Verify | Do space heaters catch fire if you plug it into a power strip?
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- Опубликовано: 26 дек 2018
- Federal officials recommend that all space heaters be plugged into a grounded wall outlet -- not an extension chord, which can overheat and catch fire.
As far as extension cord use is concerned: House wiring is either 14 gauge or 12 gauge wire (12 is bigger than 14 and can carry a higher load). So-- a good quality extension cord that is made of 14 or 12 gauge wire is just as safe (and no more likely to overheat and catch on fire) than if you plugged a heater into one of the household receptacles. It is that simple. All of the other "never use extension cords" myths were started and perpetuated by people who knew nothing about electricity, wire size, or basic math and logic.
While I certainly take the overall point and largely agree with its sentiment, the intent in simply categorically telling consumers to never use any extension cords with space heaters is a consequence of so many extension cords on the market being VERY shittily made Chinese garbage that often doesn't even use copper wire, but rather merely copper coated aluminum wire of highly insufficient thickness and thus is prone to overheating. Further, the fact that extension cords can be (and often are) coiled on the ground means that even a cord of reasonable gauge which would only become moderately warm under normal conditions, can become dangerously hot when coiled together in a pile where heat loss is minimized, and this effect is dramatically further exacerbated when any insulating material is placed over the cord, for instance a blanket or pet dog bed, virtually ensuring high temperatures and serious fire risk will occur. Attached cord length of space heaters is limited to a few feet, and thus these risks are minimal on a heater without an extension.
Your little extension cord that you use to do a 'test' is not even a power strip... What kind of reporting is this crap?
Of course if you use a cheap $5 surge protectors and catch on fire. I'm not saying $100 one won't catch on fire but the likelihood is a lot less.
Surge Protectors are really ??? Usually they are MOV (Metal oxide varistor) devices that DEGRADE (LIMITED LIFE!) EVERY TIME THEY CLIP THE VOLTAGE SPIKE and as such should ALWAYS BE FUSED. Ideally they should also be fed via an inductance to allow them time to operate AND limit the surge amperage.
MOST DO NOT HAVE ANY OF THESE 2 requirements and try to suppress the national grid.
Oh yes they can explode, why they have a tough plastic case enclosure.
Generally they are a pretty good device depending on the engineering of its application .
They didn't really verify that a power strip did anything, just a light duty extension cord
AGREED - MISLEADING
@@cameronbruce1862 they just went by what others have already said, lazy
I can verify this is true I've had it happen before. I live in a very old building and most of the plugs are not updated with three prongs for space heaters or AC units that plug in. I stupidly connected a power strip to the only three prong plug I can find nearby and plugged in an AC unit. It melted the power strip.
Then just use a power strip...
Nothing about power strips huh??? Did y’all not just watch the same video that I did??? Did you not see both of the burnt power strips at the beginning of the video??? Jesus Christ man!!! So, just in case you still do NOT understand… DO NOT USE A POWER STRIP!!!! YOU SHOULD ONLY PLUG YOUR SPACE HEATER INTO THE WALL SOCKET BY ITSELF!!! DO NOT USE ANY TYPE OF EXTENSION AND/OR ADAPTERS!!! PLEASE LISTEN AND FOLLOW THE SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS!!! IT MIGHT JUST SAVE YOUR FAMILY AND HOME!!!
I mean they put like 3 heaters in one shitty cheap looking extensions cord of course that’s not gonna end well they should of put one in and waited to see if anything would happen
I had one plugged in with nothing else and it burned a hole through. Lucky nothing happened since it was under my bed. It was an Amazon brand power bar.
For days my space heater was plug into a extensions and my room was still very cold. Once I plug directly to the wall literally in minutes the room was warm.
My former neighbor's house (in my previous neighborhood) recently burned down due to misuse of a power strip. People don't realize how dangerous these things are!
Are they? You said yourself, "misuse".
@@MikeDunnYes, they are dangerous in the obvious fact that they can easily be misused by plugging heating appliances into them, which is what happened. Most people are electrically ignorant and don't know what to use power strips for and what not to use them for.
@@Jeff-xy7fv Again, you said it yourself, "misuse". The power strip is not dangerous, the people that use (or misuse) them are.
@@MikeDunnOk, so perhaps measures should be taken to prevent such misuse. Such as setting the built-in breaker to trip at 5 amps rather than 15 amps.
@@Jeff-xy7fvThat would ruin it for the rest of us that know how to add.
3 1500 watt heaters? You would trip your breaker with 2 of them instantly. And if you didn't have a breaker you would catch the wall outlet or house wiring on fire with 3 of them .. even if they only pull a true 1200 each.. thats 3600 watts.. Thats 30amps... Is this just a scare video or something? Granted I wouldn't plug even 1 into a cheap surge protector.. Hell in our older house. Built in the 40's... If I use my 1500 watt heater on high my outlet voltage drops to 114 to 115 volts from 120.. Obviously huge resistance.. This makes no sense
Similar incident happened to me about 4 years ago. At my grandmother's house. Home was built in we believe 1883. Didn't have electricity till the 1910's, maybe early 1920s. Has the old school screw in fuses. Was in the kitchen helping to thaw an older model freezer that doesn't self defrost. Plugged in my 1500 watt heat gun (similar to hair dryer, but the type used for paint stripping) into an old small lamp type extension cord. Roughly 30 minutes later, I hear a pop as loud as a shotgun blast. Half the house without power. The electric range went dead. The smoke alarm just outside the kitchen going off. The old extension cord burned off two inches from the wall socket. Fused the remains of the plugged in cord to the socket. Cause: in addition to the extension cord undersized for the job and severely overheated, someone had a penny placed behind the kitchen fuse and the only thing that saved the entire house from going up in flames was it got a bad enough short to eventually blow one of the 60 amp main fuses, thus only half power in the house. Lesson learned: always use a heavy duty cord for a heavy wattage appliance. Or better yet, plug directly into a relatively unused circuit
AND NEVER EVER PUT A PENNY OR ANY PIECE OF METAL BEHIND A FUSE TO BYPASS IT!!! GREAT WAY TO BURN DOWN YOUR HOUSE!!! GLAD YOU GOT LUCKY!!!
The problem is that you can use an extension cord but it depends on the type of extension cord and the length, That's why it's generally a good idea not to use an extension cord but only if you know what you're doing, If you do use an extension cord with a space heater make sure it's 10 feet or less in length and 14AWG and you are fine.
Then why the hell dont they make cords on space heaters longer, or make extension cords, and or power strips that can handle the load? I live in a house with 2 plugs in living room.with all things pluged in I have no socket open for a space heater directly into wall. Living room heater is a joke that installed into house..
It's a cost saving measure and limitations from outlets. Many outlets lead to the same circuit breaker. Some are 15 Amps some are 20 Amps. Ideally, you'd want the space heater on the 20 Amp but most people don't know what outlets lead to what circuit breaker and whether that is shared. Now let's say the cable is longer on the space heater, that length causes issues because it adds resistance so for the heater to get the full 1500 watts, it needs to pull more than 1500 watts to overcome the resistance. On a 20 amp outlet this is fine. on a 15 amp outlet that might be shared with another outlet that has a TV and other appliances plugged it it can either trip the circuit or burn the outlet.
This problem could be eliminated by the NEEMA & UL etc. recommendations, standards being changed to take into account the loads these devices are WIRED TO CARRY. eg. A NEEMA 5-15 Wall outlet is designed foe 15 amperes continuous current and also SHOULD the building's electrical system. Duplex outlets (2 sockets) is 15 amperes total as each one is (usually) sharing a common protective device and wiring,
The weakest part of any electrical system should be its PROTECTIVE DEVICE (Fuse etc).
They pass the UL test NOW but this needs to be changed. You should be able to plug ANY NUMBER of heaters (loads) into a wall outlet AND via any extension cord Breakout boxes etc. SAFELY. The wall plug protective device is designed to disconnect the power if loaded unsafely.
SUMMARY: ANYTHING PLUGGED INTO THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM SHOULD OPERATE SAFELY AND BE CAPABLE OF WITHSTANDING ANY LOAD PLUGGED INTO IT WHEN USED CORRECTLY. This means unqualified personnel should NEVER BE ABLE TO CONNECT EQUIPMENT INTO UNSAFE HAZARDOUS CONFIGURATIONS (use of tools excluded)
Nope. Did you see the two cord caps start to smoke? In addition to power strips not being rated for the amperage, POOR connections cause a major fire hazard. As an electrician, I have seem hundreds of melted and burned receptacles from loose fitting plugs. Receptacles become worn and a high load will arc from plug to receptacle causing a hot spot to form.
Also, NFPA can BAN the use of stab-in-the-back receptacles. Those always burn up.
@@danielhoughtelling9721Yep. We literally had thousands (2000+) of these strips that were used on events, Stage Shows etc. The devices on tour are often connected - disconnected every 3 days. The BUILD OF MOST POWER STRIPS HAS PROGRESSIVLY BECOME VERY BAD OVER THE YEARS. we built our own using AS & NZ Std components made in New Zealand (220 to 240V) RESULT very few problems, mostly mechanical damage or cable wear
The Standards SHOULD BE REVISED to cover insertion wear longevity, aging and above all the devices ability to operate in real world conditions.
Now as for wall outlets the same criteria needs to enforced via standards, I have had more than my fair share over the years and in the USA BOOTLEG EARTHS THAT WERE PHASE TO EARTH !!!. It s so bad that I designed a special tester to be used on anyone else's gear before we interconnect. (Saved a few DI Boxes and possibly artists lives)
Live (phase connected via bootleg earth) Guitar Strings and an EARTHED (NEUTRAL LINKED) PA System Microphone - Not good for life expectancy. PA systems WORKED BETTER (Hummed less) WHEN NEUTRALS AND SYSTEM GROUNDS are Earth referenced. HENCEI I preferred our own distribution system even in theatres and if running of generators a 7wire system was best.
Connections & cabling take a real workout when touring
99% of people do NOT know that their circuit breakers in their homes are ONLY designed to protect the wires that are ran throughout the home and NOT the device(s) being used or the person(s) using the device!!! Sometime they do save those other things but they are there for the wires and to prevent fires. Which they don’t always do either.
*Turns space heater off*
Who in their right mind would turn on a portable heater on the highest setting? Plus using a cheap extension chord. I use a wall surge protector and use my portable heater each winter. The trick is to turn it on the lowest setting first to warm the room and if the room need more heat adjust the heat setting.
I had an AC unit which is less power than what a heater uses and it still managed to melt a power strip. The only reason I plugged it into the power strip is because I live in an old building and a lot of the plugs are not updated with three prongs.
A heater has melted part of my wall surge protector believe it or not, they just aren’t equipped to handle that much power. If it hasn’t yet burned it will eventually over time so please make sure you plug it directly into the wall to avoid an electrical fire
Thanks for this video.
This just happened to me. Thank god we were home. The wall cavity was glowing red. The circuit is 20 amps the wall outlet is 15 amps and the heater is 12 amps. Not sure what the surge protector is. My daughter had her heater plugged into the surge protector and I didn’t think anything of it. Mine was plugged into a different circuit directly into wall. Now, I’ll be unplugging the heaters before leaving the house or unattended. It could of caused the whole house to burn down the cavity the plug is on goes directly up into the attic and there’s a good 4x4 void with nothing there. I was thinking back draft the movie. Flames sucking up into the attic. The wires and outlets were all new. The run is a 100’ run from box. We’ve needed to get a sub panel put into second floor. I think it drops an amp ever 50’ the wire runs from the box. I was sitting there thinking it was the outlet that was bad. Then I’m like no. That doesn’t make sense. It was the surge protector. Those things are dangerous af. They really should make them with a higher rating just because people could plug an ac or heater in them. I knew better, yet didn’t think to not do that. The void going to the attic could of shot up the flames and spread across the attic. Thank goodness we were home and I got the fire out. My kids were ready to wait outside for the house to burn. It’s been very cold, and today was the day the plug was going to burn. The heater probably was working harder to keep the room warm since so cold. We have an electric oil filled heater that does a good job heating the room, but it’s -14 with a -28 windchill and the house is old, so it was working hard to keep warm. I’ll be warning others of fire risk with those surge protectors. The old lady that lived here for 64 years only had 2 prong and everything was very old. She had surge protectors all over the house plugging everything in. Even the refrigerator was on one when we bought and she used that to plug other gadgets into. I’m surprised she didn’t burn the house down.
Thanks so much!
Not one mention of Wattage rating? For the most part, space heaters use 1500 Watts on the high setting (at least in the US). If the rating of the extension cord or power strip is higher, you should be OK. Of course, if you are also plugging in other items that collectively *exceed* the rating, you are in danger!
Well thats a lie I have always plugged the space heaters into a power strip
NEVER had a fire..
Consider yourself… LUCKY!!!
Probably because you have a 12.5 amp space heater and you are using a 13 amp extension cord on a 15 amp outlet. So the system doesn't detect the problem and the breaker will not trip. If you continue doing this though it's only a matter of time until the court gets overloaded
Give it time. It'll happen.
It happened to me this morning...
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Same here! Been doing it for over 20 years
Me too here in Australia. My power strip/board comes with safety cut off switch.
*cord
Well nobody is gonna plug in that many heaters in just one strip 🙄
It only takes 1. The problem with straps is that they are not rated for the 15 amps that the home outlet can put out BRFORE tripping the circuit breaker.
YOU WOULD BE SURPRISED as to what some people will do!!! EVEN when you think it should be well known and/or common knowledge NOT TO DO!!! But yet… HERE WE ARE!!!
What if the heater is off but is plugged in onto an extension?
Happened to me 5 minutes ago. My shit blew up murder me my pillow and my bed
It's already obvious; not every power strips are made to handle all that juice. Space heater is one surefire way to overload the extension cords and power strips which they go from 800 Watts to 3 kilowatts which is a lot of juice, as most strips have warning labels telling you not to go over 10 - 12 Amps of total load (computers are usually okay as it's what it's usually rated for). Otherwise look for the power strips with functional circuit breaker for extra layer of safety.
This video is 100% fake. The breaker obviously would trip if three space heaters were plugged in. But space heaters still should never be plugged into extension cords.
This happened to me, I plugged it into an extension cord and it melted the top part so the wires were exposed causing it the cord to spark and catch on fire like fireworks while moving like a snake it was crazy. If this ever happens throw baking soda on an electrical fire 🔥 it’ll go out. I heard that power cords or strips aren’t meant to deal with that much power which is why they overheat, which is why it’s best to plug a heater directly into the wall
Always use a 3 prong ec thats MIN 14/3 gauge. Need a cord rated for 15amp or 1875 watts for space heaters.
If only landlords would give enough heat, tenants wouldn't need to buy and use space heaters to begin with.
It happened to me, but except it was an AIR CONDITIONER!!!
still draws currant.
Yep same thing happened to me this summer. It melted the plug the a/c unit was plugged into. I caught it right when it first melted and showed on the plug. If I had not been watching the AC unit and smelled it, it could have very well caught the floor on fire
So the fuse breaker in the power strip is useless 😕. Sounds like a problem with UL approval of a bad design.
The load might lower than power strip breaker amp. But cord can't withstand high amp so it gets heat up and burn.
@@DangerWrap exactly that's a design flaw. No power strip should exist that allows a load to overheat the gauge of wire used in said power strip. The safety Fuse should be set to break at the point the load is too much for the wire.
Thanks.
#ono
Meanwhile my mother in law is downstairs with a space heater plugged into a strip that also powers various speakers to the television that is also on... eeks..
Stupid title and stupid test:
1. The title says space heaters catch fire: that's false, the cords or wires in walls can catch fire
2. They tested extension cords but not power strips, extension cords are for temporary use and power strips are for continuous use. Just make sure the power strip has a circuit breaker.
This is so fucking misleading.
They had 2 space heaters. 16 gauge maybe 18 gauge chord.
How do you calculate gauge needed for a device when the device does not state this information but just wattage?
yes
Don’t plug heaters on cheap christmas light 120V timers.
Power strips aren't designed to handle 1500 watts? My 1300 watt PC along with a ton of other devices seems to be fine.
Probably because you're using a 20 amp outlet genius
@@iair-conditiontheoutsideai3076 If the power strip can only do 1500 watts, then it wouldn't matter if it's in a regular outlet or a more powerful one, right? 1500 watts is 1500 watts.
@@iair-conditiontheoutsideai3076 Also you're unvaccinated who are you sarcastically calling genius?
@@chrisking686 20 amps is not 1500 W 🤣🤦
@@iair-conditiontheoutsideai3076 You're the one talking about amps. I am talking about watts. I'm not an electrician, so if you're so smart about the topic why don't you explain what I'm missing without trying to be condescending?
That's like me being a brain surgeon and talking down on you for not knowing something to do with brain surgery. Genius.
Thank you news for telling me. : )
>not using 240V
❗❗❗ *VERIFIED* ❗❗❗
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I just had this EXACT scenario happen. My power strip looks just like the ones shown in this video...
Just wear a sweater Jfc
So stupid most people just use one so I realistic, if you use 1 on the strip nothing will happen
its the fact that you can use it as such for years then one day it can burst into flames.
I agree my brother put a space heater on a power strip and it set his room on fire thank goodness he woke up before something serious happened.