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Friday 4 November 2016

"Solder creep" and an unpleasant smell...

Just been sat in the workshop doing a few little jobs, and there's a funny small of something getting too warm. I've noticed it on and off for a couple of days, thought it was the wood burning stove in the other room yesterday, but tonight, it's definitely coming from round the computer area.... immediate investigation required.

After a couple of mins I found it.

There's an extension block connected to the output from a UPS. It's warm. Damn warm....


Further investigation shows the neutral has been overheating. I've disconnected it here. The wire has been soldered! Never, ever solder a mains cable (or any stranded cable for that matter) before fitting it into a screw type fitting. The solder "creeps" up the cable, and leaves a resistive loose connection behind.



This lead was carrying less than 500W ... so nowhere near maximum load.

I wonder how many more of this brand I have?

Not many I hope. This one's for the bin...













2 comments:

  1. Odd how often this happens on the neutral connection.

    But, as you say, never ever tin a stranded wire that's going into that sort of screw terminal.

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  2. It is odd how it's more often the neutral....

    Also odd how double pole mains switches also fail open on the neutral side more often.

    Strange!

    ReplyDelete