Sparks from outlet

I just purchased a cabin and it has two LP wall furnaces one of which sparked and blew a fuse when I attempted to plug it in. I noticed paint on the chord and I cleaned it off. I plugged it back in and no sparks that time and the furnace has worked great for months. I then plugged in my washer/dryer combo (gas dryer) and it too sparked and blew the fuse. (Same circuit as the furnace)

The people I bought it from had painted the one room where the furnace is. Is it possible that there is paint somewhere on one of the outlets causing these sparks? Could there be one defective outlet causing any outlet on the circuit to spark? My thinking is that if there was a short in the circuit, the fuse would blow regardless if an appliance was plugged in. The fuse ONLY blows when I attempt to plug something in. (Only on that one circuit)

The house was built in 1953, but the wiring was replaced in 1985. For whatever reason, they installed a 100amp fuse panel instead of a circuit breaker panel.

Should I replace the outlets or do you think the paint could be a problem?

If someone can advise me as to where to start, I would be very grateful!

Thanks!
Brian

 

Usually when there are sparks at the outlet when something is pluged in the problem will be some kind of short in the appliance. One thing you might check for is that your outlets have that bare ground along with the black and white. Paint would be more likely to cause an open circuit situation more than a short. Check the dryer cord with a tester. Each outside leg to the middle leg with the timer in the off position should read open/infinity. The middle leg to the cabinet shold read zero or close to it. If you have a zero or low reading on one of the outside legs then there is a short circuit somewhere in there.

 

It actually does not matter what appliance is plugged in to the outlets on that circuit. Simply plugging something in to the outlet causes the sparks and blows the fuse. The washer/dryer combo is brand new. It seems like it must be something wrong in the circuit and the only change to the house was that the one room was painted. I'm wondering if paint inside the outlet could cause sparks? Or could this be something odd like a mouse in the wall that chewed a wire? Or did one or more outlets just go bad? Or as you suggested, if there is something wrong with the furnace, perhaps it is causing the other outlets on the circuit to spark? However, the furnace works fine since I cleaned the paint off the chord. (That may have been coincidence I suppose)



Thanks again!
Brian

 

Is the receptacle loose at all? Sounds like it could be a bad connection at the receptacle. Turn off the power, pull out the outlet and make sure the connections are secure. If the wires are stuck into holes in the back of the receptacle, you will want to move them to the adjacent screws. You might even want to just replace the receptacle while you've got it out.

 

I agree with HOTARC ,the terminals on the recept. that causes the trip may be loose. Remove the fuse to the circuit,pull out the recpt. and check carefully for secure connections & look for any burn marks on all the wires and the sides of the box that would indicate a short or ground fault.

 

I had that happen 1 time and the problem was at the outlet one of the unused outlet screws on the hot side had loosened up and was shorting anagist the metal outlet box.

Truning off the breaker and tightening the screw(s) fixed the problem.
Thanks, Tony D.