The Shocking Truth Behind Melting Outlets from an Electrician in Edmonton: Backstabbed Fire Risk

Hey guys, Kevin from Halo Power Solutions – your electrician in Edmonton. So, today I want to talk to you about arc fault breakers. And let’s find out if you got stabbed in the back by your builder.

Okay. So, once again, I want to remind you if you have not yet subscribed to our YouTube channel, hit that subscribe button so you can keep up with all the great videos we’re putting out every week. Okay. So, if you got a newer home, you likely have what they call arc fault breakers in your electrical panel. These breakers are a safety device. They’ve been a code requirement for several years, and every time we have a code update, they add more devices to the list that need to be protected by our fault. So these breakers, they protect your home. They trip if there is any irregular sparking, arcing, or anything on the circuit.

So here, sub panel, and this breaker right here is the one that’s been nuisance tripping, and it’s tag main floor plugs. So, as electricians, when we think of arc fault breakers, we tend to cringe because many of us have dealt with the nuisance tripping on arc fault breakers. And there’s a certain brand out there that’s notorious for them. I’m not going to—I’m not going to name names, but I’ll tell you they start with C and then with men’s. So, anyways, so when we got the call today about an earth fault that was tripping regularly in this home, we immediately thought that ran a breaker, but actually that wasn’t the case. This home has an eaten panel in it. And from our experience, the eaten arc fault breakers work just fine.

So, just to show you what they look like, you’ll recognize them because they have a test button on the breaker. They look very much like a GFCI breaker. And yeah, like I said, this panel is loaded with eaten breakers. This is actually a sub panel, and we also got some in the main panel as well here.

So, I’ve got a brand new breaker here because I brought one with me because sometimes we get the odd faulty one. So, you’ll see the white tail coming off the back. That’s a neutral connection. So, these breakers connect a little differently than your standard 15 amp or 20 amp breaker. The reason is because we’ve got a connection for the black hot wire, but we’ve also got a connection on here for the neutral, or to be politically correct, the identified conductor. So, here’s what they look like.

So, everything looked just fine in the electrical panel. I didn’t see any issues, obvious issues, with the arc fault breaker. So, we started digging into this a little more with a problem here, and let me show you what we found. I’ve got a plug that has started to burn. They had something plugged in, and it—the heat. Look at that. It’s melted it. Eh, it has.

So, what are you thinking? I’m thinking, and I hate to say it, but new construction. It’s all about speed. And people backstab them. Backstabbing does not give you a good connection. As the metal expands and contracts, eventually starts arcing inside. You don’t see it, but it.

Yeah, you’re right. And it’s usually on the white wire. The—the neutral wire we see in it.

Exactly.

So, I bet your next wire is double—double. It’s neutral wire.

Look at that.

Get her.

So, it’s all discolored there, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So, you really need to have them wrapped around the screws. It’s a better connection. It stops the arcing. You’re still going to have problems if you try pulling too much through, but the breaker takes care of that.

Yeah, you bet. And that’s why we never ever backstab our plugs.

That was my back. I’d be hurting.

Definitely. And if you check this out, it’s actually starting to melt the plug. And—

Oh, look at that.

Yeah, she was getting very, very hot. It’s actually distorted the plug. It’s melted to the point that it bowed it. It bolted and it started smokes.

You know, that’s it. The backstabbing these plugs, and they were plugging in a portable air conditioner which uses a big power draw, and that’s what causes a failure on this bad connection on the backstab and a heavy load on the percept.

Brutal.

Never backstab. No, no, no, no, no.

So, yeah, here’s the culprit right here: portable air conditioner uses a lot of power, and it’s plugged into a receptacle that was backstabbed from new construction.

Questions or do whatever you do.

All right, Ste. So, you got that original melted plug removed.

I did. And you can actually see the difference between the two plugs.

Oh, look at that nice bow when that—that plug it is.

That’s—boy, that thing got hot.

She got hot. She—first time I’ve actually seen one before the whole back was melted off.

Yeah,

I can just see it start there.

Okay. So, what are you going to do different putting in the new one?

Well, I’m not going to backstab it.

Had a boy.

Yeah, that’s just wrong.

Always Hire Professional Electricians

So, what we’re going to do, get them stripped off here. And I don’t know why they still do it—why they still put the holes, the backstab holes, after, you know, everything that’s been going on with these plugs. Like, everyone knows it’s an issue, but it’s quick. And if you’re a builder, you want to get these done as quick as you can.

Let—let Halo Power worry about it 8 years later.

Well, you know what, Blake? Builders are cheap. It gives me work, but it’s just not safe. I’d rather not be fixing something that’s unsafe right from the get-go.

And if you’re ever doing a little side note, make sure you screw in both plug screws.

Yeah, there’s no doubt that upper screw, when it’s left out, can touch the side of the box and cause a whole other problem.

Right. It’s as easy as that. New plug put in and the wires put around the binding screws on the side.

All right, let’s carry on upstairs here. We’ve taken care of the problem on the main floor. Oh, look what we’ve got here. It’s another portable air conditioner. And the customer has reported that the arc fault breaker for this area of the house has tripped a couple times. So, what do you do? So, yeah, this air conditioner draws 11 amps on its own. And you know that’s a lot of juice going through a circuit. So if you got other devices on the circuit, you might be right at the max. And the breaker may not trip on overload, but it could trip because you have a wiring problem with those backstab plugs. That’s where the arc fault really comes into play.

So the way to correct this problem is to take all the plugs apart, and we always replace them. We—we remove the old plugs, and we put new receptacles in, and we go around those side binding screws so that they’re not backstabbed, cuz when you have devices like a portable air conditioner or an electric heater, that’s another one that uses a lot of power. Even a hair dryer, anything like that that uses a lot of power, that’s where you’re going to see a problem in the circuit. And the thing is, all the plugs in your home, they’re actually looped in and out. So, you may have an air conditioner plugged in at a certain point of your home and you find you’ve got a plug that’s melting actually somewhere else in the loop. And it’s because those back sab connections are stabbed in the back. They go in, they go out, they go in it, they go out, and you could have 6, 7, 8, up to 12 receptacles all in that loop, and a problem will arise down the road.

So, yeah, you got a newer home, and the plugs have been backstabbed, you really want to consider getting these receptacles replaced and the wiring put properly around the binding screws because, my opinion, that’s the only way to do it. We’ve shared with the homeowner what we found with that melted receptacle, and they’re making the right decision. They want all the receptacles replaced and connected using the binding screw. And the thing is, if we have plugs here that are in fine working condition and we can get the wires out of the back stab connection, then we’ll just pull them out and reconnect them to the binding screw. But if there’s any chance that that plug looks like it’s got any damage or overheating, we’re going to replace it.

So, final thoughts. What’s my consensus on arc fault breakers? Well, if they’re eaten, or other brands out there that are known to work just fine, they’re good. And in this situation, that arc fault breaker did exactly what it should. It picked up that overheating, that potential sparking, burning that was happening at that receptacle, and it started tripping. So, you know, it was a nuisance to the homeowner, but little did they know, it was doing exactly what it was supposed to do. So, for the most part, I think arc fault breakers are great. Unless they’re that one brand that I won’t mention again, but you may have heard of them.

So that’s all I got. So, if you enjoyed this video, please, you know, send us some comments, give us a like, and definitely subscribe to our YouTube channel if you have not done that yet. Until next time, I’m Kevin with Halo Power Solutions – your electrician in Edmonton, where every day we’re bringing power for life.