Is this photo a fake?

Students ONLY, until [-]02/24/24[/-] 02/01/24. Sorry, wrong date.



Why, or why not? Why did I even ask?


Students ONLY, [-]02/24/24[/-] 02/01/24. Sorry, wrong date.

Looking at that power strip, I'd have to add to the caption, "more than once."

Anyone want/need more hints, or should we just let this thread die on the vine? I'm neutral to the matter.

Again:: What happened to all of our students??

I'm thinking the real answer might be more enlightening. But for now I will remain neutral, unless I have my wires crossed.

I’m not currently in school, but very much a still learning tech (student of experience not institution). Mind if I take a crack at it?

As long as you don't go about singing and dancing with the dishware,
be our guest.

derekleffew said:

As long as you don't go about singing and dancing with the dishware,
be our guest.

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You're presuming that Luke is flatware... Cogsworth and Lumière will be with you shortly.

JonCarter said:

Again:: What happened to all of our students??

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Facebook and Reddit mostly. I am not a huge fan of the "Everything ________" groups due to the mostly un-moderated nature of them and the signal-to-noise ratio being what it is. I don't post on the Reddit tech pages either (similar reasons), but I do lurk there from time to time and that seems to be where a lot of them are. Quality and depth of discussion is typically much better here on CB but they like their fake internet points upvotes.

…or, more critically, that I could dance (in an unrelated side note: can anyone explain the ominously wilting rose in my throne room?)

Anyways:

I would say yes, it could have caused the damage. Additionally it may be an example of what happens when inexperience meets electricity as it appears to have happened more than once to lesser degrees.

Based on the damage to the socket, as it looks burnt/melted on one side and more toward the ground that the space heater may have been drawing significantly too much current through too little of a conductor, and/or had a fault that caused current to go to ground instead of neutral causing our failure. Now it would appear this happened more than once based on the appearance of the other sockets, but could the most catastrophic be because of an arc situation of some kind?

Also, is there some kind of failure of an over current device that could be partly responsible? Perhaps an example of why surge protectors aren’t supposed to be daisy-chained?

Please feel free to correct me. I’m genuinely curious how this happened

Thanks!

I'd guess not fake. High-wattage appliances can do this to receptacles (and plugs.) My 2nd guess is that in this case the space heater had a damaged or corroded plug prong causing a high-resistance contact which (seriously) overheated. The load (1800 W for a space heater, maybe) was probably less than the trip rating of the over current device protecting the circuit. Also, it appears that the user may have had his space heater plugged into the the receptacle above the severely burned one, at least for a little while.

Is it fair to blame a fuse or OCD that's on the other side of the circuit for the visible damage?

Here's my hint, and it's rooted in the NEC: overcurrent protection devices are not intended to protect the load, or for that matter, anything after the installed branch (or feeder) circuit wiring.

And if you remember your "fire triangle" you can eliminate oxygen from this little test.

derekleffew said:

Is it fair to blame a fuse or OCD that's on the other side of the circuit for the visible damage?

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(Which "other side of the circuit" are you referring to?) No, not unless there were other loads on the same circuit such that the total load on the circuit exceeded the OCD rating, and the OCD failed to operate.

TimMc said:

Looking at that power strip, I'd have to add to the caption, "more than once."

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That is, indeed, what happened.

The photo originates from Reddit, where the OP said that they were plugging a space heater in, and once they realized it was damaging the receptacles, they thought they could minimize the damage by simply plugging in closer to where the cord enters the receptacle mold. They knew there was a problem and kept repeating it.

OP had another post from awhile back where they also cut into live wires with a drywall saw. Trying to chase a Darwin award, apparently.

As to the original question -- "is the photo a fake?" -- well, it depends on what we'd consider a fake. OP's story is probably legit, but it could still be "fake" in the sense that people enjoy deliberately engaging in stupid behavior for internet karma.

MNicolai said:

That is, indeed, what happened.

The photo originates from Reddit, where the OP said that they were plugging a space heater in, and once they realized it was damaging the receptacles, they thought they could minimize the damage by simply plugging in closer to where the cord enters the receptacle mold. They knew there was a problem and kept repeating it.

OP had another post from awhile back where they also cut into live wires with a drywall saw. Trying to chase a Darwin award, apparently.

As to the original question -- "is the photo a fake?" -- well, it depends on what we'd consider a fake. OP's story is probably legit, but it could still be "fake" in the sense that people enjoy deliberately engaging in stupid behavior for internet karma.

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So bad pin on the neutral side? Normally would expect the smaller contact area on the hot side to be what gets hot...

jtweigandt said:

So bad pin on the neutral side? Normally would expect the smaller contact area on the hot side to be what gets hot...

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Thank you! Exactly what I thought. Although now that I think about it...the blades are the same size, just one is plated silver (nickel?). One can assume the females contain the same amount of connective tissue. Only the SIZE of the plastic slot is different.
I'm reminded of 5-15 vs. 5-20: How DO the ampieres KNOW the neutral pin has been rotated 90° and thus can safely carry 25% more current? Which brings me to the most difficult science question ever, involving my thermos. We'll save that one for later.

Les said:

Facebook and Reddit mostly. I am not a huge fan of the "Everything ________" groups due to the mostly un-moderated nature of them and the signal-to-noise ratio being what it is. I don't post on the Reddit tech pages either (similar reasons), but I do lurk there from time to time and that seems to be where a lot of them are. Quality and depth of discussion is typically much better here on CB but they like their fake internet points upvotes.

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FB and Reddit are great places to go to get an answer to your question. Your answer may be right, wrong, insulting, from a 12 year old "expert", dangerous, or full of hate speech... but you will get an answer.

jtweigandt said:

So bad pin on the neutral side? Normally would expect the smaller contact area on the hot side to be what gets hot...

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Resistance causes heat, heat causes fire. The reason a breaker never trips is that it takes comparatively little current to create this kind of heat. That there is repetitive signs of failure on the power strip leads me to think the high resistance was at the device plug. The failure is not likely to be the mating contact surfaces but the plug's termination of the device conductor to the contact blade. This is the most common point of failure in machine made and hand made terminations. {sigh, gentle gnashing of teeth}

Pedantic note: these signs of melting, melting (like the Witch) should not be confused with scorch marks from connecting under load (or defective device or mis-wired cable/outlet/etc). Both are bad, and both are signs that "stuff" is about to happen.

Edit: upon closer inspection the heat damage on the neutral side is more likely from thermal conductivity than from "outlet hopping", which was my presumption. Mea culpa.

derekleffew said:

Thank you! Exactly what I thought. Although now that I think about it...the blades are the same size, just one is plated silver (nickel?). One can assume the females contain the same amount of connective tissue. Only the SIZE of the plastic slot is different.
I'm reminded of 5-15 vs. 5-20: How DO the ampieres KNOW the neutral pin has been rotated 90° and thus can safely carry 25% more current? Which brings me to the most difficult science question ever, involving my thermos. We'll save that one for later.

Click to expand...

I wondered if you might be thinking that the hot should heat up more than the neutral for some reason, but that would suggest that the current that goes "out" on the hot does something other than come back on the neutral. That should only happen when there's a ground fault somewhere in the load, and wouldn't necessarily cause this sort of damage.

What this picture tells you is that there was a poor connection on the neutral side--possibly either because the pin on the plug is dirty/corroded, or because the connections in the power strip aren't grabbing it tightly enough. Poor connection means higher resistance and more heat.