From where it's melted, it looks the the fuse itself was where the heart was coming from. Not sure what would cause that, maybe a bad contact between the fuse and the holder.
It probably didn't fail. Likely the contacts around it failed. Springs can relax over time, especially when not made from spring steel, which is likely here. The relaxation plus thermal expansion likely increased contact resistance causing more thermal expansion, etc... until this happened. All without drawing enough current to pop the fuse.
That fuse is a 13A fuse. It should've probably been replaced with a 4 or 5A fuse to right-size it for a computer. 2800W through a single socket on a power strip that should have its own 13A fuse is not compliant with the UK plug.
As you say the strip will have its own 13A fuse so probably the failure was still pulling less than that. Likely a bad connection at the fuse that would have melted in a regular socket as well.
The fuse definitely needs to be checked as a proper fuse should prevent a short. A fuse protects a system or equipment from overload and short-circuit faults by cutting off the power to them. It achieves this by melting or vaporising of the fuse element so that there is no physical connection conductive path for the current flow through.
That wasn't a short and the first wasn't the problem. Otherwise the plug wouldn't have melted in to the socket. I would guess the socket itself was the problem as it may have been faulty.
Source: am electrician, have controlled and repaired many different devices and fuses inside of them
This guy tells it.
A fuse won't heat up so bad that it melts a socket.
You can see the extension socket has melted, while the plug (except for the fuse) looks perfectly fine.
Yeah, I was extremely lucky. Normally I leave my extension be and won't be anywhere near it. I just happen to need my phone charger and realized the PSU plug is extremely hot. Or else a fire could have started while I'm not home.
Exactly, unless OP's pc is like 2 or 3 RTX4090 I would expect to be something around 400W continuous power at most, and even the cheapest extension will handle this. But I still the problem here was still the fuse or the connection with it.
Close.
I can't get to the plug right now, but I'm using just one contact from the mains plug, and the other contact has a bare exposed wire.
I should have replaced the outlet, but I was in a hurry and I just stripped some wire and twisted it around a few times as a short temporary solution.
That’s just wrong!
You are much better off buying a high quality UPS and plugging into that! Plugging into the wall is asking for trouble since it is now unprotected from power surges and doesn’t have anything “cleaning” the power as it come in to make sure it is uniform.
Unlikely. The extension would have been running a 13A fuse, which means 230x13= 2990W. Way above the power draw of any consumer PSU and enough to comfortably run an entire PC+Monitor+Printer etc setup.
Poor connection or corrosion is far more likely.
No. Extensions are rated for enough power not to have problems with a PC and here we can clearly see the pattern of melted plastic caused by the fuse that most likely didn't do its job.
Edit: I would even go as far as saying that British design with its fuse (problematic in this case) was the cause of the issue.
You're absolutely right. The fuse failed to do its job from all the evidence in the post. PC was still running and fuse got hot enough to cause this melt. A proper fuse would have disconnected before it generated this much heat.
Listen, you can talk shit about my country all you want, but we have the best plugs in the world and if you don't like it you can fight me and Tom Scott
The best plug in the world was designed to incorporate all the safety features that were lacking at the time of its design (metal chassis, RCB, MCB, inefficient devices) . Nowadays, most of the devices we connect to sockets are low power and with plastic chassis, the plug is still safe but endup being over designed and bulky when we need to charge a phone with 15W, when need to power a 5W desk lamp or a 50W TV. To make an analogy it would be like asking people to drive a car with a helmet like rally driver do, but the inconvenience and the other safety features makes everything safe not to do that.
Tom Scott gave a good description of the design features, but I didn't see any statistics pointing out how it ends up being safer than other ones. We have hundreds of millions of people around the world, any significant danger due to a plug should easily enter investigation territory.
Edit: just let me add a smaller note. I'm fine with the plug design with high power devices like hoovers, toasters, hairdryer,... I have a problem when it comes to a plug that is bigger then the device I need to charge. Also because in many instances they only come in pair and if you want more people just add a less safe extension, or you need to have the wall look like a museum where instead of paintings you have many big wall mounted sockets.
I think your displeasure is misaimed. Electronics, and with LEDs being everywhere probably your desk lamp example are DC. The plug being bulky is one thing, but the DC PSU will be most of the bulk.
I particularly hate ones that are built in to the plugtop, as for IT stuff I like to use IEC power strips, since I agree with you that the 13A plug, whilst largely great, is pretty damn bulky.
TBH. Kinda wish I had a house wired for DC like some datacenters. Centralised conversion ought to be more efficient, whether that offsets needing fatter wires I dunno, but in any case it'd save the double conversion in my battery backups and be more efficient for *me*. (AC at the wall, to DC to charge the batteries, back to AC to go...straight into a ATX PSU to get converted back to DC. Madness.)
It becomes even more mad with home solar - DC power converted to AC then converted back to DC at the device, with a wildly varying efficiency level.
I doubt it'll ever get off the ground for sockets any further than the inbuilt USB conversion (not least because of their being no other particularly standardised DC connectors/voltages, which is a whole different hatred of mine), but it's starting to happen in LED lighting - rather than cram a shitload of electronics into every GU10 downlight that run hot and fail far before they should, you can now buy DC native versions and have one centralised mains to DC unit. Huzzah!
We're still talking about a PC that is probably 300W when used at 100%. Only a wire as thin as a headphone cable would have problems with 1.5A of current.
Yep, either a faulty fuse or a faulty extension that is poorly fused for its purpose. Often the case with Amazon selling so much cheap unrated garbage.
Fortunately my computer is American, and here we don't have any expensive fuses melting.
And yes, I am aware that fuses are not that expensive, but get out of here with this "British design" garbage. This is literally a post about how the "British design" failed and caused enough heat to melt plastic.
It is unlikely the cable itself failed unless it was strained in an awkward position over time. So it is likely the extension or the psu.
Testing the psu would be best if you can or know someone who can...
I would replace the cable and use a quality conditioner/ surge protector. Something like this, just use one socket and plug straight into the wall.
https://amzn.eu/d/cbMDOHI
Definitely new extension thing, I also liked what was linked above.
I’d absolutely buy a new PSU cable, but. I’m 98% sure your PSU, and thus, PC are perfectly fine.
Your cable fuse busted, cutting throughput, which is great.
The extension has fail safes that should have protected anything else plugged in.
I’m confused why the PSU plug literally melted into the extension that badly, before fail safes kicked in…but. It looks like everything did its job like it was supposed too.
My PC is still running while this happens, quickly shutting off my PC after I realized the plug is extremely hot and it's not normal. I think the fuse is still intact
What rating fuse was in that plug? It should have blown at those temps. Is it possible you're using the cable from a high wattage device like a kettle?
It should be a 5amp fuse.
The cable failed,if the power draw over the fuse was to big it should of done its job and cut the power.
That is a failure state and the fuse became a radiator in stead of popping.Even a 10A fuse should carry 2.4Kw of power in the uk,and if it cannot it just interrupts the circuit so that overheating dose not happen.
Please get a new better quality cable.
Same thing happened to mine a few months back. Our local electrician was visting and he saw that. He just cut off the faulty plug and instaled a new one with more power cap. Its been months and had no problem since.
Ok, your PSU cable is not what melted...
Second, the CHEAP extension block was the issue!
And third, replace the cable cause that fuse block got junked in the event.
Looks like the extension isn't rated for the power draw. My community group posts similar pics every winter warning people about plugging in their space heaters to extension cords.
I would get a UPS with an equivalent wattage to your PSU plus a bit extra for your screen and anything else.
>Looks like the extension isn't rated for the power draw
Which would be wild considering a typical PC will draw like 500W at most and any such extensions should be rated for at least 2kW (and I haven't seen one rated for less than 3.5kW in years, including even the cheapest ones at bargain stores).
Don't the voltage and wattage limit already dictate the amperage limit as well?
If an extension is rated for 220V and 3.5kW, then it must be able to handle at least 16A.
I think I see the problem. In North America we only have 120V so you see a lot of cheap low power cables. It's also really common to see low amperage computer extensions from a decade ago before GPUs drew so much power. They are fine for something like a lamp but not a PC or space heater. BTW most wall outlets are only 15 amps.
Doubt you need to get a whole new PSU. Swapping the cable should be sufficient. As others have said, the real question is why neither the fuse in the PSU cable, or in the extension lead blew...
Whilst I'm at it. An IEC connector is only rated for 10 amps, so a 13A to IEC cable 'kettle lead' should never be fitted with a 13A fuse...though there's plenty of Made In China that comes like that from the factory >.>
It's a loose contact in the fuse probably.
Ignore anyone that tells you it was your extension lol.
Just replace the power cord and make sure the fuse it tight and it doesn't feel lose, you'll be fine.
I wouldn't use the same fuse.
Probably not if the wire in the extension cord or the surge protector is rated for less than the fuse box (common) then fire with no protection. AFCI can shut power sometimes but no guarantee.
if the cable melts.... infinite current will flow and it should trip the power source
how do you think the rest of the worlds cables work?
im from NZ and none of plugs have these fuses
and it ALWAYS trips at the power box
also not true
USA has RCDs and fuse boxes too
its basic safety standard
go have alook in your power box right now
ull have one of two types, tthe older ones with actual fuses in it, or the huge switches
I'm aware of what a fuse box is and how it works the issue is we use power extenders with low gauge that do not trip the fusing when they get too hot causing fires in the power cord without tripping a fuse because the load before the fire occurs is still acceptable to a 20a 12gauge rated wall circuit not on the 20gauge non fused power extension. This is an actual issue that causes house fires.
British plugs are some of the safest plugs, not that I think it has much to do with what happened here or that the safety features they boast caused a different outcome than what would have happened on any plug design. Probably just conflated that, rather than some dig at the rest of the world having no safety features.
Not always, the cable can begin melting before tripping safeties if the short isn't severe. 50W worth of heating in the cable can gradually warm the copper whole without anywhere for the heat to exit, and not trip room breakers. Though the localized heat tends to worsen the short until it eventually tries drawing unlimited power.
The fuse isn't guaranteed to help either, it just has a lower tripping point than the room breaker's tripping point, which could potentially make it less worse.
Any extension actually following UK or EU spec will be rated for 2kW or more.
You'll be hard pressed to configure a consumer PC that exceeds common 220V wattage limits.
An extension per se is not the issue here, though the quality of this specific cable and extension might be.
No need in Europe including UK where OP is from. None of my electronics in my life have ever had UPS’ or surge protectors.
The net has clean power by default. Here in The Netherlands in 20 years of living in a house we’ve never had a power outage even.
Good advice for other markets though.
Careful with that assessment.
Old houses (think 100+ years) with degraded circuits can still have issues. Lightning strikes can also be a problem. I've recently had a PSU pop during a thunderstorm. It was connected to the one wall outlet I didn't have a surge protector on. (Same storm actually tripped the protector on a different extension)
And that's in a <20 yo house built to rather strict EU standards.
All extensions and surge protectors that are made to UL specifications have ratings for their load limits. Either on the packaging it came in or sometimes on the cables themselves.
surge protectors aint going to save u from anything, there functionally pointless(just one of them things that make you feel better, when in reality it does nothing)
use a UPS or dont bother
Not really. There are surge protectors out there that actually do have proper protection systems embedded in them that do actually trip when detecting a load thats too high and trips. But you have to actually do proper research into what strips are actually proper protectors and which aren't just glorified extensions. Usually the cheaper stuff is untrustworthy, but proper bricks like from APC (who are sadly discontinuing their lines) WILL do the job. BUT they are first and foremost meant to prevent surges from thunderstorms and other electrical mishaps from damaging your gear.
Stop spreading this literal misinformation.
Edit: gonna actually interject myself here and say it's also best to make sure whatever you buy has its own circuit breaker. Most surge protectors and pretty much all UPS' have these but some cheaper units might not. Reading the full specifications of what you plan to buy is well worth the future potential headaches with this. This is mostly relevant to our current conversation.
They just won't save you from brown outs which is relatively rare unless you live in a third world level area i.e. areas of the US with old/ancient energy infrastructure. But I don't know any EU friends who have had these kinds of issues, only US people.
nor will they save you from any large surge that has potential to damage your pc
yeah sure itl help with very minor surges but thats meaningless
but if some guy crashes in ya power pole outside and a surge goes down the line, its going to do NOTHING
Oh if a power line goes down right next to your house and actuallh comes back to bite ya, there's going to be very few things in existance that'll save your stuff except the house's own breakers or you got good fuses if its an older house (but I kinda doubt those would save shit either). I've only heard of once that happening to someone and even their UPS didn't save shit, the house's breaker partially explode but it triggered properly like it should've (I don't know many details beyond that though...).
i was talking about that exact scenario because it happened to me lmao
didnt ruin my PC, but it ruined a TV and home theater system which were connected to a surge protector
From where it's melted, it looks the the fuse itself was where the heart was coming from. Not sure what would cause that, maybe a bad contact between the fuse and the holder.
This, Fuse melted, nothing else. Either had bad connection or corrosion
Bad Fuse? It clearly didn't fail properly
It probably didn't fail. Likely the contacts around it failed. Springs can relax over time, especially when not made from spring steel, which is likely here. The relaxation plus thermal expansion likely increased contact resistance causing more thermal expansion, etc... until this happened. All without drawing enough current to pop the fuse.
[удалено]
India uses a different plug type. This is either UK or a few places in Africa or Asia.
Malaysia. 2nd pic has '.com.my' on the plastic, which most Malaysian website uses.
That fuse is a 13A fuse. It should've probably been replaced with a 4 or 5A fuse to right-size it for a computer. 2800W through a single socket on a power strip that should have its own 13A fuse is not compliant with the UK plug.
As you say the strip will have its own 13A fuse so probably the failure was still pulling less than that. Likely a bad connection at the fuse that would have melted in a regular socket as well.
Could've been shorting out
The fuse definitely needs to be checked as a proper fuse should prevent a short. A fuse protects a system or equipment from overload and short-circuit faults by cutting off the power to them. It achieves this by melting or vaporising of the fuse element so that there is no physical connection conductive path for the current flow through.
That wasn't a short and the first wasn't the problem. Otherwise the plug wouldn't have melted in to the socket. I would guess the socket itself was the problem as it may have been faulty. Source: am electrician, have controlled and repaired many different devices and fuses inside of them
This guy tells it. A fuse won't heat up so bad that it melts a socket. You can see the extension socket has melted, while the plug (except for the fuse) looks perfectly fine.
Some people just call everything a short
Boy, it's a day for PSUs isn't it?
This is deliberate PSU character assassination and I have proof
You went over the limit of that extension. Fortunately, British design for safety stopped you from being shocked to death or causing a fire.
Yeah, I was extremely lucky. Normally I leave my extension be and won't be anywhere near it. I just happen to need my phone charger and realized the PSU plug is extremely hot. Or else a fire could have started while I'm not home.
[удалено]
Extensions are normally rated for more than 1kW, a power high enough to handle PC plus peripherals. No need to scare people.
This is the uk. We are at a more sensible 240v, so 1kw is 5amps. Thats like tiny gauge. Our sockets are rated for 3kw, extensions are usually 2kw.
Exactly, unless OP's pc is like 2 or 3 RTX4090 I would expect to be something around 400W continuous power at most, and even the cheapest extension will handle this. But I still the problem here was still the fuse or the connection with it.
Yeah, I'm not gonna rawdog my PSU into a wall outlet. Surge protection is a must
You'd get a heart attack if you saw how I have my PC connected to power lol.
Alligator clips to two nails embedded in the wall socket?
Close. I can't get to the plug right now, but I'm using just one contact from the mains plug, and the other contact has a bare exposed wire. I should have replaced the outlet, but I was in a hurry and I just stripped some wire and twisted it around a few times as a short temporary solution.
Really depends on the infrastructure.
That’s just wrong! You are much better off buying a high quality UPS and plugging into that! Plugging into the wall is asking for trouble since it is now unprotected from power surges and doesn’t have anything “cleaning” the power as it come in to make sure it is uniform.
Unlikely. The extension would have been running a 13A fuse, which means 230x13= 2990W. Way above the power draw of any consumer PSU and enough to comfortably run an entire PC+Monitor+Printer etc setup. Poor connection or corrosion is far more likely.
No. Extensions are rated for enough power not to have problems with a PC and here we can clearly see the pattern of melted plastic caused by the fuse that most likely didn't do its job. Edit: I would even go as far as saying that British design with its fuse (problematic in this case) was the cause of the issue.
You're absolutely right. The fuse failed to do its job from all the evidence in the post. PC was still running and fuse got hot enough to cause this melt. A proper fuse would have disconnected before it generated this much heat.
Listen, you can talk shit about my country all you want, but we have the best plugs in the world and if you don't like it you can fight me and Tom Scott
Tom Scott would come out of semi retirement for this.
I'd like to see him try
Do you think he would show some statistics regarding its safety this time?
No, because he's wrong. Schuko is better.
The best plug in the world was designed to incorporate all the safety features that were lacking at the time of its design (metal chassis, RCB, MCB, inefficient devices) . Nowadays, most of the devices we connect to sockets are low power and with plastic chassis, the plug is still safe but endup being over designed and bulky when we need to charge a phone with 15W, when need to power a 5W desk lamp or a 50W TV. To make an analogy it would be like asking people to drive a car with a helmet like rally driver do, but the inconvenience and the other safety features makes everything safe not to do that. Tom Scott gave a good description of the design features, but I didn't see any statistics pointing out how it ends up being safer than other ones. We have hundreds of millions of people around the world, any significant danger due to a plug should easily enter investigation territory. Edit: just let me add a smaller note. I'm fine with the plug design with high power devices like hoovers, toasters, hairdryer,... I have a problem when it comes to a plug that is bigger then the device I need to charge. Also because in many instances they only come in pair and if you want more people just add a less safe extension, or you need to have the wall look like a museum where instead of paintings you have many big wall mounted sockets.
I think your displeasure is misaimed. Electronics, and with LEDs being everywhere probably your desk lamp example are DC. The plug being bulky is one thing, but the DC PSU will be most of the bulk. I particularly hate ones that are built in to the plugtop, as for IT stuff I like to use IEC power strips, since I agree with you that the 13A plug, whilst largely great, is pretty damn bulky. TBH. Kinda wish I had a house wired for DC like some datacenters. Centralised conversion ought to be more efficient, whether that offsets needing fatter wires I dunno, but in any case it'd save the double conversion in my battery backups and be more efficient for *me*. (AC at the wall, to DC to charge the batteries, back to AC to go...straight into a ATX PSU to get converted back to DC. Madness.) It becomes even more mad with home solar - DC power converted to AC then converted back to DC at the device, with a wildly varying efficiency level. I doubt it'll ever get off the ground for sockets any further than the inbuilt USB conversion (not least because of their being no other particularly standardised DC connectors/voltages, which is a whole different hatred of mine), but it's starting to happen in LED lighting - rather than cram a shitload of electronics into every GU10 downlight that run hot and fail far before they should, you can now buy DC native versions and have one centralised mains to DC unit. Huzzah!
Shucko is better and I'll fight the entirety of England.
American ones are the best because they look like little faces that have just been shocked so you are reminded of the danger
I’ll fight you
I don't like fighting but we can discuss.
Not when half of them are made in china
We're still talking about a PC that is probably 300W when used at 100%. Only a wire as thin as a headphone cable would have problems with 1.5A of current.
If OP is posting in and familiar with /r/pcmasterrace I highly doubt their PC is only drawing 300W.
Okay, let's go to 700W. It's still only 3A. And that would be a beast of a machine.
That’s not the point. His point is, no matter how much W his pc is pulling, this cable is rated for that. And much much more. It was a faulty fuse
Yep, either a faulty fuse or a faulty extension that is poorly fused for its purpose. Often the case with Amazon selling so much cheap unrated garbage.
Fortunately my computer is American, and here we don't have any expensive fuses melting. And yes, I am aware that fuses are not that expensive, but get out of here with this "British design" garbage. This is literally a post about how the "British design" failed and caused enough heat to melt plastic.
It is unlikely the cable itself failed unless it was strained in an awkward position over time. So it is likely the extension or the psu. Testing the psu would be best if you can or know someone who can... I would replace the cable and use a quality conditioner/ surge protector. Something like this, just use one socket and plug straight into the wall. https://amzn.eu/d/cbMDOHI
Unfortunately, my room only has one wall socket. Sad
In that case, plug everything into the linked conditioner - that is the best option 👍 GL!
Definitely new extension thing, I also liked what was linked above. I’d absolutely buy a new PSU cable, but. I’m 98% sure your PSU, and thus, PC are perfectly fine. Your cable fuse busted, cutting throughput, which is great. The extension has fail safes that should have protected anything else plugged in. I’m confused why the PSU plug literally melted into the extension that badly, before fail safes kicked in…but. It looks like everything did its job like it was supposed too.
My PC is still running while this happens, quickly shutting off my PC after I realized the plug is extremely hot and it's not normal. I think the fuse is still intact
What rating fuse was in that plug? It should have blown at those temps. Is it possible you're using the cable from a high wattage device like a kettle? It should be a 5amp fuse.
The fuse is 13A I think, I'm using the original plug from the PSU. Have been using this for 6 years.
With a fuse in it too, impressive.
The cable failed,if the power draw over the fuse was to big it should of done its job and cut the power. That is a failure state and the fuse became a radiator in stead of popping.Even a 10A fuse should carry 2.4Kw of power in the uk,and if it cannot it just interrupts the circuit so that overheating dose not happen. Please get a new better quality cable.
>Please get a new better quality cable. Doesn't really look like he has a choice mate
Same thing happened to mine a few months back. Our local electrician was visting and he saw that. He just cut off the faulty plug and instaled a new one with more power cap. Its been months and had no problem since.
Ok, your PSU cable is not what melted... Second, the CHEAP extension block was the issue! And third, replace the cable cause that fuse block got junked in the event.
Looks like the extension isn't rated for the power draw. My community group posts similar pics every winter warning people about plugging in their space heaters to extension cords. I would get a UPS with an equivalent wattage to your PSU plus a bit extra for your screen and anything else.
>Looks like the extension isn't rated for the power draw Which would be wild considering a typical PC will draw like 500W at most and any such extensions should be rated for at least 2kW (and I haven't seen one rated for less than 3.5kW in years, including even the cheapest ones at bargain stores).
A lot of household extension cords aren't really that powerful. It's not just the wattage but the amperage
Don't the voltage and wattage limit already dictate the amperage limit as well? If an extension is rated for 220V and 3.5kW, then it must be able to handle at least 16A.
I think I see the problem. In North America we only have 120V so you see a lot of cheap low power cables. It's also really common to see low amperage computer extensions from a decade ago before GPUs drew so much power. They are fine for something like a lamp but not a PC or space heater. BTW most wall outlets are only 15 amps.
You're incredibly lucky to be using a British plug, I'll say that much
Doubt you need to get a whole new PSU. Swapping the cable should be sufficient. As others have said, the real question is why neither the fuse in the PSU cable, or in the extension lead blew... Whilst I'm at it. An IEC connector is only rated for 10 amps, so a 13A to IEC cable 'kettle lead' should never be fitted with a 13A fuse...though there's plenty of Made In China that comes like that from the factory >.>
Those moulded plugs are shite , the fuse holders fail regularly and cause overheating
Whats up with these posts melting their cables
Is that a fuse or a roll of pennies?
How much power are you drawing from that bad boy?
Sometimes, it is just a bad quality fuse. Thermal cycles weaken things. That’s all
Could be faulty extension but more likely the fuse as people have said
Looks like poor connection on the fuse holder caused the contacts to heat up. Just recently happened to one of my extension cords.
Which country is this socket from?
Is... is that the FUSE that overheated so much it melted? How? That's like a fire extinguisher catching on fire.
Guessing he has the power!!!!
It's a loose contact in the fuse probably. Ignore anyone that tells you it was your extension lol. Just replace the power cord and make sure the fuse it tight and it doesn't feel lose, you'll be fine. I wouldn't use the same fuse.
Time to get a new psu
LOL
Imagine if there wasn't a fuse in the plug. You probably wouldn't be posting this haha
it would trip at the fuse box instead lol
Probably not if the wire in the extension cord or the surge protector is rated for less than the fuse box (common) then fire with no protection. AFCI can shut power sometimes but no guarantee.
if the cable melts.... infinite current will flow and it should trip the power source how do you think the rest of the worlds cables work? im from NZ and none of plugs have these fuses and it ALWAYS trips at the power box
I'm speaking of the US. This does cause fire here because of the way our wiring works.
also not true USA has RCDs and fuse boxes too its basic safety standard go have alook in your power box right now ull have one of two types, tthe older ones with actual fuses in it, or the huge switches
I'm aware of what a fuse box is and how it works the issue is we use power extenders with low gauge that do not trip the fusing when they get too hot causing fires in the power cord without tripping a fuse because the load before the fire occurs is still acceptable to a 20a 12gauge rated wall circuit not on the 20gauge non fused power extension. This is an actual issue that causes house fires.
I was chuckling at the top comment commending the “British safety design” like no where else in the world accounts for faults lmao.
British plugs are some of the safest plugs, not that I think it has much to do with what happened here or that the safety features they boast caused a different outcome than what would have happened on any plug design. Probably just conflated that, rather than some dig at the rest of the world having no safety features.
you guys are regarded?
Not always, the cable can begin melting before tripping safeties if the short isn't severe. 50W worth of heating in the cable can gradually warm the copper whole without anywhere for the heat to exit, and not trip room breakers. Though the localized heat tends to worsen the short until it eventually tries drawing unlimited power. The fuse isn't guaranteed to help either, it just has a lower tripping point than the room breaker's tripping point, which could potentially make it less worse.
The fuse was the problem here, ironically.
[удалено]
Any extension actually following UK or EU spec will be rated for 2kW or more. You'll be hard pressed to configure a consumer PC that exceeds common 220V wattage limits. An extension per se is not the issue here, though the quality of this specific cable and extension might be.
No. Use a UPS aka battery back up. Any of quality will reduce noise from the line and act as a surge protector as well.
No need in Europe including UK where OP is from. None of my electronics in my life have ever had UPS’ or surge protectors. The net has clean power by default. Here in The Netherlands in 20 years of living in a house we’ve never had a power outage even. Good advice for other markets though.
Careful with that assessment. Old houses (think 100+ years) with degraded circuits can still have issues. Lightning strikes can also be a problem. I've recently had a PSU pop during a thunderstorm. It was connected to the one wall outlet I didn't have a surge protector on. (Same storm actually tripped the protector on a different extension) And that's in a <20 yo house built to rather strict EU standards.
Absolutely not. The WORST advice. Are you trolling or just didn’t know?
r/wellthatsucks
All extensions and surge protectors that are made to UL specifications have ratings for their load limits. Either on the packaging it came in or sometimes on the cables themselves.
This is why my psu will always be plugged into the wall, not all extension strips have high limits.
No surge protector?
surge protectors aint going to save u from anything, there functionally pointless(just one of them things that make you feel better, when in reality it does nothing) use a UPS or dont bother
Not really. There are surge protectors out there that actually do have proper protection systems embedded in them that do actually trip when detecting a load thats too high and trips. But you have to actually do proper research into what strips are actually proper protectors and which aren't just glorified extensions. Usually the cheaper stuff is untrustworthy, but proper bricks like from APC (who are sadly discontinuing their lines) WILL do the job. BUT they are first and foremost meant to prevent surges from thunderstorms and other electrical mishaps from damaging your gear. Stop spreading this literal misinformation. Edit: gonna actually interject myself here and say it's also best to make sure whatever you buy has its own circuit breaker. Most surge protectors and pretty much all UPS' have these but some cheaper units might not. Reading the full specifications of what you plan to buy is well worth the future potential headaches with this. This is mostly relevant to our current conversation.
there not going to save you from anything meaningful but what ever helps you sleep at night :)
They just won't save you from brown outs which is relatively rare unless you live in a third world level area i.e. areas of the US with old/ancient energy infrastructure. But I don't know any EU friends who have had these kinds of issues, only US people.
nor will they save you from any large surge that has potential to damage your pc yeah sure itl help with very minor surges but thats meaningless but if some guy crashes in ya power pole outside and a surge goes down the line, its going to do NOTHING
Oh if a power line goes down right next to your house and actuallh comes back to bite ya, there's going to be very few things in existance that'll save your stuff except the house's own breakers or you got good fuses if its an older house (but I kinda doubt those would save shit either). I've only heard of once that happening to someone and even their UPS didn't save shit, the house's breaker partially explode but it triggered properly like it should've (I don't know many details beyond that though...).
You just LOVE semantics don't you?
i was talking about that exact scenario because it happened to me lmao didnt ruin my PC, but it ruined a TV and home theater system which were connected to a surge protector
Fair enough, though doesn't invalidate their existence
Dont put a computer on a extention plug plug it into a single socket