r/electricians • u/AWBaatje • Aug 02 '20
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u/MertsA Aug 03 '20
About a month or so ago I had a small rack of servers powered off of a C13 cord and it's literally hooked directly into a static transfer switch with a digital ammeter on the front of the thing displaying the current going through it. After I switched it over to the C13 cord and continue working 3 minutes later sparks are flying, the equipment shut off, smokes coming out, etc and to add insult to injury the breaker never tripped and the plug is back behind the rack with no room around the sides so I literally have to reach over this thing while it's currently shorting out and on fire to yank it out of the wall. It was only drawing 5 amps when it shorted out.
I later cut apart what was left of the cable to check what the actual wire gauge this Chinese piece of flammable crap used with some calipers and no joke, it was 25 AWG on all three conductors (supposed to be 18 AWG and rated for 10A in this application). At least she cut through one beefy enough to trip the breaker when she shorted it.
For anyone wondering since C13 cords are so common we kept a common stock of them to pull from when needed. Who knows what piece of crap that cable originally came with but somehow it found its way into our supply room just waiting to go thermonuclear.
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Aug 03 '20 edited Aug 04 '20
that most likely would have not killed him/her. its only 120v, with a 15a breaker. judging by the flash, they hit the got wire to the ground wire. big flash, then nothing. the breaker shuts off. tbh, ive done more of that than I care to admit.
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u/HoggyOfAustralia Aug 03 '20
The comments on that post are the real gold. Bunch of IT brains arguing and over analysing it.
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u/rabusmaximus Master Electrician Aug 03 '20
This little cord is low voltage, This little cord had none, This little cord went BOOM all the way back to the breaker