Melted Double Adapter and Power Drops

[Zapion]

Hi, just found this forum! I'm in Australia
Maybe people here can suggest what may be causing a power issue I have.
Appreciate any suggestions, thanks.

Problem:
I've had an ongoing issue where power points in the house are losing power randomly for a moment and then coming back on.
Its like the power flips off and on, but the overhead ceiling lights don’t flicker, so they don’t seem to be affected.
I don’t know if its all power points or just a few.
I only know it happens because a desk lamp stays on after it loses power in one room and my router in another room reboots.
It happens randomly, once or twice a month.
No fuses trip, the RCD switch does not trip.
I've had the main switch board checked by a qualified electrician.

Melted double adapter:
Anyhow I found a double adapter I was using had melted slightly on the active/neutral prongs.
The setup was I had a surge protector adapter device plugged into the double adapter.
The surge protector was supplying a USB charging station which has a number of 2.4A and 1A outlets, but I would normally only have a few devices charging at the same time, maybe two iPads, two phones and a bluetooth speaker, possibly one other low power device at times.
So maybe around 10A draw?
The other side of the adapter has a lamp with wireless LED in it, 5W.
The other things I noticed are:
the double adapter also had surge protection,
the power point and surge protector show no visible signs of damage,
the surge protector "protected" indicator is no longer lighting up,
the double adapter has a red light, but I don’t know if it means fault or protected.
I checked the power point with a tester and it passed and seems to work fine.
Only other thing I noticed is that the surge protector device is a little heavy and awkward so its possible it didn’t seat perfectly in the adapter, may have had some slight wiggle room.

My questions:

• Is this too much load on my 230V, 10A standard power point?
• If its too much load then why doesn't a breaker trip?
• Could a loose fit between the surge protector and the double adapter have led to the melting?
• Could this melted adapter be related to my power issue? If so how?
• and lastly, what is the effect of daisy chaining surge protectors? does it improve/decrease/negate surge protection?

Thanks in advance

 

[Ricky spark]

1. 10A or less per socket and your fine. However you say 2 surge protectors in series then all your plugins nearing 10A. Likely overloaded adapter/surge protectors or had them working against each other, never have them connected to each other.
2. Going over 10A will lead to the socket melting but power circuit cabling will generally be protected by breakers up to 16A or 20A so even with melting socket it may take some time to trip, essentially it'd have to melt enough to create a short circuit high enough to cut out breaker.
3. Yes quite possibly. Loose connections lead to electrical arcing (sparking) which will lead to higher temperatures. Though this is more commonly associated with the installation cabling or equipment.
4. Its doubtful, you say there's never any trips and it just cuts in and out? But only to certain points. Not so much info to go off here. Is it a 3 phase install? If so I've seen it before where main switch can momentarily drop a phase under heavier loads, cutting in and out. Otherwise sounds like perhaps just 1 circuit is under fault, I'd try to pin down what exactly is not working to start with and go from there.

 

[Avo Mk8]

Re melted double adapter:
You do appreciate that a 5V usb providing 2.4A is 12 watts, which is about 0.05 Amps at 240V?
There's no way the devices you list would be consuming more than an amp. There's someting seriously wrong with the contacts in that adapter (both seem to show evidence of heat), or wrong with something you plugged into it, or maybe even the adapter itself has a problem as it seems to have a dimple in the middle - maybe that's the moulding?

I would suggest you don't use it any more.

Is there any damage to the front pins of that adapter - were they getting hot from the socket it was plugged into?

 

[Avo Mk8]

Just a thought - are you sure the adapter was not already in that condition, and you hadn't previously noticed. It's showing typical meltiness from being overloaded by a heating appliance or something like that. I can't see how it's happened from the sort of loads you've mentioned.