The New "What did you do with your Z today" (with off topic replies) XVIV

Davey

It's just in a conduit fastened to the wall, runs about 10 feet.

He's done already. He did not seem at all surprised at what he saw/found.

He explained what happened, is that the outlet was old and somewhat corroded internally (which makes sense due to it being in a basement on a cement wall) and the outlet type just used crimp connectors, rather than screw terminals like modern outlets.

Even though it worked, it created a lot of heat (remember your Ohm's Law), which eventually caused it to loosen up more, which caused it to arc internally, burning up the outlet from the inside.

He had a tester and was able to identify which circuit breaker it was, and said that it was not indicative of any problem that the breaker did not blow.

So basically, a 10-minute job to replace it. Could have done it myself easily, but after seeing what happened, I was glad to have a pro tell me what had happened.