Oil filled radiator, plug seems to have exploded

ACon

I bought an oil filled radiator from Very only a month ago. It has a thermostat and a timer, so I assume designed to be plugged in when youre not around... however yesterday when I tried to turn it on it wouldn't work, traced back to the plug and found it was melted, burnt and stuck in the socket. It looks like its exploded. I was a little bit taken aback, as this could have easily caused a fire, I use these in my childrens rooms, as its cheaper than oil central heating.
It is again a Swan appliance, like my faulty washing machine, also from Very....
I havent had a chance to contact them yet, but Im taking pictures of the plug and the socket it has destroyed, and want to know what I should do about this.

paddyrg

Contact them pronto! Contact both the vendor and Swan.

You are lucky the plug was to British Standard then, some cheapo illegal ones don't self-extinguish and your place would have been done for - at least yours put itself out!

Fuse blowing is one thing, plug melting into the socket is another - and absolutely a sign of a bigger problem.

Did your house electrics trip? If not, may be worth getting a qualified spark to check your system - any surge big enough to melt a plug into a socket should knock out the breakers I'd imagine.

ACon

No the first I knew was when I tried to turn it on, so the electrics didnt go, which is odd because they trip over light bulbs going etc normally.
Ive two of these heaters, would you assume they are not safe? im not sure what to do now, I really needed them.

shaun_from_Africa

Before you contact the shop of the manufacturers, you should get someone to check out the socket that the radiator was plugged into.

If the spring contacts in this were loose, there would be a very poor, high resistance contact between the pins of the plug and the socket terminals, and there would be sparking and heating up of the pins.
This heat would travel up the plug pins into the body of the plug and would cause exactly the thing that you describe.

If this was the cause, it would be a slowish process and there wouldn't be any large current draw so there would be no reason for any of your CB's to trip.

paddyrg

Good thoughts from Shaun - in fact in fairness the heater could be absolutely innocent and your socket was naff (in which case the fire would still be perfectly fine, probably). You should probably get a sparky anyway who can diagnose properly.

Ectophile

If the plug's melted, then I would be wary of the condition of the socket afterwards, even if it wasn't faulty beforehand.

I'm not that surprised that the electrics didn't trip. A household ring circuit is capable of delivering a huge amount of power - easily enough to melt a plug.