Selenium rectifiers in Zenith radios

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

House fuses and breakers don't always catch failures. ......POW the insulation between the leads at the plug failed, and it let out a bunch of smoke and a pinky red flame from the plug after a moment of surprise I grabbed the cord away from the plug and gave it a good yank which managed to unplug it. The aftermath: a good 1/4" of one of the cord wires starting at the plug moving towards the toaster was vaporized, and the outlet and plate that I had changed months earlier was charred and had to be replaced. The fuse never blew!

Maybe your house used Federal Pacific Electric stab-lok breakers, electricians call them "No-Trip". http://www.ismypanelsafe.com/fpe.aspx. Quality breakers should kick out immediately when a dead short happens.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

Maybe your house used Federal Pacific Electric stab-lok breakers, electricians call them "No-Trip". http://www.ismypanelsafe.com/fpe.aspx. Quality breakers should kick out immediately when a dead short happens.

There is no overcurrent device, even fuses, which is still the best overcurrent protection, there is. As long as the current rating of the overcurrent protection is not exceeded, it'll never open the circuit.
That's where, the new arc-fault circuit breakers, come into play! They're supposed to open, when it senses a arcing condition is present, as referred to, with the failure of the high current cord on the heating appliance.
That also could be traced to, back stabbed or loose receptacles, poor wire-nut connections, etc.
There has been problems, regarding oversensitive AFCI breakers, but that problems seems to be addressed.

[quaddriver]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

There is no overcurrent device, even fuses, which is still the best overcurrent protection, there is. As long as the current rating of the overcurrent protection is not exceeded, it'll never open the circuit.
That's where, the new arc-fault circuit breakers, come into play! They're supposed to open, when it senses a arcing condition is present, as referred to, with the failure of the high current cord on the heating appliance.
That also could be traced to, back stabbed or loose receptacles, poor wire-nut connections, etc.
There has been problems, regarding oversensitive AFCI breakers, but that problems seems to be addressed.

exactly. A welder, pretty close to a dead short, is what one of these vaporizing cords become....