hrhofmann@att.net
Guest
Wed Nov 30, 2011 5:18 am
On Nov 28, 12:20 am, Vacillator <user132...@aol.com> wrote:
Quote:
Thanks for the many replies !! I plugged the roaster into another
kitchen outlet, and it got just as warm, both the end of the cord and
the outlet. It just gets "warm" not "hot". The wall receptacles
are all 3 prong. The male prongs on the cord are clean and look like
brass.
What's the ampere rating on the toaster ID plate?
Mark Zacharias
Guest
Wed Nov 30, 2011 1:59 pm
<hrhofmann_at_att.net> wrote in message
news:9976f682-a5e8-4cb3-b8fa-5d93249ecb4b_at_v29g2000yqv.googlegroups.com...
On Nov 28, 12:20 am, Vacillator <user132...@aol.com> wrote:
Quote:
Thanks for the many replies !! I plugged the roaster into another
kitchen outlet, and it got just as warm, both the end of the cord and
the outlet. It just gets "warm" not "hot". The wall receptacles
are all 3 prong. The male prongs on the cord are clean and look like
brass.
What's the ampere rating on the toaster ID plate?
"warm" Sounds fairly normal to me. "Hot" - not so much. At 120 volts (US)
the thing probably draws on the order of 10 amperes. Enough to heat up any
cord or outlet. Toasters do not run continuously, and unless the cord or
outlet / wiring are defective, warmth such as this does not indicate a
problem.
It is the ohmic resistance of the wiring and the plug connections that can
cause a problem. That is why portable heaters etc should not normally be
used with extension cords.
Mark Z.
micky
Guest
Sat Dec 03, 2011 3:24 pm
On Sun, 27 Nov 2011 07:54:17 -0800 (PST), Vacillator
<user132384_at_aol.com> wrote:
Quote:
Hi,
When I use a portable roaster / oven, the outlet that I
plug the cord into gets pretty warm, as well as the wire at the last
few inches. The cord has only 2 prongs, not 3. I think the roaster
Okay, but that 2 vs. 3 is not your problem.
Quote:
is circa 1970. Is this OK? Anything to worry about? Of course the
manual that comes with it says nothing about volts/ amps/ etc, just
says plug it in and cook. This roaster is pretty big and has lots of
heating element material to heat up.
Thanks
Back around 1980, I was using a 1200 watt space heater in an outlet of
a building built in 1930. I was living in the maid's room, and that
receptacle only had a place for one plug, though another in the same
room and all the others in the 6-room apartment were double, like
usual.
I woke up in the morning to see flames about an inch or an inch and a
half coming from the plug. I pulled out the cord and the flame went
out i a few seconds.
The problem was that after 50 years, the springiness of the receptacle
was very low, and its tabs didn't hold tightly to the plugs prongs.
The plug went in and out more easily than other plugs do.
Is that your situation? How old is your hourse? How old is the
outlet? Is it loose.
A second possibility is that the wire just as it enters the plug is
partially broken, and the high current through what is now a small
wire is causing heat. If you keep your finger on that spot just
after turning the roaster on or plugging it in, you'll probably feel
it warm up there before it warms up on the plug right at the wall.
If you're having trouble distinguishing where hte heat starts, the
other guy's idea of using a (heavy-durty,short if possiblet)
extension cord in the middle, is a very good one.
Some plugs have prongs are designed to be srpingy. Others have prongs
that are thick, And still others have prongs that are folded pieces
of metal. For the last kind, I've carefully put a kinife in between
the follds and then bent the two layers apart, up to 3/16" in the
middle of the bend.. I thought that would be enough, but it hasn't
done much good for some reason in the places I tried it. .
