mvoight

?Don't modern AC outlets on planes have circuit breakers.

platbrownguy

can't let the emotional support peacock get chilly now, that would be cruel

tylerdurden4543

I was on a United flight IAD-HND with another J passenger who had and used a hair straightener in such an outlet. The smell was horrendous.

Ilove2fly

That's different. I am a woman. Being beautiful is paramount.

Seriously, I would suggest that airlines remove all ac outlets and provide only USBs. Unfortunately, someone will come out with a reverse adaptor or sell a blanket with USB cord to get around that.

IADCAflyer

Ummm...There is a not insignifcant number of us that have laptops and do work during the flight.

J S

Is my charcoal grill still allowed?

VSLover

i LOL'd at this but remembered that on long hauls i do bring a small USB powered fan with me because as we know, some planes took away the overhead vent control and i find it insufferably warm on most long haul flights in J or F, especially if i want to use any bedding.

757FO

Yes, but in some aircraft, including the one I fly, if the breaker trips, it will take out the power source for all the power ports at the seat for the entire airplane. We can reset it, but it will only trip again at some point. After that, I won't be resetting it again, as I will deem it a safety issue.

757FO

That's one way to get a decent steak onboard! Just be sure to share with the crew!

Adam Smith

No, but the Foreman should be fine

IrishBoy

This reminds me of the time (pre 9/11) I saw a burly guy bring a large Dell PC Tower, full size monitor, keyboard and mouse literally under his arms while boarding a WN fight ex SJC to AUS. With all cables dangling it was a sight to see. He could have plugged it all in should the outlets have existed then. There should be a general rule to ONLY plug in small personal communication and electronic devices (phones, USB power banks etc). Otherwise how do they prevent Toasters, Rice Cookers and as previously noted aromatic hair straightener devices.

ethernal

I doubt that this is the issue - at least with electric blankets. I'm sure you can find an exception in a king-sized electric blanket that uses 200 watts or so, but the vast majority of electric blankets and heating pads usually use <100 watts. It doesn't take much to warm up an insulated surface (especially when the human body itself puts out another 100 watts). I think the nameplate wattage on most aircraft outlets is around 75W but may will probably do 100W without tripping - and out of any device, one that is going to "fail gracefully" on voltage droop is a heating element since it's literally just electricity flowing through a wire.

Bigger issue is just the straight up fire hazard. Anyone dumb enough to use a heated blanket on a plane is probably dumb enough to ignore frayed wires on it. Heating blankets and space heaters are the #2 cause of house fires (behind only cooking). Makes sense to ban them given that fires on planes typically don't end well.

ethernal

With circuit breakers / output limiters. At least on Delta flights they typically conk out at around 100-125 watts. Basically a 1 amp limit. I'm sure they all use a similar setup.

It seems to be dynamic because I once had a client laptop several years ago that I had to be super careful with - was a friggin 17" powerhouse. It would be fine if I tried to plug it in at 100% charge but if it was drained and was trying to power the laptop + charge the battery it would conk out (the charger was rated at 130 watts output, which probably means 140-150 wall draw). Outlet wouldn't work. Could then power off the laptop and it would usually work okay (to charge the battery back up only) or I could use my regular laptop which was only a 45 watt charger. So it doesn't permanently bork the outlet when you try to breach the limit (like a circuit breaker in your house) - it just doesn't work if you plug in something that tries to draw too much power.

Of course, issues exist at the edge. Hair straighteners typically use 300+ watts when warming up, but there are some models that you can get that are 65-100 watts. Typically have a smaller "head" part and may have a lower max temperature or longer warm up time.

Blumie

This is my favorite type of FlyerTalk thread. Let’s all have a good laugh about how smart we are and how dumb everyone else is. 😬

smf_ltn

Smart would be finding a way to use a USB port to char a steak, and then post the how-to video on our revenue generating airline meal hacking TikTok channel.

The steak guy was outed.