My desk lamp cable caught fire last Tuesday

I had all my monitor and lamp cords shoved behind my desk in one of those zip-tied bundles. Tuesday evening I smelled burning plastic and found the lamp cord had melted its jacket and fused to the monitor cable. Anyone else had cables get hot enough to damage each other like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugo_ellis5d ago

it's funny you mention that because i feel like everything in our houses is getting more and more power hungry these days but the cables are all still the same cheap chinese stuff. i've got a phone charger that gets scary hot if i use it and scroll at the same time. it's like we're all just waiting for something to catch fire and hoping it's not our house.

eric_ramirez675d ago

@hugo_ellis nailed it with the "everything is getting more power hungry" part. That phone charger thing scares me too, I've felt the same heat on mine. Your story about the lamp cord fusing to the monitor cable is exactly the kind of thing that'll make me double check my own desk setup tomorrow. It's wild how we just trust these cheap cables to handle way more than they were designed for until something melts or catches fire. I've been meaning to get a proper power strip with surge protection for my desk, but I keep putting it off.