TIFU by trusting a cheap power strip in my home office

I was working from my living room in Phoenix last Wednesday when I smelled something burning. Looked down and saw my $7 power strip from the discount bin was actually melting at the plug. Yanked everything out fast before it caught fire. Turns out it was only rated for 600 watts and I had a monitor, desktop, and heater all running through it. Threw it in the trash and spent $25 on a proper surge protector the same day. Anybody else almost burn their place down trying to save a few bucks on electrical stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

faith_carter4d ago

Did your power strip actually have a brand name on it or was it just a plain white box? My buddy Rick tried the same thing last winter, plugged a space heater and his gaming PC into one of those cheapo $5 strips from the gas station. Thing started smoking and melted the plastic around the switch real bad, he smelled it from across the apartment. He's lucky he caught it before it caught the carpet on fire, now he only buys the thick yellow ones from the hardware store.

the_anthony4d ago

Wait, did that cheap strip even have a basic safety certification like UL on it? I'm guessing that's how they sell those fire hazards for $7, just skip the testing entirely.