Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Power strip failure analysis



A brand-new power strip emitted a loud pop and left a soot mark on my friend's hand when he plugged it into the wall. No devices were attached to the power strip. I decided to take the thing apart to see what failed. The circuit breaker in the household electrical system did NOT trip during this event.

My guess is that a very fine piece of wire bridged the neutral and hot terminals on the switch. When power was applied, the whisker vaporized.

2 comments:

  1. It was an exciting way to start a session of rock'n'roll. Blowing up amps is totally Spinal Tap, right? What about power strips?

    ReplyDelete