One Kill-a-watt Dead

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

Just hit the 2,000 mile mark today. Came back after an hour of being plugged in at home after work to find the bike not charging. Hitting the reset button on the GFCI was able to get power back. Upon closer inspection of the Kill-a-watt, the plastic between the terminals is melted and brown



Granted, the power in my apartment is terrible. I can't run fluorescent lighting in most fixtures because the power is inconsistent to the point where the flickering results in burnt out lights after a week or two. But, the power running through the kill-a-watt was always pretty consistent (125V with no draw, 115V with, wattage between 1300 and 1400, and a solid 11 to 12 amps).

 

[EmpulseRider]

KILL-A-KILL-A-WATT
Sorry, couldn't resist...

[frodus]

wow... that's weird! I'll inspect mine too, but I have a different model....

I'm going to look into real metering equipment later to keep track of Wh/Cost, not as feature rich, but the company I work for (Leviton) sells metering, as well as J1772 L1/L2 and GFCI's.

[protomech]

What metering equipment are you looking at?

[EmpulseRider]

Arent there devices out there that will filter and clean up dirty power? Not sure that would help in this case if the power going to that outlet is indeed clean... but if the whole apartment is like that I would assume that isnt the case despite the apparent consistency reported by the Kill-a-watt.

[frodus]

Protomech: I'm going to chat with the metering guys at Leviton to see if they might have an old prototype or something..... but basically something from here: http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/SectionDisplay.jsp?section=48574&minisite=10251

00049: It may not neccessarily be a case of clean power, but a higher-than-designed for power being drawin through the front plug. Is it under warranty? I'd return it and tell them you're using it on 120V with less than 1400W going through it. I'm thinking it's designed to withstand that, but not neccesarily for long periods. Those plugs, if they have a high contact resistance, can heat up quite a bit.

Read this:
http://priuschat.com/threads/which-kill-a-watt-are-you-guys-planning-on-using.104744/page-2
Apparently some owners have problems with Melting because of that constant current.

My thought is, they're rated for 15A max, but not continuous. What appliances do we really have that are drawing max watts for more than 10-15 minutes at a time? Duty cycle on appliances is much less than something like a Car/Motorcycle charger.

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

Good to know. I have reported the incident to saferproducts.gov. Given the number of other incidents, I'm surprised these are still for sale, or at least without a warning that extended use at higher amperage could result in fire.

I definitely will not be getting another one, which is too bad because I really like to know how much energy my bike is using.

[protomech]

My thought is, they're rated for 15A max, but not continuous. What appliances do we really have that are drawing max watts for more than 10-15 minutes at a time? Duty cycle on appliances is much less than something like a Car/Motorcycle charger.

A big space heater, vacuum cleaner or shop vac, some types of power tools, small air conditioner / handler units, very large fans, a large sump pump, etc.

[frodus]

Those are all examples of non continuous duty except for the fan!!! Even then its unlikely that a residential fan would draw that much. Those others are only on for minutes at a time... And cycle.