elec kinda scares me... what should i do

[gusherb]

I'm late to the party so everything I would say has already been said, but I will say have experienced burned outlets more than once in my life and it can be unsettling to think of what could've happened if I or somebody wasn't there to catch it in time so I like to proactively replace any outlet that feels loose.

I just did that over the weekend for a friend at her new home though the damage had already been done, it just never started a fire. Sump pump was plugged into an old ungrounded outlet with the two prong adapter on an extension cord and the cord was just hanging out of the outlet so I went to push it in and the pump came to life as well as the outlet buzzing like mad so I ripped it out and saw the burning/oxidation on the prongs. It had gone on so long that the 2 prong adapter was melted to the extension cord and the end of the cord was toast so new outlet and extension cord it was.

 

[turbokinetic]

In reply to post 13

Sorry if it seems that I contradicted you. If so, it wasn't intentional.  Probably haste on my part.  I saw the original post and replied what I thought happened without reading through all the previous replies. 

 

[anthony]

same thing

happened to me recently. A relatively new washer had the tell tale smell of burning .Over here in the UK the socket is usually hidden in a cupboard as mine is .Once i found the faulty plug i cut it off and replaced it[and the socket] with a replacement and now all is fine