In the basement I had a circuit with 2 outlets and 3 ancient flourescent light fixtures. 24" tubes with pull chains. First one worked, 2nd didn't last one had no power. .
Cloth covered 12-2 with the dinky ground wire. 1st outlet was a 2 prong, no ground.
Shut off breaker, open the recptacle box. By the time I got the outlet out......just fell apart in my hands.
(03-27-2018, 09:11 PM)EdL Wrote: The splices were wrapped with cloth electrical tape, guessing they are soldered connections.
Ed
To be cheap they would twist the wires and wrap with friction tape instead of wire nuts. Course that's still better than using Buchanan wire nuts. (They are garbage)
There are so few environmental issues in a residential setting that would cause a thermoset plastic to fail, that I would suspect that the part was formed incorrectly, or with incorrect materials.
This article is interesting if you want to know what will cause thermoset plastics to fail.
Note: A thermoset plastic is one that cannot be re-melted. It undergoes a molecular change as well as a shape change. Ashtrays, melamine and many electrical components are made from thermoset plastic. It is very hard, heat resistant and chemical resistant. The hardness comes at a price: It can be brittle.
(03-27-2018, 08:35 PM)EdL Wrote: Cloth covered 12-2 with the dinky ground wire. 1st outlet was a 2 prong, no ground.
Forgot this part. Maybe not so modern, as cloth covered NMC goes back at least to the 1950's, and ungrounded Bakelite receptacles were still common then AFAIK.
Tom
“This place smells like that odd combination of flop sweat, hopelessness, aaaand feet"
(03-28-2018, 09:47 AM)TDKPE Wrote: Forgot this part. Maybe not so modern, as cloth covered NMC goes back at least to the 1950's, and ungrounded Bakelite receptacles were still common then AFAIK.
My guess was 50's also....
The receptacle was an Eagle brand, I've seen more failures on them than any other. The Bakelite gets brittle over time.
(03-27-2018, 10:37 PM)Robert Adams Wrote: To be cheap they would twist the wires and wrap with friction tape instead of wire nuts. Course that's still better than using Buchanan wire nuts. (They are garbage)
We were at the condo of one of my wife's friends. I was replacing some outside wall mounted lights for them. This was under a covered patio, but still. The lights were screwed directly to the wall, no boxes. As far as I could tell the wiring had been pushed through the wall and then run up the outside of the wall behind the siding. The fixture wiring was connected by twisting two wires together and then taping them. Evidently they ran out of electrical tape because two of the splices were done with caution tape. I got some surface mount boxes. I couldn't do anything about the wiring behind the siding, but at least I could do the splices properly.
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