Space heater plug gets hot. When you plug in the space heater in the wall outlet to turn it, then its plug gets a little hot when you touch it after some time. But, the question is how much the heaters plug gets warm?
Unplugging it from the wall outlet would be best without feeling uneasy.
If the space heater’s plug is so warm that you cannot touch it with your hands and you can not keep your fingers on it, it means something is wrong with the plug, and you must check it to save yourself from fire hazards.
There are a lot of causes behind the heater plug getting warm, like loose connections, short circuits, dirty prongs, defective cables, etc.
Dealing with electrical appliances is not easy, so I suggest you hire a skillful electrician to fix this problem if you are willing to solve this problem by yourself. Then read this blog post because I am sharing various troubleshooting tips to solve this issue.
Space heater plug gets hot
You can not survive in the winter season without space heaters. But the actual issue starts when you check the space heater plug gets warm.
You can not continue using a space heater with a hot plug because it is a very dangerous risk. Mostly a space heater plug gets hot when it pulls out a lot of electric currents.
If the plug has become very warm and you are even unable to touch it, check the following points to fix the issue, but before that, wear safety gloves and shoes to save yourself from electric shock.
Loose connection
A loose connection basically increases the resistance and pushes the heater to pull out more electric current to join its demands.
A large amount of electricity in the shape of heat is missed, which makes the plug too warm that you can not touch it with your fingers, and unfortunately, if you touch it, your fingers will be burned.
If you check the space heater plug is too hot and you can not touch it, then follow these steps.
Open the main circuit box, which is normally installed in the garage or basement of a house. Find the circuit breaker of the space heater and change its position to OFF.
Now, wait for twenty minutes to cool down the plug. When the plug gets cool, unplug the space heater from the wall outlet.
Now try to plug the heater into some other wall outlet in the room and switch on it.
If the space heater’s plug does not get warm, then it means there is an issue with the other outlet so stop using that socket.
If you are living in an old home or building, then the connections are also old so ask an electrician to check all wall outlet connections and replace the loose connections.
Short circuits
Sometimes, there is not an issue of a loose connection in the socket or plug, but unfortunately, there is a short circuit in the space heater.
When a short circuit occurs in a space heater, then it starts to consume more electric current. As a result, a large amount of wasted current heats the heater’s plug.
In this situation, immediately contact a skillful electrician who will inspect the wiring from inside. You will have to pay some dollars, but it is necessary to get safety from fire hazards.
A short circuit usually occurs when you are using the space heater for a long time, so it’s better to replace the old one with a brand new one because an old one can create future problems.
Faulty cable
Faulty cable is also one of the leading causes of this problem because if the cord between the space heater and the wall outlet is small in length, then the space heater will not be able to provide all of the required energy.
As a result, the socket and wire will melt after increasing the pressure.
Try to plug the space heater into some other wall outlet in the home and check if the plug is still heating up or not.
If the plug still heats up in the new outlet, then your cable is faulty, and you need to replace it with a new quality power cable.
Clean the Prongs
The space heater’s plug also gets hot when its prongs become dirty. The dust and debris on the prongs make the connection lose, and resistance increases due to it.
As mentioned above, more resistance pushes the heater to pull out extra current. As a result, more electric current is dragged out, which makes the space heater plug get hot.
So, clean all the dust and debris from the dirty prongs using a soft sponge or fabric and then insert them into the wall outlet.
Conclusion
The bottom line of the article is that if you are facing an issue that your space heater plug gets hot after plugging in the outlet after some time, then mostly it happens due to loose connections, faulty cable, dirty prongs, frayed wiring, short circuit, etc.
So It is suggested to you that dealing with high voltage connections is not suitable until you are not professional, so contact with professional to sort out the issue. I am hopeful this blog post will be helpful to you.
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