Had a 240v outlet melt on me in a Phoenix garage last month

I was adding a new circuit for a car charger and the old outlet just gave up. The plastic housing cracked, and I saw scorch marks on the terminals. Turns out the previous guy used a 30 amp outlet on a 40 amp breaker, which is a big no. I shut everything down, replaced it with the right 40 amp rated outlet, and made sure the connections were tight. It was a close call that could have started a fire. Anyone else run into this kind of lazy wiring on older installs?

3 comments

3 Comments

logan5252mo ago

Man, that's scary. I used to think a bigger breaker was just extra safety room, but seeing a melted outlet like that really shows how wrong that is. It's crazy someone would just ignore the rating like that, especially with something pulling that much power. What kind of car charger were you hooking up?

nancyg142mo ago

Exactly, a bigger breaker just lets things get WAY hotter before it trips. So what was the setup that caused the melt, like was it a cheap outlet on an old circuit?

pat_stone2mo ago

Saw a video where a guy had the same thing happen with a cheap outdoor outlet. The whole box just cooked itself over a few months.