Dangerous Extension Lead in Use - 6 Amps Melting
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- Опубликовано: 18 окт 2024
- The dangerous extension lead is connected to a moderate load. Even with only 6 amps the temperature rises and in 4 minutes has reached 300C and completely destroyed the cable.
The plastic casing is flammable and continues to burn until it's all consumed by the fire.
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When the cable emits more heat than the heater you're using as a load...
Whenever I watch these I’m still always amazed that the manufacturers care so very little about the safety of these products and very obvious risk of injury and perhaps even death of the end users. Great video as always John. Regards Chris
That's normal for many unscrupulous sellers around the world. Remember the toxic baby food scandal in China, some years ago? Many children died before the scam came to light.
Keep up the good work.
Killing an extension cord rated for 16A by applying 6A is just epic. (it should normally have a security margin of 50%, in other words to be able to withstand 24A....
U.K. power leads rated at 13 Amps can usually pass 32 Amps without too much heating. I've seen 5 Amp rated cable which had been used almost daily on a 3 kW heater (~13 Amps) for more than 20 years, and it was slightly hardened at the power plug connections, but otherwise undamaged.
Actually 10A, as it said on the packaging anyway...
This extension lead is extremely dangerous and we must deal with it! *starts hydraulic press*
And now for today's extra content, the extension lead...
*grabs my dad's Jeep Liberty*
Yeah two heaters in series lol
A "perfect" product for electric short and burning house
I live in Indonesia and many products like this one coming from China and the result is many case home burning by electric short
That's why I like to diy from expensive and reliable material for making extension lead
That outgoing voltage difference - WOW!!
Its not a bug, its a feature. If you are not warm after 5 min of heater use, it will automatically set something on fire to make you warm more effectively.
Here in Australia there has been a disturbing increase in apartment owners discovering that illegal materials were used during construction. Flammable exterior cladding (déjà vu) and asbestos. Most of these materials come from China. The builders typically pass the buck either blaming local authorities for not screening these dodgy imports or, if held accountable, declare bankruptcy leaving the problem with the purchaser of the property. Owners are left with apartments unsafe for habitation unless they are prepare to spend a fortune in legal fees to sue to either a bankrupt builder or the government.
Could use that extension cord as an emergency coil for a kettle. If you don't mind what it leaches into the water at those temps.
@MGTOW REVELATIONS Safer, at the least...
@MGTOW REVELATIONS I like the cut of your jib.
A powerstrip that is made out of an opaque casing material that is so thin that you can see light shining through it was seem to be of concern. I don't really see anything sold on store shelves like that here in the United States unless it is made out of a kind of transparent plastic or rubber. It didn't seem like the body of the extension lead was intended to be like that as in styling.
At least you put it out of its misery.
These garbage mains accessories are even worse here in the US, where we're too much of pussies for real voltage... An 1800w heater here is pretty much all an entire room can take, and the current is double of what it would be in 240v countries...
its also a waste of copper cause u need thicker cables everywhere for the same power (dont get me started about the transformers on every power pole that are still around somewhere)
@@fredlllll indeed a very expensive system. Though back in the day in the US they used alumilium cables I think. Though they need to be twice the size for copper equilavent.
here we run 16A at 230V through a 3 core 2.5mm2 cable or wires in conduit, (sometimes thicker depending on the cable length to compensate power loss and to make sure the short circuit current will trip the breaker or fuse)
Nice looking cord though. Top notch molding that burns with a warm flame.
It just really gets at me. Luckily quite a lot of people such as you and I are well informed and versed on this sort of thing, but those who aren't wouldn't think twice about using devices like these and not batting an eyelid. There should be more standards in place. Just makes you worry for the residents of the country who think these are good enough for export, their domestic appliances must be so badly made.
You can't divide 210 C by 70 C and say it's three times the temperature. Use the Fahrenheit scale, and you get 410 against 158 or a factor of 2.6. It's just not a valid. If temperatures are to be expressed as a ratio, it must be using a scale based on absolute zero. 210 C is about 1.4 times the temperature of 70 C (483 K vs 343 K).
These extension cords could burn your house down. We had a cheap extension cord running an aquarium heater. One night it caught on fire. If my wife hadn't woken up, I would have lost my house.
There's something weird about the birds chirping merrily away in the background as smoke continues to pour from the extension lead.
That poor piece of OSB has had a hard life
Chinese engineers used the ground bar as an overtemperature protection
Hi John, if you can get hold of one you want to get one of those Chinese Handy heaters off ebay, they cost12 quid, they plug straight on the mains socket, they have a speed control, a heat control and a timer, the timer and heat control are virtually useless....fro, Fred in Essex g4vvq.
As an ex health and safety officer at work we would not use extension cables that can take load for the reason here. People selling this crap for home use should be locked up, always buy from a reputable supplier.
Why does that heater appear to heat the floor? That could be dangerous if it was sitting on carpet.
Hi John.
Do you ever report your findings to trading standards/the retailer or manufacturer?
Which factory in Shenzhen was the item made in?
Do they really care about keeping foreigners alive by making things safe?
The philosophy will be, 'Rip off the customer, maximise profits, and don't even think about future consequences or sales.' And I'm not joking. The more unscrupulous sellers really do think that way, even when selling to other Chinese people. If you're not working a scam, you'll be regarded as a poor businessperson.
manufacturer is unknown. Retailer barely spoke english. (it was some dude at a market stall in a town on a small greek island)
I knew Johns videos, and when I saw this for sale I was amazed at how bad it was. The stand sold everything for €1 so I did not expect much anyway. I took it home and after some more inspection I found many things were dodgy about it. So I contacted John if he would like to take a look at it. As an electrician myself I expected it to fail below the rated current. Though I did not expect it to be this dramatic.
Why not try with a extension made in the UK with same conditions?
I think you will find that it. Wasn't made in China on a proper pruction line but in a lock up by some scum bag countphiter that's why you only see these things on market stalls not in repretal shops. Pound land might sell cheap crapy items but they do vet their suppliers and make sure that the goods are safe for use. I have had a few electrical items from China and have never had any problems with them yes they might feel a bit cheep and nasty but they have all complyed with the relevant standards for safety . Even MK have a range of there acceserys made in China for god sake most of the electrical appliances in your home was made in China yet you think nothing of it
Never seen an extension lead with wires this thin. They are probably rated 2 amps at most, definitely not 16.
I have several extension leads with that 3-socket case. They do have proper earth and thick wires which barely get warm even with a 2.5kW load.
Good morning John, thanks for the great video 👍
Now what do you do with toxic ash? I would not want it to come into contact with my skin or for it to be breathed in.
Greetings from Los Angeles love this channel
I wonder why not try with a extension made in the UK too...
That plastic would have put out cyanide compounds and fumigated the householder in their bed
Probably not cyanide. That only comes from things which contain nitrogen (like nylon). I think that may be polypropylene or polythene.
At least hydrochloric acid...
Nice to hear those House Sparrows
I had a six point extension lead. It was under Grandma's bed. Luckily I recognised a mains hum and dragged it out. When I opened it up the points furthest from the lead end were most heat damaged. It was a clear progression from least damaged near the lead to most damaged at the end. What could cause that? We are 100v where we live.
Overheating can often occur on wiped contacts, that is where the sprung contacts engage with the prongs on the plug if they've become corroded and there's a bit of resistance. If the current is at all high, even a relatively small resistance generates a lot of heat. At 10A, just one tenth of an ohm will generate a hot spot dissipating 10 watts. That's plenty to overheat a socket and discolour it and if the power strip is flammable it can lead to a fire. It's particularly dangerous if the power strip is under furniture and there isn't good airflow.
Personally I would avoid plugging high powered devices into an extension lead unless there is no other choice. The are much safer plugged into wall sockets. It's a particular issue with a high powered device, like an electric heater, which may be left on for a long time.
Cheers! I'll keep this in mind for the future.
Wow !!! I wonder what size wire was used in the cord?
+John Ward
Question about these Euro-Extensions, -- are EU-complaint leads supposed to be always capable of 16A -- and all countries using the Schuko sockets, have a maximum of 16A fuse/MCB on their radial circuits, or similar ?
If not, presumably the users are 'supposed to know' magically not to overload the extensions, somehow?
Definitely be interesting to know, in comparison to 20A/32A british socket-circuits. [more to the point, presumably you can have a socket on a cooker-connection-unit on a 40A cooker circuit...].
The plugs and outlets are rated 250V / 16A, the circuits which contain outlets are fused with B 16A MCBs (installations built after 1990) or RCBOs (depending on the age of the installation). Before a different type of MCB was used here in Germany, but it was 16A rated too. Some countries use C 16A MCBs for their outlet circuits, afaik Austria and France for example. Every room got its own circuit at least. Some rooms have several circuits, the kitchen for example containing dedicated circuits for the refridgerator and the dishwasher for example.
Cookers are mostly connected three-phase here, mostly 3x16A (3x230/400V). That are round about 11 kW. One large and one small plate on one phase (L1 and L2), the baking oven is connected to L3. In older installations, for example the house of my parents, the cooker is fused with an L 25A MCB.
In Finland circuits are often 10 A especially in older homes. Well common sense says that you do not put several heaters on an extension cord.
@@Marcel_Germann
The kitchen has just as many circuits as the rest of the house.
Here in the states not counting the 240 volts.
the kitchen has to have a minimum of 4 direct circuits.
two circuits one for the right and left of the sink for countertop power. Dishwasher, refrigerator and microwave. I'll get their own
Why to prevent voltage drops and overloading the wire because a 20 amp breaker does not pop at 20.
The exact regulations differ per country, but in general, sockes are rated 250V/16A. Internal wiring in the house is usually slightly heavier (this differs most between countries). There is a 16A fuse/MCB on the radial circuits, usually one circuit breaker per room or two rooms. All plugs and wires are expected to handle 16A for short durations, but it is not required that any plug can handle 16A for longer amounts of time. For example the very popular CEE 7/16 plug is rated for just 2.5A.
My house has 25A 3 phases incoming. There are 25A main fuses in a sealed box, not to be touched by the consumer. Each phase splits into two 16A groups, protected by a circuit breaker, easily accessible so you can re-enable power in case of short circuits. In addition, all 3 phases go to the kitchen, with separate fuses, where there is a 3 phase socket to power the electric furnace, which runs on 400V. I'm living in the Netherlands.
In reality no, not all extension leads are supposed to be rated for 16A, on many extension leads you see written things like '1500W MAX' and similar, and the user knows it's not supposed to overload them. That is fine for things like computers and such, typical use for power strips and extension leads.
Who keeps manufacturing these fire hazards?
The 'C' word... Surprised Chairman Mao's troll army hasn't descended on the comments section yet to defend their 'glorious manufacturing might'.
The better question is, "who keeps buying them?" Capitalism takes two to tango.
Why do you only have the line conductor going through the meter at 2:26 ? What would be the implications if you put both line and neutral through?
the meter would read zero as the current in the neutral wire is in the opposite direction and would cancel the current of the line conductor.
Amazing and horrifiying! Where did you buy this? I guess ebay / chinese sellers - they just dont care about safety! We know that from many other products but this is really horrific as anybody can use this without supervision and the load is easy to raise much more than in your experiment. What is it actually rated for?
excuse my ignorance, but until the point it all started to melt, shouldn't the safety fuses or circuit breaker come into action and cut the power?
Not necessarily. The safety fuse (or breaker) will only trip if the current is exceeded - up to 16 A on a European radial circuit or, if there's a residual current breaker, if there's a fault to ground of a few tens of milliamps. Of course if John had continued the test it's very likely that the insulation would have burnt through so much that there would have been a short and then the fuse/trip would have activated. However, by then that cable could have set light to carpets, furniture, curtains or anything else flammable.
@@TheEulerID thanx for the answer. Yeah, i knew about the safety fuse (that is usually 10a or 16a in most homes) and that when this would activate it would already be too late. I actually meant the residual current breaker (sorry its a technical term, and english isn't my native language).
So wouldn't that come to action? I mean i've seen it sometimes cut the power for a simple spark (that could be harmless) in an electric device.
@@brucedeo1981 The residual current breaker (GFCI in the USA) only comes into play if there's a connection between the live or neutral and the earth, and that won't happen until the cable is so badly burnt that there's a short from from one of those two connections to earth. By then it might be too late and a fire has started.
@@TheEulerID ok, now i understand it fully. Many thanks again, and many thanx again to the original video creator. BTW im from Greece, that this extention lead was originally bought (its made in China, imported from... Bulgaria... and sold in Greece. All these was mentioned in previous video!)
speaking a language all people understand the point is that piece of shit melted with not enough current to trip or activate any safety mechanism (breaker) and it could burn your curtains without the breaker tripping
About that heater that was used as a load in this video, I can't seem to find the other videos it was shown in. Did you do a teardown or maintenance of that heater, or was it just used as a resistive load in the other videos? I'm just curious because different kinds of electric heaters do fascinate me, and I'm in America so I am not familiar with British heaters.
It's been used as a load in several other videos, there isn't a single video on it.
It's a fairly common type, a Belling Champion from the 1950s/1960s.
Look at the amperage drop. its being turned into heat ,in The Wire.
Oh she's let the magic smoke out!👍
That would only be about 11-13 amps in the United States.
How thick was the wire? You might have already said what it is, but if you did, I missed it
Covered in the previous video, ruclips.net/video/5ajdXuzDD0s/видео.html The wire was ridiculously thin and had a resistance 100x more than it should be.
The Weeping Angel has made it past the Ming vase.
Thanks
Hi JW, where are you based? I’ve just noticed the DWP logo on the bins! (I’m in Poole)
Bit of sleuthing, your business address is about a mile away from me, never would have guessed (I’m in lower Parkstone)
Cool fire
You should have flame-tested the plug.
That weird wire that's in those, I wanna know who makes the cord, like for what reason would it be made for, a old school resistor cord, for a Valve radio?
No,no,no, do not use any resistor cord on these old radios. There are better more safe ways to achieve the voltage drop. These radios back in the day weren't called curtain burners for nothing.
I bet it's just the cheapest way someone found to make discarded rubbish look like actual wire to be sold as such to make a penny.
@@olradguy Never heard that expression before, 😎
Of course I know there's a better way now, But dang it, Where is this factory that makes "Wire" from weird moldy rubber and Tin? are these militant factory workers working late in the night like bootleggers? I can't understand where it comes form it has no use.
@@mecamaster Use is a worry for the user, not the manufacturer or reseller. Especially in China.
Was there a thermal cutout incorporated into the removed switch?
... further how would it have shorted to earth with the earth rail present? (did you mention that the earth rail was not connected?)
No, just a very poor switch, nothing else.
The 'earth' rail passed directly under the other two with a very small gap, so any softening of the plastic would have resulted in it moving and causing a short between L&N.
@@jwflame thanks for your replay and for the awesome videos
John I could be wrong but your heater looks suspiciously like the smaller of the two Champion models which is the 91A which is rated at 750 watts plus the bulb. The larger 92A is rated at 1500 watts plus bulb but this has a bigger top grille with more segments. You can see the differences here ibb.co/album/hRnaFa So if it is the 91A how come it is drawing over 6 amps when it is only 750 watts?
It is a 91A according to the label on the base, which also states 750W. Top design matches your picture for the 91A as well. There is a switch on the base to select from two heat settings, actual power including the red light 820W on one, 1620W on the other. This is wrong according to a Belling catalogue, which suggests the switch is for full or half power, which would be 750W or 325W for this one.
Perhaps it's a 92A element assembly in a 91A case?
Scary
Great video!
Thank you
Europe is under attack from the Chinese, and we pay them to do it!!.
Seriously, very scary for the homeowner who assumes that it is safe to use.
Excellent test setup, thanks for sharing.
What does electricial fire smell like?
Like burned plastic.
Sooooo this is terrifying....
better make your own extension cord lol.
I always do heh. I take spare cable or leftover cord and attach a plug and a contra plug on the other end.
That’s terrifying
That's bad even by the usual standards. 😮
I was thinking fire lighter, then you said it.
Can you 3D print a mains plug ?
If this isn't enough to convince anyone not to buy this crap I don't know what is. Good one John!
Who knows what is crap though? it seems impractical to take a blow torch to each new thing I purchase...
@@danielr82 The qualty of the product and price should be enough to tell crap.
@@peckelhaze6934 respectfully, I disagree,
From the outside this would appear "as good" as any other extension lead. There is not a lot of quality issues "obviously" apparent to a casual observer.
Price does not appear to be a particularly good indication either.
A search on the Tesco website show 4 way extension leads are at £5, if you take all the shipping, warehouse logistics etc out of this, a price of ~£2 - £3 for a drop shipped item does not seem unreasonably cheap.
A quick search for UK extension lead on AliExpress shows, fuse-less UK plugs, UK plugs with sleeved earth pins etc, but no extension leads cheaper than Tesco manage.
Ebay (another bastion of horribly dodgy goods.) finds no 4 way extension leads at less than £5
even from sellers like the one found at this link, who does list 13amp glass (sandless) fuses www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-Way-PLUG-SOCKET-ADAPTOR-Mains-Extension-SHORT-Cable-Lead-TV-Video-Electric/113410774908
-I can't say for sure (I've not bought one) but I've no reason to suspect that his extension leads would be any better than his "not to standards" fuses... and yet they are more expensive than (what I would imagine to be) Tescos "to standard" extension leads.
i.e price is not a good indicator, in this case you're likely to pay more for worse products.
Same cool fire and flames
Well... it makes for a decent candle I suppose...
Rated EEC compliant death trap. Not fit for a 1amp shaver.
Quality Goods.
how on earth are products like this even able to get into the country? what is the government doing about it?
a fiery marriage between UK an EU sockets/plugs
LOL yeah
The UK bit is irrelevant as it would burn just as well plugged into an EU socket.
Please do not generalise: that's not EU socket, only 'EU' wiring thing is the Europlug (but no outlet is defined for that) the plug shown is Franco-German type E/F. At least Italy has national outlet standard (type L).
@@davidebacchi1340 By EU socket I mean any power socket in the EU capable of delivering those 6 amps. There may be lower output outlets which will be protected, but even at 4 amps that lead is likely to be destroyed.
Then there's the point that those sort of multi-way adapters are most often used on standard power outlets, and there aren't many of those that deliver less that 6A unless they are designed for lighting only.
@@TheEulerID some eu sockets can deliver 20A.
That’s when people buying Chinese Ex leads from pound shops and burning the all house as result of saving couple of quids
Who ever purchasing these cheap electrical products inports are to be blame as well.🙄
Flames :S This would be rather "expensive" in case a fire occurred :(
How on earth can something so dangerous be allowed on sale in England
I don't think this was sold in england (given it doesn't support English plugs), but generally the problem is that trading standards just don't have the resources to police all the small importers/retailers. And of course a lot of electrical goods are now sold on marketplace sites direct from china, so there is no EU company involved at all.
Imagine at 30 amps?.
Imagine at 500A.
Imagine at 50000A.
Imagine at the HVDC crossing between Britain and continental Europe. At peak load. With no other cables in parallel in service.
Within 50 centimetres we have 3 meters. 1:44
Wow, even here in backward North America, extension cords are rated for at least 10 amps at 120 volts, which means we need pretty good sized wires. I don't think I've ever seen an extension cord smaller than 18AWG/0.82mm.
The proper ones here are rated for 13A or 16A at 230V too. Usually they actually survive that current, though don't use one to charge a car.
Why would it be unsuitable for battery charger use? That's going to be a 150 watt load max.
To be clear, this was a socket strip that was obtained outside the EU. It's a dangerous Chinese made cheap power strip which would never pass EU standards.
@@otm646 I think uncriticalsimon was talking about electric-car
Ummm, 210 C isn't three times the rated 70 C. I'm not sure it's even sensible to give a ratio for this, but if you do then it would have to be referred to 0 K. So it's only 1.41 times the rated temperature.
Think I'm wrong? OK, let's do it in Fahrenheit. It's running at 2.6 times the rated temperature.
See why I expressed doubt that it's sensible to use a ratio? The answer you get depends on the temperature scale you use, but the only scale that makes even a little sense when expressing a ratio is Kelvin, because Celsius and Fahrenheit have arbitrary zero points. So it's only 1.41 times the rating.
exactly. Celsius and Fahrenheit are not absolule scales, you need to use Kelvin. C and F scales can have negative values.
@@risvegliato
Imagine if you had the Zelsius scale with the same size degrees as Celsius but with zero at 70 C. The cable at 140 Z would be running infinitely higher than its rating of 0 Z.
Even worse if you had the Xelsius scale with the same size degrees as Celsius but its zero was at 100 C. The cable would be running at temperature that is negatively infinitely higher than its rating of -30 X.
Expressing a ratio of temperatures can only have meaning if the scale's zero coincides with absolute zero. And even then I'm not sure it makes much sense to do so.
You are quite right. When putting temperatures as ratios, then it must be scaled against absolute zero as otherwise you get arbitrary results.
@Darren Tipple It matters because it has a precise meaning in thermodynamics, and as this channel is all about technical issues it's important to be accurate on terms and meanings.
WHAT DOES THAT MATTER????210ºc is much higher than 70ºc and i am fine saying that 210 is 3 times 70...it works for me......sorry but this channel does not need to go into such nitpicking...
"Think I'm wrong? OK, let's do it in Fahrenheit. It's running at 2.6 times the rated temperature."blah blah blah
and why would you assume that people think you are wrong?are you assuming people to be more ignorant than you?now that is being IGNORANT
Cool , cheap fire lighters for the fireplace.....😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
How can a company, in good conscience, make something so blatantly dangerous?
If the plug was made of dynamite it would be much safer. The exploding plug would disconnect the power. I may patent that idea...(c) M de Angelis 2019.
@MGTOW REVELATIONS That's marvelous. You certainly can. Maybe you can send some cash to help develop the prototype? About $/£2000.00 ought to do it. Do you have any dynamite?
@MGTOW REVELATIONS Ok, if you can make a plug out of bottled farts - I WILL send you the cash ))
@MGTOW REVELATIONS OK. What is your other channel called? Have you uploaded yet?
))
That it is why you should never buy cheap chinese extension lead. In the past you could buy those made in Europe, but it is almost impossible now (there is a german brand that manufactures some higher end in Germany). There are even cables with copper coated aluminium, because it is cheaper.
Must be made in china right?
Pure junk!
It should be against the law to sell stuff like that!
It is against the law, it should be enforced!
The largest cause of electrical fires in US is cheap mostly Chinese extension cords with heaters plugged in. Rather than ban them, we have to pay for Arc Fault circuit breakers now. Hmmm, more money for electrical component manufacturers. Nah, it's only about safety!
Having a better protection it's never bad anyway don't you think ?
@@Irilia_neko. My comment did sound like I was saying safety was not good. I worked with every version of NEC from 1981 to 2017. My problem is that the people on the Code Making Panels are placed there by manufacturers now. When I talked to some of them, their comment is we cannot suggest code changes. No need, someone else from their company will send in the suggestions that they push to be approved. Starting in 2008, it seemed very obvious that things were being put in code that only one or two companies made the products.
But yes, safety is and should always be priority one!
@@KevinCoop1 this can explain why the regulations is so unsafe for my liking
@@Irilia_neko My opinion is NEC compliant installed systems are very safe. Key word compliant.
see these nasty ext lead all over Europe, even seen some in big name stores like Leroy merlin......how bout testing some cheap UK blocks??
I rather not to use it I rather try it in straight into the bin and it is so dangerous
fifty grams of copper
That is why you do not buy things designed and manufactured in China.
you cheated on the dangers.
yes while the cord did soften and sag under load it did not burst into flames on it's own it took a torch to make fire.
you may want to do the test again
did you bother to hear what he was saying??
Made in China
You remove the ‘safety’ features of the strip and it catches fire.
You do realise that the earth pins were to cause the fuse to blow thereby avoiding a fire.
Lol
It didn't catch fire until he disconnected it from the mains and applied an external flame.
Lol
You mean the earth pins that don't actually have a wire between the plug and the sockets of the extension lead (from the manufacturer, not because John removed them), and thus the whole thing is ungrounded?
Earth pins in no way protect against over load situations. That would need a fuse, which this extension did not have.
It didn't have 3 wire cable in it... so the earth pin was floating and useless
You have no idea what you're talking about Clive...
Hello, does the plastic box/case have to be self-extinguishing too, or just the cable?