My wife the inadvertent welder.

What an interesting call to get from my wife..."I need you to come home, I've created a fireworks show in the apartment" So..let me begin, we have 2 cats and they have a toy that is a thin piece of metal wire with a small mouse attached to the end. My wife routinely trips over this toy and it drives her nuts, so this morning she decided she would punt this toy into the living room. With stunning accuracy she manages to wrap this toy around a nightlight that is very slightly leaned forward out of the wall socket. The toy then manages to wrap itself around both prongs of the nightlight and causes the metal wire from the toy to then weld itself to the prongs and creates a hell of a black mark on our wall and outlet cover. I only saw this through FaceTime and haven't been home to assess any damage, but I'm happy the apartment is still standing and the wife and kiddo are ok.

Is the wire still welded to one of the prongs? Is the light still plugged into the receptacle?

Wire is still welded to the prongs. She removed the light, it's pretty toasted and melted slightly.

If the cat had been playing with the toy at the time, she would have solved a number of problems all at once.

Oops. Hopefully it tripped the breaker?

Otherwise, stop at Lowes Depot on the way home, pick up a new plug and fix it when you get home. Maybe a new receptacle and cover plate as well.

In reply to bearmtnmartin:

This is very true.

In reply to Ian F:

I'm hoping that's the case as well, I'll pick up a new plate and plug.

It's nice that there are still plenty of sparks in your relationship with your wife.

The thread title intrigued me and I was not disappointed. Thank you

In reply to thatsnowinnebago:

Glad it did not disappoint. I'm looking forward to getting home and seeing this first hand.

In reply to 1988RedT2:

Some say our relationship is "electric"

This is why most receptacles in hospitals and commercial setting are installed upside down.

The ground then protects the hot and neutral.

In reply to Toyman01:

This goes without saying but don't get the wires mixed up working upside down. For how I often I do electrical work the number of improperly wired outlets I find is disgusting, hot/black goes to the skinny prong!

That seems like one of those things that you couldn't do again if you tried (Not that, you'd want to)

Yup, "hot" to the "brass" screw, neutral to the "silver" screw. I've seen some really odd stuff in homes, so it's good to check and make sure the black wire is indeed the "hot" and the white is a neutral.

And don't forget to turn the breaker off first!

And Toyman is absolutely right- ground up does help prevent this from happening. Everything in my house is ground up.

Oh, C'mon man. If you turn the power off, how will you be able to tell when you made a mistake?

This whole story is shocking.

She did good, all 4 outlets in the vicinity of the plug are not working. I'll try resetting the breaker tonight. It appears the entire living room is set up on the same breaker.

That's good. The breaker did what it's supposed to do.

WOW what dose the night lite look like?

In reply to Donebrokeit:

If you look closely you'll notice the metal wire "welded" to the prong. I'm impressed to be honest.

Right after reading this thread a coworker told me about her neighbor's house that burned to the ground yesterday after an electric air freshener caught fire. Sad irony is that he is a fireman but the good news is every fireman in the area showed up to help. Turns out those $5 electronic air fresheners that use oil don't have a mechanism to shut themselves off if they run out of oil. Lost their dog and everything, so sad.

Really glad to hear that your wife had a cool head and responded quickly to the events as they unfolded.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Oh, C'mon man. If you turn the power off, how will you be able to tell when you made a mistake?

That's the advice my legal department makes me give

EastCoastMojo wrote: Right after reading this thread a coworker told me about her neighbor's house that burned to the ground yesterday after an electric air freshener caught fire. Sad irony is that he is a fireman but the good news is every fireman in the area showed up to help. Turns out those $5 electronic air fresheners that use oil don't have a mechanism to shut themselves off if they run out of oil. Lost their dog and everything, so sad. Really glad to hear that your wife had a cool head and responded quickly to the events as they unfolded.

Yeah, it really makes you consider all the cheesy gadgets we think nothing of plugging into our outlets. Night lights, air fresheners, battery chargers, potpourri cookers, etc. etc. Any of that junk has the potential to cause a fire.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

Wow, that's awful. Glad you brought that up though, I've always been a little uneasy having those things around. They get super hot after they run out of the oil.

Looks like the small wire more or less instantly vaporized, Pull the cover and have a look to be sure but I'd bet it just needs the breaker flipped and the smoke stains cleaned up. Though the whole gap between plug and outlet deal to begin with is usually a cheap worn out outlet problem.

Glad the welding didn't lead to a fire!

That cat toy is the extreme favorite of my cats. We go through one of those pricey suckers a month. I don't know what the yield strength of that cable is, but my big orange tabby manages to exceed it regularly.