It’s hard to imagine life without electricity, but today we’re so reliant on it that we often overlook safety. High-wattage devices like air conditioners and toasters can easily overload power strips, posing fire hazards. Always check a power strip’s capacity before plugging in any device.

Here are appliances that should never be plugged into a power strip:Oven – Needs a dedicated outlet due to its high power usage.Refrigerator – Requires a separate outlet to handle frequent cycling and energy demand.Heaters – Should be plugged directly into a wall socket due to extended energy use.

Microwave – Should be plugged into its own outlet for safety.Coffee Maker – Despite seeming low-energy, it uses a lot of power.Toaster – Needs direct connection to avoid overloading a power strip.Power Strips –

Never connect one power strip to another as it violates safety codes.

Electronics (Computer, TV, Router) – Use power strips with surge protection to prevent damage from power surges.

For those who don’t feel like counting to 15, you can grab a Kill-A-Watt meter which will tell you exactly how many amps and watts a plug in an outlet is taking. Very useful for determining how close you are to overloading! (This is not endorsed by any company, I have a few and they’re great.)

It’s quite clear to me what happened. Electrical conductors get warm when they are pushed near their rated limit (doesn’t have to be over), the first place to get warm will be the weakest point, such as a connection like a plug. As a conductor gets warm resistance increases, as resistance increases it generates more heat, and it can turn into a runaway effect until it starts a fire. Your circuit did not exceed 15 amps, which is why the breaker did not trip. The problem was the cheap Chinese power bars, despite saying 15 amps they are not designed to handled that kind of load. If you’ve ever used Chinese batteries that say something like “6000mah” but actually are more like 800mah, you’ll be aware they are not shy about overstating the capacities of their products.

Common sense says no more then 1 power strip at a time just because of the fact you can plug a lot of things in already. Most power strip packages they tell you not to plug multiple strips into each other. If you need a second one, use both wall plugs. These cheap power strips are a joke especially Monster branded ones, very thin copper strips running along the inside and everything is molded, which means plugs can get loose. All of my strips are metal with actual outlets. You can get them from some electronic stores and most hardware stores. Way better construction. The reason why the breaker didn’t trip on the power strip nor the breaker box was because there wasn’t a physical short, just a connection heating up.