Blogging Roller: Burning smells

Burning smells

are never a good thing...

We detected a funny burning smell in the house last night and it turned out to be an outlet, which had started to brown due to a short. I disconnected the outlet, separated and taped off the wires for safety until we can get an electrician here. Apparently, such problems are common with aluminum wiring, which expands and contracts with the seasons. Jeez. Maybe it's time to move.

This morning, I smelled the same odor coming from my Sun-box and the system started rebooting on it's own. I powered down, disconnected power, opened the case to look and sniff around, but couldn't find any evidence of burning. Finally, I let the machine cool-down for a while and then was able to get it to boot. Now I'm making backups and trying to figure out how to get some hardware support.

Not a great way to end the week, that's for sure.

Dave Johnson in General • 🕒 10:09AM Mar 09, 2007

Comments:

Our last house had aluminum wiring. I was worried when I found this out, as the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire happened in my neck of the woods when I was growing up. Aluminum wiring == evil. IIRC, the main problem is with the actual outlets. Because the wire expands and contracts, it has a tendency to loosen, and then to short. And that you can actually buy outlets that are designed for aluminum wiring. What's special about 'em? No idea. Maybe it was pure hokum. But I replaced every last outlet in that house, and we never had any problems. With the wiring.

Posted by Patrick Mueller on March 09, 2007 at 07:23 PM EST #

We had our outlets replaced too. We suspect that the burned outlet, which is behind a bookcase, was one that the electrician missed.

Posted by Dave Johnson on March 09, 2007 at 07:47 PM EST #

What is it with the US and copper? Was it really expensive at some time? Aluminium wiring and galvanized pipes - mmm - I love that brown water when I come back from vacation!

Posted by Pat on March 12, 2007 at 06:37 AM EDT #