So, if the plug is the only thing hot, then the problem is wishing one inch or so of that. I threw the whole thing in the trash, it scared me too. This is the second time that this has happened in this place. Excellent idea! Once I pulled the bulb out (difficult), I could see melted plastic that once formed the female sockets. It is up to the landlord and he does not care at all. You need to get the count in there to fix up the joint. Replace the outlet if the prong won't come out. Hmmm...i think that the heater is pulling to much amps for that outlet. I live in Santa Monica, 19 blocks from the beach and it gets pretty darn cold out here in the winter. If its a spur this can cause an electrical hotspot and may be why the plug has melted. Ask the Electrician: Removing a Broken Prong. I suggest that you get an electrician to inspect the circuits of your home thoroughly. Good luck with that if you have a slum lord. However, you do need to make sure that you have 120 volt 50 amp male plug on the male end and a 120 volt 30 amp female socket. Yes - it was the charger plug - melted - still plugged in. Did you bring up the wiring when you where last to see the judge? This man makes me sick to my stomach thinking of how he does people is just very uncalled for. Buy a decent plug and socket and make a good job of connecting them. It is bound to create heat in the plug. Electric space heaters are not really designed to heat a whole house/apartment. It can be caused by a loose connection on one of the hot terminal screws, by a poor connection inside the outlet or by a loose clamp that doesn't hold the plug securely enough. Carefully remove the existing bulb, screw in socket adapter and insert polarized plug. Just one thing though, while you have the socket off try to find out if the socket is part of the propper ring main or if it is a "spur" off another socket. Most likely the spring force that retains the plug int he socket is loose and not making good enough contact, or, the connection between the wire and the socket contact is lose or gone high resistance. At other times, however, a spark from an electrical outlet could start a fire or severely damage the plug. To add to that, I have Asthma. Happy mylotting. Take off the cover face plate with a screwdriver -- it usually is fastened with one screw in the center -- and remove the mounting screws at the top and bottom of the outlet. It was a newer heater and it was right after I got my wiring updated. Test it with a circuit tester to make sure the power is off. You would have needed to unplug something else before plugging in the heater. There is no heat in my apartment, because I have a slum lord. So what the problem is most likely at the socket or outlet that you have plugged the vacuum cleaner into. There are only two possibilities either your space heater plug was defective or the socket was defective. I needed to replace one socket due to corrosion where the plug meets the wire which left the lamp inoperative. A ring main socket should have 6 wires, 2 black 2 red 2 green /earth. wow...that is really dangerous. Change both the plug and socket as your fitted plug will have been damaged by overheating, this issue may now have affected the socket. If it has been neglected, it may sparked off a fire and more damage will be dealt. Be careful my friend. Anyone know what would cause this on a 97? I received a new oven for Christmas . Never use a plug with any damaged prong or with the ground prong broken off. You just take the 30 amp cord from your RV and plug it into the female socket on the adaptor. This will put less strain on the wall socket. If it runs with circuit breakers, the only thing you can do is replace that breaker or run an extension cord from another outlet to your hearter in the bathroom. I believe that the outlets here need to be updated. When the smell kept getting stronger, I unplugged the heater and found that it had been melting into the socket. Tonight I used it in my living room for a few hours to help fight the cold. Connections vary in method and layout, but it is black wire to brass terminal, white wire to silver and bare wire to green. Manufacturers don't design outlets to be taken apart, so a permanent layer of plastic encases the clamps and their connections. The heater was the only thing plugged up in the restroom. Sometimes outlet sockets can become worn from excessive use or rough handling, and will no longer hold the prongs from a plug securely. Some block adaptors do not have a fuse, which increases the risk of overloading and fire. Use our 'socket calculator' Most people have extension leads in their homes, using 4-way bar adaptors to increase the number of appliances that they can plug into a wall socket. I believe most jurisdictions require a minimum temperature you must keep. He should be in a lot of trouble for letting the wiring get this bad. Bob Haring has been a news writer and editor for more than 50 years, mostly with the Associated Press and then as executive editor of the Tulsa, Okla. If I call an electrician, I may be stuck with the bill. I will have to look into purchasing an oil filled radiator. Yep, sounds to me like an attorney is the way to go. I wish you the best of luck! Space heaters are notorious for this. I am not good with fixing things like this, at all. It is important for homeowners to understand why an electrical outlet may spark or short out without warning. Depending on how many appliances you have plugged in at your apartment, the space heater was too much. You say this space heater was new. If the sockets are old or used a lot it might be time to replace them. you better consult to an electrician..okey? I thought it was something to do with the wiring too. I recently bought a new space saver heater. I had a set of speakers for my desktop computer, and I put the wrong adapter on them to hook them up, and they started smoking. You need to cut off the socket connector and attach a … There is something wrong with the wiring of the building. I am not sure about the plugs whether the fire department would be interested but I would phone them and see what the regulations are with regards to those dangerous sockets. The plastic faceplate of an electrical socket is called the receptacle. By creating an account you agree to the Hunker, Ask the Electrician: Removing a Broken Prong, Home Addition Plus: Electrical Wiring and Repair. Turn the power off at the circuit breaker, 1 or 2 screws removes the cover plate. Thank you so much. He also said all I had to do is change the plug and it should be fine. There are two terminal screws on each side, brass on one side and silver on the other, and a green ground screw on the bottom. 2. I discovered that the electrical socket that I thought was broken actually does work, but it still has a broken plug prong stuck inside of it. Cut off the old plug, use wire strippers to strip about 1/2-inch of insulation off each wire and connect the wires to the new plug. Heat is produced where the resistance is, so anything causing a resistance at a specific point, indicates a problem right at the point where the heat is developed. How are the sockets replaced since the wires appear to be formed into the socket and the wires go off through the headlight assembly into the great unknown? I figured that it was just dust burning off the heater, even though I use it every day. He explained why it happened but I forgot the details. Whenever there’s more power than the wires can handle, overheating happens. I do not want to freeze or be afraid of a fire all winter long. Turn off the circuit breaker to the outlet. Insufficient Wiring Wiring problems can also cause a melted electrical outlet. 2 silver screws with white wires, 2 brass screws with black wires and 1 green screw with a bare copper wire. This place is old and needs a lot of work, but no one seems to want to pay the money for repairs. If you can check on that and it turns out that the house operates with fuses, you can always replace that fuse with a larger one. When I went to court, the judge kept things so structured, that I was not able to bring up anything extra. It was a bit before I noticed, but when I did I saw a tiny blue electric bolt, and turned the strip off and unplugged it. Use an extension lead with multi sockets rather than a block adaptor (those blocks of plastic with many sockets on them). 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