Agent 405
07-06-2013, 09:26 AM
Last weekend I lost AC power to my Refrigerator, outside outlet, and bathroom outlets. All of these run through the GFCI outlet in the kitchen. Since the kitchen outlet was working and all of the other outlets after it were not I started with the kitchen outlet. When I removed it I found that the back the outlet was slightly burnt where the wires connect and send power to the other outlets. The wires were loose and the attaching screws were not tight. When I removed the wires I found that they had only stripped the wires back about an1/8 of an inch. The strip gauge on the back of the outlet calls for ¾ of an inch. Since the wire wasn’t stripped back enough when the connector was tightened it crimped mostly on the insulation and not the bare wire. Due to this poor connection the wire overheated became loose and failed.
None of the wires in this outlet were correctly stripped and all of the connections were loose. My concern now is all of the other outlets in the trailer. I haven’t had time but I will be inspecting all of them.
None of the wires in this outlet were correctly stripped and all of the connections were loose. My concern now is all of the other outlets in the trailer. I haven’t had time but I will be inspecting all of them.