Has Faulty Kettle Damaged Electrical Circuit?

[hiddenflight]

Hi All,

Problem. Last night I switched on my kettle and when I came back 20 minutes later, the kettle was still boiling and hadn't switched itself off!!

I appreciate my kettle is faulty, but the plug socket I use for the kettle is spurred off a fuse spur (13 amp) which has a switch. I had to switch the fuse spur off as it was making a crackling/buzzing noise. When I investigated the fuse spur, I found the sheathing for the live cable had melted at the connector/terminal block.

So, a few much needed questions, as I am naturally worried about wires arcing/melting!!!:

- Did the kettle cause the fuse spur to start arcing due to a continual high current?
- or would this have been due to a loose connection within the spur?
- Could the steam(moisture) from the kettle have caused the spur to arc?
- Whatever the problem, shouldn't something like an RCD have protected this problem?


I hope someone can help.


Kindest regards and many thanks.

 

[JohnD]

1- Did the kettle cause the fuse spur to start arcing due to a continual high current? Possibly but the real cause was (2)
2- or would this have been due to a loose connection within the spur? Yes
3- Could the steam(moisture) from the kettle have caused the spur to arc? No
4- Whatever the problem, shouldn't something like an RCD have protected this problem? No

 

[hiddenflight]

Thanks JohnD - maybe the fuse spur was always arcing, but I hadn't heard it before.

 

[plugwash]

most likely it was arcing at the connection between the cable and the fused spur due to a bad contact there. The overrunning kettle almost certainly wasn't the initial cause but would have made the problem worse.

unfortunately that kind of heat can anneal copper and make it impossible to attatch to with screw connections so you can't just replace the insulation with sleeving and be done with it.

you need to cut back the cable beyond the damage and if nessacery attatch a new peice with terminal block a crimp or by soldering and heatshrinking. Soldering is probablly the best way in terms of making the joint small and robust, particularlly if you use a flexible wire (of appropriate thickness) as your extention but don't do it unless you are good at soldering.