When i plug e.g. my laptop charger into a power board, i see a blue flash, and sometimes a sound.
This has happened a few times, and never shocked me. It has happened on other power boards too.
I want to ask what is potentially a very stupid question. Has this happened to anyone else? Is this dangerous? Time to get a new one?
Interesting, thanks!
If you dislike the flash and noise, then push the plug in quickly and that will minimise the sparking.
Or get a board with individual switches
+ve this. In my opinion, boards without individual switches are always a hazard.
Agreed. They scare the heck out of me
Yes I have seen this a lot as well…with quite a variety of devices.
sparks is good, flames is bad. Thats the rule to remember. Also if the poweboard touches you some where your not comfortable tell an adult
… or plug everything in and then turn it on at the wall switch…
Comforting to hear this is normal.
all the above is true, but, if you use switches, either on a power board or at the wall power point, those switches will suffer the sparking and will have shorter lives. So apart from using a "soft start" device, the best technique is to plug in quickly as suggesed by Greenpossum.
Normal, but not necessarily a good thing.
It is an arc of electricity caused by imperfect contact.
The surge of electricity can damage some devices, or the powerboard.
Turn it off at the switch, or buy a board with individual switches.
My Hypertec 8 plug did that a couple of times and then DIED. :(
I can't remember where I bought it from so can't check out the warranty etc :(
It's normal, it happens often. Your charger is a switching mode power supply. It has a large capacitor which gets charged up from the mains after rectification to DC. During the few milliseconds when imperfect contact is made at the socket, there is a high flow of current and arcing may happen across the gap as the metal contacts bounce a bit. It's all expected and your charger is in no distress.
If you dislike the flash and noise, then push the plug in quickly and that will minimise the sparking.