Blown plug

[IanF]

I replaced some plug points today as they didn't work.
Here are some pics.
The 'blown plug"


Here is the front with the cover off



This was caused by an old school tumble dryer luckily we bought a new style tumble dryer that does not draw that much electricity.

Would I need to get an electrician in to see if the circuit is damaged there is no random tripping.

[AndyD]

This type of damage is usually caused by poor wiring terminations or poor contact between the pin of the plug and the female contact inside the socket. If you ever replace a burned socket always replace the plugs that are usually used in it and vice versa, if you ever get a burned or melted plug also replace the socket it was plugged into.

If there's damage to the installation wiring in the back of the socket where the insulation has melted, gone brittle or retreated up the wires or even gone crispy and fallen off then it will need a sparky to repair. Repairing would usually involve removing the damaged section completely if there's sufficient spare or resleeving with a couple of layers of heat shrink or extending withing ferrules if necessary.

[Justloadit]

Once the copper has annealed, I find that re-sleaving may cover the wire from an insulation point of view, however the actual structure has changed and the wire is now soft and if bent a few times will break. I am also not sure if there is a change in the resistance of the wire and maybe cause a 'hot spot' under high current at the point that the wire is placed under the screw of the terminal, as it starts to give in under the pressure and temperature. personally I would replace the soft section as Andy suggests.

[IanF]

The wires into the plug all looked fine with no burn. The fridge and tumble dryer both have sealed plugs with no burn marks and are quite new. So we will watch this carefully the new dryer is a condenser dryer and doesn't use that much power.

[tec0]

punch it, if it trips you have troubles... Sounds stupid right but not really... i had a plug that would trip for no reason so one day i just gave it a smack and pop and it tripped. i got a new pug installed it and had the same thing happening? So i gave it a good smack and the power tripped turns out i had bigger problems as the earth and black wire where touching "cable burned in a place i couldn't really see" so i replaced the cable with a nice new one "electrician cost me an arm and a leg" but it is safe now...

It is never a good idea to smack a plug but sometimes just sometimes it end-up showing you that you may have other problems. do this on your own risk or just get a smoke detector if something starts to melt and burn that you know about it