- 2025
- Jan
- 18
I guess the wire was supposed to be the fuse?
Here’s some wire from the appliance test box I posted about a few days ago. One piece is the line cord, the other some of the internal wiring.
I should mention that this box was rated for 15 amps AC.
The black one is the power cord. It’s nice, heavy, stranded red copper. The closth-covered one? Nah, bro. That’s 18GA and is rated for 14A. Other wire in the box was 18GA PVC coated, and certainly would have started smelling a little funny had you ran this device at max capacity - indeed, that metal toggle on the front had a terminal where the solder had melted away and it was just hanging on by a thread. Something in there had been hot for a long time.
I had made a joke about self-fused wire and a portable house fire in waiting on LinkedIn, but it didn’t go over well. People were getting very upset over it and I decided that was something not appropriate for the audience there. I guess my sense of humor is just strange.
Regardless, this thing wasn’t anywhere near rated for it’s nameplate capacity. I’m really surprised there wasn’t more heat damage evidence on the various connections. All of that old stuff has been removed and discarded, the only thing that will be in use is one of the ceramic sockets and a new meter that I’ll install before use.
The post about the device itself: https://wereboar.com … -waage-066-test-box/