GFI outlet just catch fire for no reason?
I hate phone calls like this when I?m not home!!!
Wife got home from work and smelled smoke, found the GFI outlet in the master bathroom like this,
God dang we are lucky!!
Using Facetime (video call) I walked her through killing the power, removing the outlet and cutting it free, I?ll post the pic of whats left of the outlet later, she hasn?t sent it to me yet. The outlet was burned, the top of it is gone, I had her cut the wires back and isolate all of them, the outlet was daisey chanined which is normal but we cannot figure out now that the power is back on what it was daisey chained with, everything works?????
Is it possible the outlet just crapped out or could it have been whatever the second set of wires are going to? I?ve seen outlets toast due to overload, the GFI was tripped and using my multimeter the outlet was not shorted. There was only a nitelight plugged in and it was not damaged and still works.
Yes, we are going to call an electrician on Monday, a weekend during hunting season in Montana where we live you can forget an electrician right now. I know enough about household wiring to get me in trouble, I can do basic wiring and repairs and I had to walk her through this on a video call.
She just sent the pic of the outlet, here it is
Wife got home from work and smelled smoke, found the GFI outlet in the master bathroom like this,
God dang we are lucky!!
Using Facetime (video call) I walked her through killing the power, removing the outlet and cutting it free, I?ll post the pic of whats left of the outlet later, she hasn?t sent it to me yet. The outlet was burned, the top of it is gone, I had her cut the wires back and isolate all of them, the outlet was daisey chanined which is normal but we cannot figure out now that the power is back on what it was daisey chained with, everything works?????
Is it possible the outlet just crapped out or could it have been whatever the second set of wires are going to? I?ve seen outlets toast due to overload, the GFI was tripped and using my multimeter the outlet was not shorted. There was only a nitelight plugged in and it was not damaged and still works.
Yes, we are going to call an electrician on Monday, a weekend during hunting season in Montana where we live you can forget an electrician right now. I know enough about household wiring to get me in trouble, I can do basic wiring and repairs and I had to walk her through this on a video call.
She just sent the pic of the outlet, here it is
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Very good job, BSR. Glad the wife is safe too. 0 -
Someone above is watching after your family while your gone.....that's good to know [;)] 0 -
Did the breaker feeding the GFI trip and how old was the GFI. 0 -
if it was excess current draw the circuit breaker in the box should have blown. seems a classic example of a loose connection arcing and creating heat. things like that used to happen a lot in mobile homes when they started using aluminum wire. 0 -
glad all are Ok and damage was confined to the out let
I am like you know a lot of trades but master of none so not much help why it self destructed , my only guess a loose connection ( as I said just a wild ass guess )
I am sure you already done a internet search for the same problem see if any one had similar
I will follow the post she what comes of it
once again glad your wife was on top of it and it did not get out of control
as a side note I lost a small garage 3 weeks ago a dehumidifier self destructed ( now I know there is a nation wide problem with fires due to them even deaths and a lawsuits by insurance company's )
I happen to be working in the pole barn smelled smoke started looking found the fire in the garage and called the fire-dept but still lost a lot of tools and my son lost a lot of his book inventory he sells0 -
quote:Originally posted by varian
seems a classic example of a loose connection arcing and creating heat.That would be guess as well!!!! One of our GFI outlets in the kitchen tripped for no apparent reason and when I reset it it felt warm, so I turned off power to it and found that it was overheating and starting to melt at one of the connections; the wire was loose where it attached to the outlet. I cleaned the wires, replaced the outlet, made sure the connections were solid, and we haven't had any more problems.
BSR; glad you dodged a bullet! I think your family was being watched over!!!!!!!0 -
Oh crap,that was so close!!! Thank God she got home in time,caught it. Good on you both for getting it out of the circuit. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Old-Colts
quote:Originally posted by varian
seems a classic example of a loose connection arcing and creating heat.That would be guess as well!!!! One of our GFI outlets in the kitchen tripped for no apparent reason and when I reset it it felt warm, so I turned off power to it and found that it was overheating and starting to melt at one of the connections; the wire was loose where it attached to the outlet. I cleaned the wires, replaced the outlet, made sure the connections were solid, and we haven't had any more problems.
BSR; glad you dodged a bullet! I think your family was being watched over!!!!!!!
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Dang, glad you were able to tell the wife how to cut the power.
Only guess, maybe,were the wires connected connected to the screws or were they shoved into the sping holder holes on the outlet. My bst friend the electrician always warns me to attach to the screws and not take the easy way and shove them into the holes. Lots of electricians take that short cut. Not saying thats it but could be.0 -
Wow 0 -
"Dang, glad you were able to tell the wife how to cut the power."
Realistically, anyone in the household over the age of 10 SHOULD know where and how to cut the power.0 -
Check for a broken neutral on the outlet BEFORE this one in the daisy chain. Check voltage hot to ground and hot to neutral. I had the same thing almost happen (sparking outlet when a plug was inserted) and that was the problem. Voltage hot to neutral was 60VAC. Found a corroded neutral on the previous outlet. Fixed it, replaced both outlets and all was well.
My $.02.
Good luck.0 -
while redoing my sons kithchen he bought 3 gfi's at wally world, the first 2 we put in just kept tripping for no reason, we called a friend of family electrician to see if we wired something wrong, no it was the outlets, they were bad, brand new and bad. told the son to go to a local electrical shop cost about a dollar more an outlet but they worked, just makes you wonder.......[B)] 0 -
That was a close one. 0 -
GFCI recepts have electronic circuits inside (which can overheat/burn without tripping a 20 amp circuit protector.
The National Electric code is written so as when correctly installed per the code the risk of electrical fire is reduced.
You also had some help from above.
I would consider reporting that to a State electrical inspector and contact the manufacturer of the GFCI.
Might be a China knock off.0 -
My wife had the same experience once - also while I was gone. A light dimmer started smoking but never tripped the breaker. She called the fire department immediately. Smoke smudge on the wall, but no fire. Luckily. 0 -
Glad she was home.
I now will test ours more often
Ros0 -
quote:Originally posted by varian
if it was excess current draw the circuit breaker in the box should have blown. seems a classic example of a loose connection arcing and creating heat. things like that used to happen a lot in mobile homes when they started using aluminum wire.
Inclined to agree, would like to look at the wires that you cut and see if a person could tell if it was started on the top like it looks like.
Darn glad it didn't do anything else,,[B)]0 -
Sounds a lot like stories we used to hear about aluminum wiring. 0 -
No way to determine if the wires were loose, the screws that held them on were all fused together as one, one giant melted glob on each side that broke off.
Just playing rhe ?what iffs? over and over in my head, shook me up. Bry?ann did good, she was scared to death but I was able to talk her through the work that needed done.
While driving last night after it was over I gave thanks to the man who was watching out for us, I think I repeated it several times!0 -
Nothing catches fire for "No Reason". 0 -
the device failed. 0 -
made in china?? 0
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