Unsafe electrical socket in hotel room
 

See the photo. This is at an undisclosed major chain in an undisclosed major city (of course, on the Hotel Row).

This could maim, kill, cause a fire, etc. No amount of reward loyalty points could compensate for that.

I will show this photo to the GM when he arrives later this morning.

My question to the FT community; what would you all do? I'm one night into a two night stay.

http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4c7b26a9.jpg

I wouldn't wait for the GM. Although glaringly obvious in your photo, this is the kind of problem that I would expect hotel maids would easily overlook. It is indeed dangerous, and it needs to be fixed ASAP. Report it to the front desk immediately so that maintenance can be sent to fix the problem. Unless the hotel can assure you that the problem will be fixed immediately, I would expect them to relocate you to another room.

I wouldn't think that this is the result of lax maintenance at the hotel, however, but rather the action of an earlier guest who didn't bother to report the problem that he caused when the prongs separated from the plug or who may have even been unaware of the problem himself until the next time he tried to use the plug and found he only had one prong (and now we have one of the reasons why electrical manufacturers tell you not to yank a plug from a receptacle by the cord). How closely do we check all of the electrical outlets in our homes on a regular basis? If you knew that the problem had been reported and not fixed, then you'd perhaps have a reason to ask the hotel or its loyalty program for some form of compensation. Won't hurt to ask anyway, but I wouldn't be surprised if the request was declined.

I would think that a call to the front desk to have someone from maintenance come up and pull out the broken prong would suffice. If the socket has been damaged, or they think it has, then they should turn off the breaker that controls that socket. That may affect other outlets or lights and if doing so inconveniences you - or if you're just uncomfortable with the whole situation - ask to switch rooms. If you're really concerned, ask for one on a floor below the one you're currently on and near a stairwell on the opposite side of the hotel. But that's getting pretty paranoid.

just call the front desk and tell them to send up a maintenance guy to fix it. you think you should move to a different hotel? different city? different state? call the fire dept?

the front desk might even send up a maid to do the nasty job. i gather someone yanked the cord, upward, and the prong came out.

sounds like you are a compensation fisher. maybe you want a month in a lux suite in their best hotel for comp. you should get nothing but fast service from maintenance. everybody wants comp.

I agree with the two posters above; however, immediately it is not a direct hazard, as the prong is stuck in the neutral side of the outlet. This is at the same potential as ground and will not cause a shock, fire, etc.

So instead of calling the front desk to send someone up with a pair of insulated pliers, your first course of action is to complain on FT? :rolleyes:

Though, as pointed out previously, the prong is stuck in the neutral side. You could pull it out bare handed since neutral is the same potential as ground.

Assuming the plug was wired correctly, that's the neutral side and there is little danger of anything happening unless you unwind a paper clip, stick it in the other side, and touch the part sticking out.

Even if the plug was wired in reverse, there's still not much that can go wrong as it is.

There is little chance of it maiming anybody, starting a fire, or killing anybody unless you start playing around with it.

Call the front desk, they will send somebody up with a pair of pliers who will simply pull the prong out. Everything else is an over reaction to a non event.

Resolving this isn't for all FT's - some of us are more technically inclined to deal with simple issues like this as DIY, especially when we are (soon, anyway - within the USA) equipped with our SAK or Leatherman (Coleman, in my case b/c it's economical) tools ... it has a small plier on mine that unfold, in addition to that small knife blade that's 1.6" long) Slip on a latex glove (from my travel pounch) for extra margin of safety (in case of reversed polarity, etc.) and do a simple extraction, and, pronto- it's out of that socket and the outlet is rendered safe again. More importantly, useful again as I usually only look for an available outlet when I'm ready to setup my portable office/command with all the gadgets ...

As others said, I concur that whoever left the loose/broken/missing piece of the plug blade behind might not even realized it's gone. It's a different and more serious story if the smoke detector has been disabled or blocked/tampered with and/or the lamp/switch sparked as you try to turn it on.

Otherwise, a simple in-house call to reception or direct to housekeeping, depending on the property would suffice - afterall, if the toilet clogged and it began to overflow - then, it's beyond my means (aside from "throwing the towels" in to try to soak it up ...) Now, that's more grounds for requesting a premium upgrade/room change to the executive suite and/or a free night, etc. etc. ;) :D

Well, :rolleyes: - I suppose this ought to be reported / written up in Tripadvisor with the pix upload, as a reliable review and commented by OP :o

Back to figuring out this weather and flight cancellation deal this morning - 1" to 2" of wet snow & rain being the latest forecast.

I'm Shocked!!!
Were this the most hazardous electrical condition I've seen in hotels in recent years, even some of the high-end sort, I might share the OP's perspective. It ain't, and likely won't be in visits to come

Like the sensible here, a quick call to the desk for maintenance would be my first reaction (unless I was traveling with checked baggage and the little Leatherman which stays in the zipped pocket therein - while I might worry a bit were I forced to stand in a pool of water to pull out the prong, under normal conditions, doing so is about as risky as the likelihood that the next elevator I catch will suffer an uncontrolled descent into terrain).

The real story here are the potential travails awaiting the guy/gal whose plug separated upon removal and didn't notice the catastrophe, moved on to the next night at another hotel, only to find some hitherto necessary small appliance or electronic device to be non-functional.

Why it might even be sabotage, some poor lad, confined for life in a Chinese penal colony keeping rice in the bowls of the incarcerated with a contract to fabricate plugs, who revolts against the system, unable to assemble non-functioning bomb or shell fuses (as in the tales of WWII slave laborers), so taking out his anguish by assembling faulty plugs.

Unsafe electrical socket in hotel room
 

Being someone who opens hotels, I would say this is nothing comparing to what you don't see! And it's mostly the contractors....

In this case obviously the hotel need to be more vigilant but you are aware that unless the housekeeping team reports these things to the engineering team, they don't get done. That is, with a huge assumption that whoever did the cleaning would have noted such a thing or even know it to be an error.

Since you're asking FT for electrical advice, it's safe to assume the issue didn't occur at a Holiday Inn Express.

Call the desk, get maintenance out to remove it.

While I'm something of a DIY type and would have no qualms about dealing with this at home I would leave it for their guy in a hotel as I have neither the meter to test if it's hot (it *SHOULD* be neutral. I've seen too many miswired things, though...) nor the insulated pliers to not worry about it.

The hotel is not to blame here, it's unlikely this would be noticed.

Unlike some of the other posters I don't think this was from someone deliberately yanking out the cord. I think it's more likely they caught the cord by accident and inadvertently yanked it.

How does everyone know it's the neutral side? An honest question...I'm not doubting the veracity...not counting the miswiring possibility...but what is the "clue" here? Thanks.

The wider flat prong is the neutral. On a grounded outlet, it's also the bottom prong if the grounding prong is on the right.

More info than you ever wanted: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEMA_connector#NEMA_5

Since when are they NEMA connectors? I thought they were called Edison connectors.

And I wouldn't trust any hotel anywhere to wire them correctly.

Oh, good grief. Call the front desk, have maintenance take it out. They may have to turn off the breaker for all of 60 seconds.

/problem

I would trust the licensed electrician that installed them to wire them correctly, and I would trust the building inspector to check them all.

Though again it really doesn't matter, even if it was the hot side, as long as you don't lick it or something stupid it's not a hazard.

facing an outlet, with the ground at the bottom, the left is always the neutral outlet, and the right is always the hot side. Assuming the outlet is also polarized (depends on when it was installed) the neutral, on the left, will also be the wider slot.

It would only maim you if you managed to fall against it and get the prong in your eye. You're more likely to do that with your toothbrush, so there's that one dealt with. Cause a fire? How? Again, yes, American wiring standards are terrible, but the fact is the US insists on using single core wire is more of a fire hazard than a random possibly-maybe-but-probably-not exposed phase wire. Given it should (assuming it was done right the first time) be a neutral then it shouldn't be a problem anyway. Actually, even if done wrong it wouldn't be much of a problem so long as you're not dumb enough to grab it while earthing yourself. Although, granted, if the wiring is stuffed in another part of the room or another room entirely and that plug loops off that circuit rendering the entire circuit live then you're dead anyway, but hey, that just brings us back to the crappy wiring standards thing again. :)

And I disagree on the points thing. I'd be more than happy to be compensated for something like that. Heck, 20 points is good: it's certainly more points than the trouble it's worth.

Thank you everyone for your replies. I had an early morning, returned about noon. I saw the Manager on duty on my floor upon returning.

Me: "Hello, I'm in room number 123, may I show you something"

Him: "Sure" (follows me)

Me: opens my room door, shows the manager

Him: "I'll send an engineer up right away to take care of it"

Said engineer used a pair of diagonal side cutters to remove offending prong. He was in my room a total of 20 seconds.

:D:D You win!! :D:D

- - - : :

I never wanted to move rooms, could care less about compensation. I actually sleep better in small rooms vs an oversized suite (odd, I know).

I just wanted this taken care of for the next guests. Could be kids, an elderly person.

I was just curious what you all would do.

Thank you.

Apparently the answer to that is "Make fun of you" :D

I'd be interested to understand more about why US wiring standards are terrible. My house hasn't gone up in flames yet and it's had electric service for YEARS. :D

From the very same Wikipedia article: "The standard 5–15 (and its 1–15 two prong counterpart) is sometimes called an "Edison plug" in the film and theatre industry, where that name distinguishes it from more specialized theatrical connectors. This presumably refers to Thomas Edison or the various Edison utility companies that supply electric power."

I think it's less about our standards being terrible and more about foreign standards being unnecessarily complicated. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_circuit and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electri...United_Kingdom

Ring Mat and read a book. I wouldn't get that worked up over it.

occasionally the neutral disconnects. that is a very dangerous situation. if you grab the hot side of the neutral, voltage can be deadly.

The US system is designed to be safe with double insulation. Which is a great system, in theory. Except most times it isn't installed that way, thus rendering the entire circuit potentially unsafe. Contrast that with the UK/Oz/NZ Multiple Earth Neutral system that relies on a serial connection back to earth. The US system earths off any available earth potential, often copper plumbing mains or the external sheathing used to protect the wiring itself. That means that the potential for a reverse or cross phase situation that causes the entire plumbing system or conduits to become live can occur. Most civilized countries ;) use a separate earth line to a dedicated earth rod (you can't, in theory, cause the plumbing to become live) and don't allow protective sheathing/conduit to be metal or earthed off for any reason. The US system has phase always live: switched outlets are uncommon in most of the US. US contractors tend to use single core copper or, even worse, aluminium wire. Such wire is harder to secure, more prone to breaking when being drawn at install and subsequent rewiring, and less capable of dealing with surges compared to the more common standard (in the EU and OZ/NZ/Jpn) multicore copper wire. US outlets consist of multiple parts, usually metal and seldom earthed. Contrast with the more common style in NZ & Oz where the outlet and external plate are one assembled piece and incapable of carrying current outside of the connectors themselves, usually attached to a single, non-conductive outlet box. Etc, Etc.

Or were you just being facetious? :)

Or our electricians being trained and able to understand basic concepts and yours not? :) ;)

We haven't used aluminum (one i :)) wire since the 70's. many homeowners insurance companies won't insure houses with aluminum wire.

As for plumbing being the only ground, electrical ground is often bonded to the metal pipes - near where it enters the house - but there has to be a separate earth rod also (at least this is my understanding).

At least we're not afraid of light switches in the bathroom!

Just bend down and touch the end of it with your tongue. If there's a "buzzy" sort of sensation then it's live. At least that's how it is with batteries, so this must be the same.

Probably.

P.S. Stop all this cloak-and-dagger stuff and tell us what the hotel is FFS.

Plumbing mains do go into the ground and will conduct the charge away very well. I have never seen the external sheath used as the ground, it's merely connected to the ground. If you drive a nail through a metal-sheathed wire the breaker will trip but you're not going to be hurt even if you're standing in water. Drive it through a wire without a metal sheath, though...

Around here the metal sheaths are only used when a wire needs extra protection anyway.

I don't think the plumbing could become hot enough to matter even if you shorted the mains to it and somehow didn't pop a breaker.

As for not grounding the sheath--see above.

Agreed.

I don't think aluminum has been used for a long time. They thought it was a way to save money, experience showed it was a bad idea and we're back to copper.

I think having the plate separate is a good idea. That way you don't have to mess with the electric part of it if you want to pull the plates for painting. I also have a couple of outlets where I pulled the screw that holds the plate so I had the screwhole available for a splitter that turns things sideways. (For example, in the kitchen I put in such a splitter. While it has 6 outlets I'm still only using two, the advantage being that they now face sideways and thus the wire doesn't get a sharp bend if something is pushed back against it. I likewise have one on the plug under my desk to avoid having a wire sticking out.)

Simply not at all true. Maybe five decades ago when two prong outlets (and aluminum wire) were common, but I don't even think you can easily buy ungrounded outlets anymore. Grounded outlets were pretty much standard since the late 60's are are pretty much code just about every where now.

There's nothing inherently bad about aluminum wiring. The problems arose because people didn't understand enough about the properties of the aluminum wiring being used. So, it would corrode or expand/contract and slip loose.


Grounded outlets (NEMA 5, I think) are the standard and have been for quite some time. Also GFCI within 6 feet of water sources, or outside.

Just call maintenance and make sure to turn off the rooms man supply.

Uh, wrong forum. ;)

:eek:

BTW - I checked out this morning. It was an okay stay. The place seemed to be overrun by the world's oldest profession.