Concern over hot electric plug

[preCRT]

Just used my hair dryer which was plugged into the same surge strip as my desktop. Shut off the dryer & unplugged it immediately after use, burned my hand on the prongs. They are hot as hell.

Should I be concerned?

 

[sdifox]

yeah, don't use the same circuit.

 

[FoBoT]

yes, high current devices like hair dryers should not be plugged into extension cords or power strips

or did you mean that you have a hair dryer?

 

[zinfamous]

I'm not much of an electrician, but when approaching such issues, I often go by my own personal credo (which translates remarkably well to most of life's situations):


When in doubt, shove a fork in it.

 

[xBiffx]

Well, like others have said its not a good idea to use a strip/extension cord with such a device. That isn't what is making it heat up though. I would say there might be a short in the heating element somewhere and its drawing too much current. Not enough to trip the breaker (which is probably 20A, maybe 15A) but the dryer should only be drawing maybe 10A at the most. I would discard it, IMO.

Edit: I thought you meant the prongs on the dryer cord, not the power strip. Which did you mean? Either way, the dryer is pulling a little much it sounds like.

 

[Howard]

Do the prongs get hot anywhere else? Maybe the electrical contacts in that outlet are bad.

 

[dud]

A "typical" HD uses 1,000 watts (aka a kilowatt) of power or more. Why are you so surprised?

Plug it into a std outlet ... by itself.

 

[NutBucket]

Or if you spring for better ones, over 1700W like the one we have. I swear I could practically sweat copper pipe with it.

 

[0roo0roo]

hair dryer + electric heater is a pretty good way to trip the circuit breaker, things suck down the power.

 

[Paperdoc]

I doubt the hair dryer is drawing too much current. The most likely reason is that there is a poor connection somewhere near the prongs. The resulting resistance creates a heat producer, just like any resistor. So, where is the bad connection? It could be oxidation on the surface of the prongs, or the surfaces of the metal inside the slots they plug into. I could also be inside the moulded plug body, with worn wires that have partly broken off leaving few strands to carry the heavy current. The heat is actually generated at the worn-out wire site, but it is conducted by the wires and the metal prongs out to where you can touch them. I have seen this phenomenon in a different way - the plug body itself seems very warm when you go to grab it to unplug. Solution for this? Replace the plug on the end of the cord, maybe cutting a few inches of cord off with the old plug. The frayed wires inside may be just outside the plug body, where the cord gets flexed often as it is handled normally.

 

[LTC8K6]

Do the prongs get hot anywhere else? Maybe the electrical contacts in that outlet are bad.

That's it. They are probably not gripping tightly enough. Not a good connection. Poor connections generate heat through resistance.

There's actually a tester for the grip strength of electrical outlets.