In every room I’ve stayed in, the prongs in the AC receptacles have virtually no retaining/clamping force. I am assuming this is due to their constant use; the prongs inside the receptacle lose their springiness due to thousands of insertion cycles.
I have to assume the contact resistance for these receptacles is pretty high due to the reduction of clamping force. This is not an issue with light loads. But with heavier loads (e.g. hairdryer, coffee maker) I would think the contacts would get hot due to I²R. I am genuinely perplexed that these receptacles have not caused a bunch of fires.
The Hairdryer can be an issue as in addition to a not tight connection, the cord will be in motion while under heavy load which will increase the chance of blades moving around. The coffee pot, not so much.
Keeping this to just the US, there are a little over 5 million hotel rooms.
Most hair dryers and coffee pots are plugging into GFCI receptacles at least. Combined with Circuit Breakers the chance of fire should be pretty slim.
U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated average of 3,520 structure fires in hotels and motels each year, which represents 1% of all structure fires.
These fires resulted in annual losses of 9 civilian deaths, 120 civilian injuries, and $84 million in direct property damage.
Cooking equipment was the leading cause of fires in hotels and motels, accounting for one-half of the fires in this property type.
The leading area of origin for structure fires in hotels and motels is the kitchen, which is the location where two of every five fires (41%) started. These fires accounted for 8% of civilian deaths, 25% of civilian injuries, and 8% of direct property damage.
Electrical is only 5% of these fires.
BTW: Smoking is still the leading cause of deaths in Hotel Fires, no surprise.
10 years ago the leading cause of electrical fires was those plug-in air fresherners. Hopefully the design has greatly improved since then.
So while these outlets should probably be getting tested at least once a year, they probably lead to only a small number of fires and even less deaths.
I’m not surprised, the USA electric 2-pin socket is pretty terrible even when brand new. After a bit of wear it seems like they are about to give up at any moment.
When in the USA I’ve taken to propping up plugs with cups, books or whatever is at hand.
In some cases I’ve noted that this design issue is tacitly admitted to when vertical sockets are located in the base of the bedside lamp.
Not all receptacles are created equal. If the contractor buys on the cheap, then what you get are outlets that fail in short order. Spend the extra money for quality.
I haven’t had this problem at all. Over the last 20 years the biggest issue I’ve had, not enough receptacles or receptacles in hard to reach places, has gotten a lot better as they’ve been place on the desk for computers or in lamps to let you charge your phone overnight.
I’m sure a really old property has more problems.
And thanks for the hotel fire breakdown. Interesting. I wonder if some of the cooking fires were things like hot plates brought to cheap hotels to cook in the room.
Regulatory approval for electrical receptacles and plugs is pretty strict. One of the requirements is that the force used to insert and remove the plug must be in a certain range. I worked with someone building a device that had to be plugged in and things could plug into its receptacle, and getting the receptacle certified was a nightmare. That’s one reason why so many products now use power bricks - let someone else get the line level stuff certified, and all your stuff can remain low voltage and immune from that kind of regulation.
That said, I don’t know if the certification covers wear. Like, an automated 1000 pluggings and unpluggings then rechecks for plug force. It could be that plugs are engineered to pass the initial regulations, but use cheap components that wear fast.
The sockets with no grip are normally the ones built into lamps, nightstands, or outlet centers attached to desks. Those are not standard UL approved wall outlets. They are cheap Chinese knockoffs of real outlets.
My last house I had to replace about 70% of the outlets. So many 2 prongs.
As I was packing up the house for sale I had found 2 more strays and did those too.
This house is all 3 prong, I installed a lot of extra outlets in the basement but no 2 prong to 3 prong replacements at least.
I take a few crucial items with me on trips.
My own pillow.
A thin comforter (since hotels tend to provide down comforters that quickly get uncomfortably hot.
A power strip.
One thing I’ve noticed is that many hotel rooms now have those USB sockets for charging phones and tablets, but they almost never work, and I still have to break out the adapter and use the normal outlet. The same goes for those charging stations in airports. The only place I’ve encountered ones that actually did work was on my recent Ireland trip in a hotel that was practically brand new.