Plug end JETTED FIRE!!!

[JeffF]

Here's a new one for me...

We had channels 1-8 of a controller blowing it's fuse tonight a couple times. The next to last time I went out there I thought I had it figured out... there was a lot of ice built up in the power plug for that side of the controller so I tried wiping it off and banging out the ice and all seemed well.

About 30 minutes later I noticed those channels were out again so the son and I got the flashlights and another cord since I *thought* the icy power cord was suspect.

I change the cord... change the fuse... and my son plugs in the power cord... ZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAPPPPPPPP*****FFFFLLLLLLAAAAAASSSSSHHHHHH******BANG!

About 10' behind me this all takes place and I see my son's face light up! Then he says WOWWY WOW WOW!!!

I turn around and there is smoke coming from the ground and the frozen grass is smoldering. And boy oh boy did it stink!


As you can see in the above picture, the fuse must have failed and those two plugs are now WELDED together.

I have had small fires in the base of bulbs... I have had fuses SNAP when they pop... I've been shocked a little by a broken bulb(even with GFCIs)... but this was a first for me.

It sounds funny but it was definitely a bonding experience with the kiddo. He now wants us to incorporate pyrotechnics into next year's show.

-Jeff

[JeffF]

Yeah right! He's going to have to keep dreaming of that one...

And I just want to clarify that my son was plugging in the power cord for channels 1-8 and the "fire" was actually 15' away from him at the end of the channel 1 cord(which was behind me). The kiddo wasn't close at all to the hoopla. But I was facing him and yes, I was serious about his face lighting up from the arc. :shock:

Very *powerful* sounding electrical incident. Makes you remember the respect you are supposed to be showing it.

[james campbell]

Jeff Millard wrote:

Jeffrey,

I've been employed in the business of the attempted containment of this mystical invisible beast for 32 years. I have always believed my high school vocational electronics teacher when he said it's a 3000 lb invisible ribid animal hell bent on ripping the life out of you. It has no consience, it doesn't care who gets in it's way, you have no defense from it, and if you don't test EVERYTHING before you touch it... it will make you DEAD. It has one goal. To get back to it's source of generation. If it has the ability to make you a conductor, it will gladly use you for it's only goal. It won't thank you. It will kill you.

More than several times in my life, I've tested something I knew to be dead and found it was energized and wanted me dead. It has no smell. It has no outward appearance. It's just there. Waiting for a victim. Or a pretty Christmas light filament to make glow...

Jeff

wow :shock: now I am afraid of my lights,,,,, no just kidding, you make a very good point do not treat this like it won't hurt you because it's pretty it will hurt or kill if given the chance

[scubado]

Jeff Millard wrote:

Jeffrey,

I've been employed in the business of the attempted containment of this mystical invisible beast for 32 years. I have always believed my high school vocational electronics teacher when he said it's a 3000 lb invisible ribid animal hell bent on ripping the life out of you. It has no consience, it doesn't care who gets in it's way, you have no defense from it, and if you don't test EVERYTHING before you touch it... it will make you DEAD. It has one goal. To get back to it's source of generation. If it has the ability to make you a conductor, it will gladly use you for it's only goal. It won't thank you. It will kill you.

More than several times in my life, I've tested something I knew to be dead and found it was energized and wanted me dead. It has no smell. It has no outward appearance. It's just there. Waiting for a victim. Or a pretty Christmas light filament to make glow...

Jeff

That should be posted in the newbie section.

[Guest guest]

I've actually had that happen LONG before I got into the zany animated dancing Christmas lights.

Seems sometimes those little fuses in the plug just don't always pop, they sometimes explode with the force of a lightning strike and like lightning, spark a fire.

One thing this taught me years ago, and many folks don't even think about this, is to check the fuses in my plugs, if they look discolored or tarnished, I replace them with a new shiny fuse. So far, knock on wood, I have not had another "fusing fire" incident like the original post shows.

So folks may want to start inspecting those little fuses in their light string plugs and replace them if they don't look good. Like I was always taught: "If in DOUBT - CHANGE IT OUT!"

These fuses are usually very inexpensive, pack of a dozen I think can be had at most stores for around $0.99¢.

Never had this happen with a LED string, it was always an incandescent string this happened to. But I still check all my light string plug fuses, whether or not they are LED or Incandescent before I start putting them out in the display.

[Max-Paul]

scubado wrote:

Jeff Millard wrote:

Jeffrey,

I've been employed in the business of the attempted containment of this mystical invisible beast for 32 years. I have always believed my high school vocational electronics teacher when he said it's a 3000 lb invisible ribid animal hell bent on ripping the life out of you. It has no consience, it doesn't care who gets in it's way, you have no defense from it, and if you don't test EVERYTHING before you touch it... it will make you DEAD. It has one goal. To get back to it's source of generation. If it has the ability to make you a conductor, it will gladly use you for it's only goal. It won't thank you. It will kill you.

More than several times in my life, I've tested something I knew to be dead and found it was energized and wanted me dead. It has no smell. It has no outward appearance. It's just there. Waiting for a victim. Or a pretty Christmas light filament to make glow...

Jeff

That should be posted in the newbie section.

And it should be a sticky. But good point Scubado. And Jeff that is a good way of opening eyes to what you and I do every day. Hell I have more warning with my pistols that they are loaded and in some cases cocked.

[Max-Paul]

Sorry Jeffery,
Didn't mean to turn your post into a safety training device. As to your plug and possibly why it turned into a fire breathing dragon. I think you indicated that is was left laying on the ground. Sounds like you have gotten some rain that was turning into ice. Rain water has enough impurities that can cause conducting of current. Once the current starts to bridge over and through some dirt. The impurity starts to cook and turn into carbon. More carbon, more heat that creates more heat. Till we get enough create an arc.
I recommend that you do what ever is needed to keep connections off of the ground. This will allow the water to drain and no ground water that carries even more impurities.

[JeffF]

Just wanted to add that I spliced new plugs onto the existing strands and after making sure there wasn't any short between neutral and hot or hot and mini-tree frame I plugged them in(from afar) and no fireworks.

Connected everything back up and the show ran great tonight.

Seems like there was something going on with the fuse or the plug itself.

[JeffF]

Max-Paul wrote:

Sorry Jeffery,
Didn't mean to turn your post into a safety training device. As to your plug and possibly why it turned into a fire breathing dragon. I think you indicated that is was left laying on the ground. Sounds like you have gotten some rain that was turning into ice. Rain water has enough impurities that can cause conducting of current. Once the current starts to bridge over and through some dirt. The impurity starts to cook and turn into carbon. More carbon, more heat that creates more heat. Till we get enough create an arc.
I recommend that you do what ever is needed to keep connections off of the ground. This will allow the water to drain and no ground water that carries even more impurities.

That's the funny part... they were about 4" off the ground since I raise all my connections up off the ground with light holders. The "jet" actually shot 4" from the plug to the ground and burned the grass. :shock: (almost like when a capacitor is put in backwards and vents...)

[Guest guest]

Jeffrey wrote:

Max-Paul wrote:

Sorry Jeffery,
Didn't mean to turn your post into a safety training device. As to your plug and possibly why it turned into a fire breathing dragon. I think you indicated that is was left laying on the ground. Sounds like you have gotten some rain that was turning into ice. Rain water has enough impurities that can cause conducting of current. Once the current starts to bridge over and through some dirt. The impurity starts to cook and turn into carbon. More carbon, more heat that creates more heat. Till we get enough create an arc.
I recommend that you do what ever is needed to keep connections off of the ground. This will allow the water to drain and no ground water that carries even more impurities.

That's the funny part... they were about 4" off the ground since I raise all my connections up off the ground with light holders. The "jet" actually shot 4" from the plug to the ground and burned the grass. :shock: (almost like when a capacitor is put in backwards and vents...)

I think you had a fuse that wanted to grow up to be a firecracker!

I keep mine off the ground using those mini green light stakes too. I also use those child protector caps in the back of the pass through plugs as well as the end female outlets that are left dangling. Haven't had any water get into a single one of them yet and once I found one that the idiot squirrels knocked out of the stakes and was underwater, show was running too. Haven't really had any water issues since I started using them on ALL open plugs, including controller channel plugs currently not in use.

Don't usually get ice and no snow where I am (very, very rare when we get even a hint of snow in my part of Florida), so can't really say how well they hold up under those conditions. But they may be something you want to consider in the future to keep moisture out of your plugs.

[George Simmons]

Jeffrey wrote:

Seems like there was something going on with the fuse or the plug itself.

Any chance they got peed on? I had a failure just like that one last year which occurred after the plug was peed on by a dog who should have known better.

[JeffF]

George Simmons wrote:

Jeffrey wrote:

Seems like there was something going on with the fuse or the plug itself.

Any chance they got peed on? I had a failure just like that one last year which occurred after the plug was peed on by a dog who should have known better.

Hahaha... you know... we have seen a stray cat 3 or 4 times on the security cameras walking over by those lights. I'm not saying *that* was it but you got me laughing with wonder and my wife saying "Hmmmmm... could be...".

Heh... could even be that the cat was walking around there so maybe one of the neighbors dogs was sniffing around "marking" some territory.

Merry Christmas All!
-Jeff

[WilliamS]

Jeffrey,

I've been employed in the business of the attempted containment of this mystical invisible beast for 32 years. I have always believed my high school vocational electronics teacher when he said it's a 3000 lb invisible ribid animal hell bent on ripping the life out of you. It has no consience, it doesn't care who gets in it's way, you have no defense from it, and if you don't test EVERYTHING before you touch it... it will make you DEAD. It has one goal. To get back to it's source of generation. If it has the ability to make you a conductor, it will gladly use you for it's only goal. It won't thank you. It will kill you.

More than several times in my life, I've tested something I knew to be dead and found it was energized and wanted me dead. It has no smell. It has no outward appearance. It's just there. Waiting for a victim. Or a pretty Christmas light filament to make glow...

Jeff

Thank you Jeff for linking this thread from last year. I feel it almost required that everyone see what Jeff Millard wrote in there. He explains what power is in a way that should really make anyone think twice before plugging into a live circuit with a DIY setup. I know I fear everytime I power something up the first time. I remove myself from the loop by using a switched outlet although this isnt perfect it keeps my hands of the source.

Again This should find its way to the top and stay there. Jeff M. has done this for many years and much respect to all the guys who not only deal with the 120v we play with but the 14000 volt lines. We take for granted what he potentially risked his life for on a daily basis.