TIL my desk was a fire hazard after I peeked behind it at 2am

Man, I woke up at 2am last Tuesday to grab water and noticed a weird smell coming from my desk area. I moved the tower a bit and saw a mess of cables all tangled up with a power strip buried under dust bunnies. The strip was warm to the touch and one cable had this yellowed spot near the plug. I counted 8 different chargers stuffed into one strip rated for like 6 devices. That scared me enough to spend Saturday untangling and labeling everything with cheap velcro straps from Home Depot. Has anyone else had a close call like that with a hidden mess behind their desk?

2 comments

2 Comments

laura_ross19d ago

Oh man, my college roommate had basically the same thing happen. He ignored the warm power strip for months until one night we heard a pop and the whole thing just melted into the carpet. Had to replace a chunk of flooring, scary stuff.

hugo_cooper17d ago

Eight chargers on a six-outlet strip is totally normal honestly. I've got 11 things plugged into a single strip behind my couch, surge protector rating is like 1800 watts and my phone charger pulls maybe 10. That yellow spot could just be dust or glue from the manufacturing process. People overreact to warm electronics all the time, computers generate heat, that's literally how they work. Laura's roommate probably had some cheap Chinese strip from the dollar store, not a proper one with circuit breakers. If you're not daisy chaining strips together or running space heaters off them, you're fine.