A couple months ago my baseboard heater went up in flames (sparks anyway - very dramatically). We have it replaced, within a day it happened again. We had it replaced again, and within a few days the same thing happened.
I became convinced (since all the other baseboard heaters are working) that they would not just replace it again but would have to tear up the walls etc… to find the cause. I didn’t want to deal with that at the time so I figured I would just wait for warmer weather.
My wife got me a space heater (small, safe, electric one) and it works great, but the cord over heats (The plug has literally melted a little) and the outlet it’s plugged into has scorch marks on it. Needless to say I stopped using it.
Now I want to call my apartment complex to have them fix whatever the REAL problem is, but I want to be well armed and informed. They are stupid and lazy for the most part and will just blame the space heater and say “don’t use those” and I’m worried I may have a real electrical problem and don’t want to die in a fire.
What would cause the cord and plug to overheat like that and the outlet to scorch? What should I make sure they do when they come here to work on the base board heater?
In summary I need to know:
What to tell and expect from the people who come to repair this.
Is this a fire hazard (should it be treated as an emergency)
Should I call PSE (the electric company) directly or call the apartment maintenance first? Given past experience, the maintenance folks around here are not equipped or trained to deal with electrical issues.
You probably have a short somewhere in your wall wiring. It is a fire hazard, and an emergency. You need to get a qualified electrician to fix it ASAP. Stop using that outlet, and any other outlet on the circuit, until it’s fixed.
the space heater maybe defective and maybe cheaply made. it also may be using the maximum amount of electricity that the outlet can supply. you should stop using it.
have the baseboard units and their wiring repaired by a competent licensed electrician.
the apartment management need to be concerned because they risk having their building catch on fire and should have more than just a handy man maintenance person take care of it, they have used up heating units and risk a fire.
Silophant is correct. And I dunno where you live, but in most places a landlord is required to fix a problem like this fairly quickly. Call now and be polite but firm.
…If that doesn’t work it may be time to lawyer up. You need that fixed, unless you really want to DIAF.
I can not think of anything in the wall wiring that would cause a base board heater to burn up. That is if the base board is 240 volts.
If the base board is 120vac then there could be a loose neutral somewhere causing the voltage to float. If the building has outlets with the same floating voltage problem then when an space heater is pluged into it it will draw too much current.
This is not a problem that will be hidden in the walls. It will be in a junction box between the panel and the heater or it will be a loose connection at the panel. Ask the apartment maintenance man to check the voltage at the outlet and at the connection to the heater. if it is between 110 to 130 volts, plug in you heater and have them recheck the voltage at the outlet.
Fixing the problem will require soneone with electrical skills apartment buildings afe famous for only highering handymen.
If you know how to use a volt meter check all the outlet voltages in your apartment.
Go buy a receptical GFIC tester for the outlet. They are cheap. And while you may not be able to fix the problem, it may be good ammo for you when dealing with building management (I’ve got an open ground, it’s wired backwards, etc). All you have to do is plug it in and read it.
This is one of my pet peeves with amateur electronic diagnosis. Everything is a “short”. But, in house wiring, a “short circuit” means that there is unintentional direct contact between the hot wire and ground. Lots of current flows, things get hot, and hopefully a circuit breaker goes before flames happen.
None of this can cause three separate baseboard heaters to fail catastrophically. The theory about the loose neutral causing the voltage to float – now that sounds reasonable. (Note, however, that this is not a “short circuit”.) Everything described by the OP sounds as if far too much voltage is coming out of that outlet.
Anyway, you need to at the very least test the voltage on the circuit, and preferably have this done by a trained electrician. The receptacle tester described by enipla may not be appropriate in this case as they only check for the presence of voltage, not necessarily how much.
True. Just thought that for how cheap and easy the receptacle tester is, it’s worth having in your tool box. They do check other things like open grounds reversed polarity and such. A good quick indicator that something is wrong.
Yes, somebody that knows something needs to look at the problem. One thing you could check your self is the rating of the most recently failed baseboard heater. Most of them are 240 volt. somebody could have gotten a 120 volt one. Otherwise, I have to agree somehow you are getting excess voltage. Plug a lamp with an incandescent bulb into the outlet that melted the plug. If the bulb burns out quickly, you have excess voltage.
QFT
The melted plug could also be the result of a outlet that lost its tension on the female prongs. A poor mechanical connection leads to electrical resistance which leads to heat and a melted plug on the heater.
I’m betting, based upon repeated failures of the baseboard unit, then the failure of the corded unit, that your outlet is miswired at the breaker box for 220.
If you’ve ever looked inside of a breaker box (cover totally off of it), you’d see two strips of metal that the breakers hook to on the outer end, that is a bus bar. The white wire is the neutral, which eventually goes to ground in US wiring systems for two phase power for homes (some other fancier systems get more complex, but they’re industrial).
When you connect one wire (white) to neutral and one to a breaker, you get 120 volts. When you connect one wire each to a breaker on each bus (opposite side of the box (left and right), you get 220, which is used for some baseboards, water heaters, some appliances, such as large air conditioners, electric stoves, clothes dryers, etc).
120 volt baseboards WILL run for a time off of 220, but their life is dramatically shortened, their heat excessive usually and their failure rather spectacular in the form of sparks.
To the amateurs calling anything electrical a short, a short circuit is pretty much a crossed wire, either due to insulation failure, idiots wiring wrong or some other cause (duct work, a nail or pipes making contact between the white and black wires). The circuit doesn’t go the whole way before being completed at the load, hence it’s short.
It’ll trip a breaker, cause fires or all manner of scary things. You’re talking about 120 or 220 volts at 15-30 amps, that’s a lot of energy!
If the circuit is dead, but power is at the breaker to the wire, it’s called an OPEN circuit, as the circuit cannot be closed to become a circuit.
In this case, I’m betting that even a $15 meter from the hardware store will show 220 at the outlet and baseboard. Something that the folks replacing the first failed heater should have checked.
Also, portable heaters use a LOT of power, typically 1500 watts. That’s quite a bit of current, hence, it’ll melt the dickens out of cheap extension cords not rated for that high load. I’ve NEVER trusted a cheap cord to a space heater, but went with heavy duty extensions, even IF they’re 25 feet or longer, heavy, ugly orange and I only needed three feet. It beats burning my home down!
No, I’m not an electrician. I’m a certified industrial electronic technician.
I thought of that, but with the repeat history of the space heater failure, I’m thinking miswire of that branch, with 110 volt outlets wired for 220.
But, without hooking a meter to it, it’s hard to tell.
Save for hooking a regular incandescent light bulb from a table lamp into that outlet, if it’s real bright compared to normal OR blows out quick to instantly, you’re most likely miswired.
Thanks again all. I am not using an extension cord. The cord that overheats, and the plug that is part melted, are the ones that came with the space heater itself. It’s also interesting to note that all the plugs and the base board heater involved are on the same circuit (when the baseboard heater blew it threw a breaker and the problem wall outlet was also shut off). So, it makes sense to me that they are linked to the same mis-wiring.
I will call the apartment complex Tuesday (they will be closed Monday for the holiday) and specifically say I need an electrician to come diagnose the problem. I will also (just to put pressure on the apartment management) notify the electric company and make a point of mentioning it is a 4 family building with children).
Well, having them on the same circuit is a code violation in itself, in most jurisdictions. So either they made a mistake, or they purposely violated code to cut costs. Either one should make you wonder about the quality of the rest of the wiring.
To the OP, take a careful look at the heater’s plug and power cord. Where did it get the hottest? At the plug?
When under heavy load, a loose connection in a receptacle can cause excessive I[sup]2[/sup]R heating at the prong/spring interface, to the point where it becomes a “glowing contact.” The heat will conduct down the copper wires (and into the receptacle) and begin to melt insulation materials. If this is the problem, the receptacle needs to be replaced, obviously. While I was at it, I would carefully inspect the wires (in the wall) connected to the receptacle.
OK so it sounds like the base board heater is 120 vac. Is it hard wired in or is it also pluged in?
As was stated above did the cord melt at the plug or futher down the wire? checking the wires in the wall will show nothing. Unless a nail was driven threw them, and that should be hard to do because they should have nail guards over them where they go through the studs. If the outlet is bad or has overheated then the wires in the outlet box should be checked out for heat damage.