Receptacles burning

[mgookin]

I have seen 240 applied to a GFCI receptacle, it goes pop and the smoke comes out.

No fire. Doubt UL would list them if a predictable overvoltage made them burst into flames.

We could speculate as to what's popping - is the resistor only rated 120V or is the coil failing, etc.?

But I'd lean towards it being an inherent safety measure. Think of all the damage from 240V running through electronics (we've all seen that smoking television) when a neutral is lost. I'd rather "pop" a GFCI than smoke a $1,000 tv.

 

[kwired]

We could speculate as to what's popping - is the resistor only rated 120V or is the coil failing, etc.?

But I'd lean towards it being an inherent safety measure. Think of all the damage from 240V running through electronics (we've all seen that smoking television) when a neutral is lost. I'd rather "pop" a GFCI than smoke a $1,000 tv.

But in many cases you likely get to pop the GFCI and smoke the TV at the same time.

 

[mgookin]

And you avoided fire.

 

[rt66electric]

duplicate the occurance..

duplicate the occurance..

Get an old gfci receptacle and a lighter take them to the owner, then show him how the damage was made.
Bust open the original damaged receptacle and show him that there are no burn marks on the inside.

 

[ATSman]

Voltage Transients on ungrounded systems

Voltage Transients on ungrounded systems

FYI

The file was too big to attach but go to the 5th entry down on
this page to click on the Eaton white paper:

https://www.google.com/#q=Voltage+transients+ungrounded+systems

 

[just the cowboy]

Night light

Night light

I just had a night light mark the GFI ,the wall plate and wall behind it, not as bad as that. My wife tapped it because it did not work and shorted the filament, it still worked for days till she showed me the wall, and I ripped it out.