#weveheardofit — Public Fediverse posts

Received some "NEMA 1-15P" 2-pole rewireable electrical plugs (seen on North American lamp cords, ungrounded small appliances, etc) yesterday, from an #AliExpress seller. Advertised as rated for 10A, but the shells actually have "15A" embossed on them, so strike one...

The plug #blades look like brass - the colour is pretty much spot-on - but they practically jump at a magnet. The #brass colour scratches off with a sharp blade, revealing shiny silver metal. It's steel. *Stainless* steel.

So, not just a scam, but a dangerous scam. Plain steel has about three times the resistance of the brass that electrical plug contacts are normally made from. Stainless steel is worse, around eleven times the resistance of brass. So you run a significant current through these - like, say, the 10 amps they're advertised for - and they will get hot, much hotter than brass. And as they heat up their resistance increases a *lot*. Which generates more heat. Rinse and repeat, then your house burns down.

Just posting as a reminder: AliExpress / #Temu / #Ebay / #Amazon third-party markets can be a great place for hobbyists to get cheap parts, but *never* trust that they are what they say they are. Check everything you get to make sure it's the real deal before using it if there are *any* safety implications of them being fakes. If you don't know and can't find out how to test it, buy the real thing.

#fire #danger #fake #scam #electrical #safety #Chinesium #qwality #WeveHeardOfIt