? How come the plug is warmer than the wire?

For space heater & tree lights, how come the plug in the wall socket is warm but the wire is cool? Same when running tools on extension cord, plugs are warm but wires are cool.

My answer: A lot of times, it's a sign of a loose/bad connection on the outlet itself. A terminal screw might be backing off or corrosion might be building, creating a bad connection that in turn, creates heat. Boss man taught me to do a scan with an IR temp gun to see if outlets are all the same temp. If one was warmer than the avarage, more than likely, that plug was the bad one in the circuit.

OT answer: The randomness of TacoPancake Warehouse means that I didnt get curly fries with my burger.

Because the male prongs are a contact point in the plug thus there is a slight voltage drop causing the amperage to go up and create heat...

^^^^this

When current increases, so does the heat......Christmas lights are another theory of mine. In a series circuit, if you put 4 light bulbs in series, the load closer to the power source will consume the most voltage thus being the brightest light. Since there�s only one path for current flow each light there after will be dimmer. In parallel, there�s more than one path for current to flow therefor each load will share the same volatage. Everyone has had Christmas lights that half of the strand doesn�t work because 1 bulb is loose or broken. That would be, in theory, considered in series. Let�s go back to the 4 bulbs mentioned above that are in series. If you remove 1 bulb out of the 4, all of the bulbs will go out. If they were in parallel, like your house is wired, if one bulb goes out everything stays illuminated.... so my theory on Christmas lights is, I don�t know how in the hell they have each individual load wired. Space everything out. 5 strands of lights with 2 amp fuses inside the male adapters doesn�t need to be on a 10A breaker. That�s how houses get burned down because that cheap fuse may not trip.

Presence of heat indicates a load is being powered and heat is generated by the power driving the load. The connector/plug interface is a load. It should not be. Move the plug to another socket and observe. Either the plug or the receptacle is bad.

The male to female connection is a friction fit. The springs in side the female slots grip the male prongs.

Over age the springs in wall plugs lose thier grip. Resulting in a poor connection. A little load created heat causes the springs to expand creating a weaker connection creating more heat.....

Molded plug ends on cords are by design poor as compared to after market ends attached with screws.


The melted male plug is the effect of heat caused by loose connection in female plug.

Ask Derek about other issues cause by the loose female plug.