There was a fire on my outside lamp that I installed around 2,5 years ago using just a cable extension and one chinese wago ( that is very heavily damaged ). After I went to see the damage and try to replace the damaged chinese wago with 3 real original wagos, i noticed that the live wire literally has darker colour than the other 2 wires + 3 wires of the lamp. I stripped it a lot in order to try to find a "clean" piece of the cable that is not "black", but I cannot find any clean place on it, regardless of how much i strip.Can the live wire have been damaged by the fire? I believe the fire started because of a storm and probably higher voltage given to the home grid by the general grid. I had other electrical appliances act strange like lamps blinking, so i do not think it was a malfunction of the of installation. Furthermore i installed it 2,5 years ago - if there was going o be a problem i would expect it to happen sooner.So my question is: can the wire itself be cooked and does it needs to be changed? Can I use the same cable to install the lamp again without worrying for future fires?
>>2981490the original chinese wago looks like this right now and i have bough 3 new original german one to replace it.
>>2981490Check the other end of the cable, if even that is discolored, it's not a good sign. If it's only surface heat oxidation near the end, you could clean it off and use it for a low-current application (I assume your lamp is more <1A than 10A), but it's never not going to be a fire risk.
>>2981493well, ok i will try to dismantle the other other end. the lamp is a model as i already tried and failed to find it. >, but it's never not going to be a fire risk.so you are saying that generally speaking it should be save?
>>2981494this is the lamp - because of its location i cannot see the stickers on its back side.
>>2981490That is not copper, at least no pure copper but it doesn't look like CCA either, might be cooper plated bronze, get some real wires.
>>2981511so it was not damaged? it was just shitty?
>>2981494I am saying that, generally speaking, it will never be properly safe for unattended use. Since this is a motion-activated, low power lamp, it's still very unlikely to start a fire, but good practice is to replace any oxidized cables. If you wanted to be a real anus technician, you could rebrand the blue as live, earth as neutral, and have no ground, wouldn't surprise me if the chinks didn't bother grounding the metal case in a cheapo lamp anyway. This would be as fire-safe as a brand new wire, only that you lose your theoretical case grounding that you probably didn't have anyway. If it's mounted high enough that no one will be touching it, then it shouldn't matter.Did this fire start right during the storm? Because water damage can also look a lot like this, especially seen plugs that iced over and got plugged in with ice have this kind of >>2981492 "everything is blackened" look.
>>2981513>If you wanted to be a real anus technician, you could rebrand the blue as live, earth as neutral, and have no ground, wouldn't surprise me if the chinks didn't bother grounding the metal case in a cheapo lamp anyway.isn't this illegal and very unsafe? like would this create fire in a minute after installation?
>>2981513>Did this fire start right during the storm?yes it started fire during the storm.
>>2981514>isn't this illegal and very unsafe?Code usually dictates that wires have to be marked if you use non-standard colors, beyond that, you can mix and match. However, yellow-green is reserved, so that one's not allowed to be reused for anything else, any other color would be fine. Up to your own judgment whether this would ever endanger someone or not, but yes, best practice is just pulling new cable. Or maybe just get a solar powered reflector if it's a long run.
>>2981518i guess a solar run one from china is the best solution. i am starting to really not trust the wire and i will not be making dangerous experiments.
>>2981519The wire itself was fine, it's just the corroded shit part that becomes risky to use. >>2981511 is wrong, nobody even makes copper plated bronze mains electrical wire, and yours looks exactly like copper oxidation (i.e. turning black).
>>2981525it still sounds better to replace it. or go for the aliexpress solar lamps.
This can happen with stranded wire, humidity will travel trought all the wire due to capillarity, especially if a junction box or lamp fills up with water during a stormMy opinion is that:1.humidity got in the lamp or junction box much earlier than the fire2.flows by capillarity through the wire, oxidising the copper over time3.storm causes a lot more water to fill up the device4.current starts to flow through the watery chinese wago5.wago conductors start oxidsing due to electrolisys6.metal deposits accumlate between live/neutral breaking insulation7.wago heats up making water boil away until it becomes a fire8.breaker trips when insulation burns and makes a short circuitIf the cable was damaged by an overload the insulation would have become melty/crunchy before the copper>>2981528Correct
>>2981530thank you for the long and informative post :D
>>2981531It did happen to me with an underground garden cable, i did reuse it by scraping the ends with a boxcutter, twisting on a good piece of copper wire, then soldering the twisted part with abundant fluxBut I wouldn't do it if it's near flammable stuff
>>2981525>nobody even makes copper plated bronze mains electrical wirebuddy I wish that were the case, I got one right here from a shitty C13 cord and a real copper wire on the left, I bend both and the copper stays in shape while the bronze springs back straight, the chinese have been making crappy wires for awhile and it is outright criminal.
>>2981549>real copper wire on the left,*right, picture got flipped.
>>2981549Maybe copper coated steel? See if it is magnetic. I've seen that bullshit a few times. I've also seen the black copper wires a few times too though in equipment wiring. Anyone know of any good flux to clean that black shit off so it will take solder again? I've fluxed and wire brushed multiple times to clean it up and make it shiny again, but it seems to never take solder very well after that.
>>2981549>>2981525Copper coated aluminium wire behaves exactly like this. Hold a lighter/flame to it and see how it behaves. If it shrivels up like burnt hair then its aluminium. Real copper glows red without being burned. >>2981490OP I've seen electrical wire like this many times in my job, fixing welding machines. Welding cables go black when they've been over-loaded and get hot, repeatedly. I'd guess that your chinese wago was making a bad connection for a long while and heating up, the heat then travelling down the copper cable. It could have been like this for longer than you might think. Finally the wago got to a point where it caught fire and only then did you notice. Just replace the cable with a new one, it won't break the bank.
>>2981596ok, i will either replace or go for a solar lamp. thank you all for the information.
>>2981492are you sure you're supposed to use that model with stranded wire? :>
>>2981650i did not know really, but it worked for 2.5 years. maybe i messed up. well, the resulting fire does prove that i did mess up at some level...
>>2981650They're literally designed for stranded wire
