Air fryer plug and electrics question

Section62

BarelySentientAI said:

MACKEM99 said:

I have a similar issue with a fan heater.  When heating a room when other heating is off the plug gets too hot to touch at the pins when using around 2k.  The plug is moulded.  Would it be best for me to fit my own plug which I have spares of and have fitted my own many times a long time ago so feel confident I can do it correctly?

Changing the plug would void the warranty of many items (that becomes an issue sometimes for kitchen appliances when people cut the plug off to feed the cable through a cupboard), but apart from that there is no problem with you competently changing to another plug with an appropriate rating and fuse.

Changing the plug is also not a cure-all, since there are plenty of dodgy plugtops on the market which don't necessarily comply with BS1363.

If the appliance is manufactured by a reputable company it is not hugely likely the plug is faulty - and changing the plug may make the situation worse.

The first step I'd take is to swap the fuse for one which definitely complies with BS1362 - i.e. one from a very reputable supplier, not a cheap internet seller.

BS1362 allows for a fuse to have a maximum power dissipation of one watt at the rated current.  Therefore those saying that the plugtop shouldn't get warm in normal use are incorrect.

But what matters - as Risteard pointed out - is whether the plugtop is "warm" or "hot".

BarelySentientAI

Section62 said:

BarelySentientAI said:

MACKEM99 said:

I have a similar issue with a fan heater.  When heating a room when other heating is off the plug gets too hot to touch at the pins when using around 2k.  The plug is moulded.  Would it be best for me to fit my own plug which I have spares of and have fitted my own many times a long time ago so feel confident I can do it correctly?

Changing the plug would void the warranty of many items (that becomes an issue sometimes for kitchen appliances when people cut the plug off to feed the cable through a cupboard), but apart from that there is no problem with you competently changing to another plug with an appropriate rating and fuse.

Changing the plug is also not a cure-all, since there are plenty of dodgy plugtops on the market which don't necessarily comply with BS1363.

If the appliance is manufactured by a reputable company it is not hugely likely the plug is faulty - and changing the plug may make the situation worse.

The first step I'd take is to swap the fuse for one which definitely complies with BS1362 - i.e. one from a very reputable supplier, not a cheap internet seller.

BS1362 allows for a fuse to have a maximum power dissipation of one watt at the rated current.  Therefore those saying that the plugtop shouldn't get warm in normal use are incorrect.

But what matters - as Risteard pointed out - is whether the plugtop is "warm" or "hot".

Completely true - I hid all that by using the word "competently" but your explanation is much better.

Albermarle

coffeehound said:

Albermarle said:

I just checked the 13A plug for our conventional fan oven, ( also around 2.5KW) after it had been switched on for 20 mins. Maybe there was a slight warmth in the cable near the plug, but the plug itself was cold.
With the kettle then cable near the pug was a bit warm, but plus was cold to touch.

I s'pose ovens only draw current for a fraction of the time once they're up to temperature.  Kettles get away with increasingly thin flex since they're only on for a few minutes.   Don't know what kind of duty-cycle airfryers run

I checked it after it had been only on 15 mins, so in warm up/max power phase. Out of interest I will check it again at some point. The plug is at the back of a kitchen unit so not that easy to check.

Risteard

coffeehound said:

Albermarle said:

I just checked the 13A plug for our conventional fan oven, ( also around 2.5KW) after it had been switched on for 20 mins. Maybe there was a slight warmth in the cable near the plug, but the plug itself was cold.
With the kettle then cable near the pug was a bit warm, but plus was cold to touch.

I s'pose ovens only draw current for a fraction of the time once they're up to temperature.  Kettles get away with increasingly thin flex since they're only on for a few minutes.   Don't know what kind of duty-cycle airfryers run

They should still cycle on and off assuming that the thermostat is working correctly. Probably take approximately 3 minutes to reach temperature and should then cycle.

MACKEM99

BarelySentientAI said:

MACKEM99 said:

I have a similar issue with a fan heater.  When heating a room when other heating is off the plug gets too hot to touch at the pins when using around 2k.  The plug is moulded.  Would it be best for me to fit my own plug which I have spares of and have fitted my own many times a long time ago so feel confident I can do it correctly?

Changing the plug would void the warranty of many items (that becomes an issue sometimes for kitchen appliances when people cut the plug off to feed the cable through a cupboard), but apart from that there is no problem with you competently changing to another plug with an appropriate rating and fuse.

It is only a small fan heater that did not cost much and is now out of warranty.  Would it be best to try a fuse that I know is a "genuine" one first.  What I was really asking was is it normal for it to get so hot I cant touch pins?

Bookworm105

flo22 said:

Bookworm105 said:

essex_grl said:

coffeehound said:

If the socket is old, the spring connectors that touch the pins on the plug can get tarnished and slack, both of which could increase the heat produced at the plug pins.  Therefore changing the socket faceplate for a shiny new one *might* help

Thank you. I have tried it in  4 plug sockets and it does the same in all of them.

then the problem is obviously with the plug as unless the air fryer is some dodgy import, there is no way the plug should be getting hot during normal operation as it must be rated for 13amp max otherwise the fryer would not have a "normal" 3 pin plug.

Try using the lead off your kettle (assuming you have a "old fashioned" kettle with detachable lead)). Most air fryers use standard "kettle" sockets for the lead to connect to, with a 3 pin plug for the wall socket, so are perfectly interchangeable with (13 amp) kettle leads.

I have 3 airfryers and none of them use a kettle lead.  I've never check how hot the plugs get but laptop chargers get quite hot and I thought that was normal.

there is a HUGE difference between a kettle lead (a bit of wire comprising a plug and socket) and laptop charger comprising a transformer that reduces voltage from 240v to whatever the laptop batteries need. Transforming voltage means heat is produced as a by product. School level physics.

ashe

I've only skim read the thread but I presume you've tried this with the cable futher away from the device? 

Every air fryer I've had has vents at the back and you're meant to pull them away from wall sockets during use to give them airflow clearance - I've seen pics on groups of plugs melted where this hasn't been done and it's been butted up against the socket.

I pull ours right to the edge of the worktop in use, and back again after it's been cleaned