for units with a wound transformer ( 230v to the required output voltage ) and bridge rectifier with smoothing capacitors.

Reasonable advice, but do such wallwarts actually exist (commonly, or at all) these days?

Kind Regards, John

 

[securespark]

 

[JohnW2]

<images>

Fair enough - but that is literally just a ('safety isolating') transformer. Most wallwarts produce DC ELV output, and are you aware of any of those which use a wirewound transformer?

Kind Regards, John

 

[mattylad]

OF course its all secure's fault - you didn't label them adequately.
Being a spark I assume you also have a label printer?