Could a hair straightener that is plugged in but switched off also socket is off,cause a fire?

the appliance is off but still plugged into the socket, which is also switched off. could a fire occur.Could a hair straightener that is plugged in but switched off also socket is off,cause a fire?
yes,when sockets are not in use remove all appliances.thunder storms and lightning can still cause surgesCould a hair straightener that is plugged in but switched off also socket is off,cause a fire?
i do it all the time. but you should try not to just incase.
unlikely, unless your socket or iron had a short
You say that the socket is switched in the off position. Unless you live alone, with no pets, and no one else has a key to your place, - including parents or past tenants or old boy/girl friends, and you are sure that you have turned the power off at the switch every time you leave , then the odds are extrremely remote that the hair straightener will every be the ignition source of a fire.





I'm also curious as to whether or not you keep your hair straightener on the bathroom sink vanity, and if so, is it plugged into a switched GFI outlet? A GFI outlet is a Ground Fault Interruption outlet, where by if there is more than a very low amperage of grounding (I think it's 1.4 amps) the GFI protected electrical outlet or the GFI protected circuit, will ';trip';, and the power will be ';interruped'; to that circuit or outlet immediately, (the electricity will be shut off so you do not get electrocuted - a little bit of a shock - maybe - but usually not even that.





Anyway, if you wanted to be ';extra'; sure that you had a safe installation, you could do this:





1. Check your Hair straightener for a Tag that idenifies the electrical requirements of the appliance. What you are interested in is the amp draw, of amp rating of the machine. Lets just say its 12 amps. Most Modern day power panel boards in homes are 100 amp services set up using 15 or 20 amp circuit breakers, (I believe 20 amp is more common here where I live, and there are also 30 amp breakers for the dryer, and the 80 gallon water heater for the whirlpool tub.





Anyway - let's just say for the purposes of our example that the hair straightener draws 12 amps if you have 15 amp circuit breakers, ( or 18 amps if you happen to have 20 amp circuit breakers), When wiring commercial projects - power and lighting circuits are separated. In residential construction that is not necessarily true - although it should be. The point is this, - as a home is wired for power and lighting, the electrician is supposed to try to ';balance'; the circuit loads - while filling up the circuits without overloading them, - and keep then in roughly the same zones in the house, spearating interior from exterior, power from lighting, and leave room fore future growth - usually about 15 - 20% of the panel capacity should be open as ';spares'; once the house is wired.





The Problem is that in the last two decades the power demands for home lighting and home security and home electronics have doubled over what they had been, and in some cases tripled. Houses constructed in the 60's and 70's routinely had 60 and 80 amp services installed - (and that left plenty of room for spares). But with the advent of home computers, Atari, X-Box, GameBoy, Home Security Systems, Home theatre Systems, Smart house Electronics, Built in Speaker and Intercom systems, Multimedia Centers, Infloor and Fogless mirror heat tracing systems, pryotech windows that can go from clear to black and all shades in between by electriclly charging metalic sputter coated glass , heads up displays in bathroom mirrors, microwave ovens, plasma TVx, Central AC systesm, whole house humidification %26amp; dehumidifcation systems, and whole house air change systems, - and on %26amp; on, and now people are even installing automatic power transfer swirtches hooked up to exterior 150 KW emergency generators. And then there are the extravagant exterior light displays, and sound systems, and heated drive ways, and outdoor pools, and saunas, and hot tubs, and green houses, - you name it, and it's got a motor or a heater in it. As we switch away from internal combustion engines to more earth friendly alterrnatives , electric alternatives seem to be the first on the scene - lawn mowers, hedge trimers, weed wackers and blowers, and robots.





But I digress, back to circuit loading; if we say your hair straightener draws 12 amps and is on a 15 amp circuit, that does not leave a lot of ';amps'; - only 3 - to draw on before we exceed the limits of the breaker - and it trips because we over loaded the circuit. So either you were lucky enough to have your hair straightener on a ';dedicated circuit'; (meaning it's the ONLY appliance on that circuit), or what ever else is on that circuit is never used when you are using your hair straightener, or whatever else is on the circuit is drawing less that 2 amps - like a bed side alarm clock - or a plug in air freshener.





1. Anyway I mentioned additonal safe-guards. Check the plug end of the hair straightener. does it have 3 prongs or just two? If it has just two, is one of the two prongs notice ably larger than the other , (Kind of belled out at the end?) Ideally it should have 3 prongs - each one different. One prong should be a straight uniform blade, the next should be a blade prong also but with the wider bell shaped end. The third pronf should be ';U'; shaped instead of a blade and have a curved tip. This 3 pronged plug end only fits into a modern 3 hole power outlet one way. Are your power outlets the three hole or two blade hole type? If the end of the plug on the appliance is 3 pronged and your outlets are 3 holed to recieve it - great. if not, have your dad or someone handy around electricity replace the outlet %26amp; cover, and also put a 2-to-3 adapter plug end on your plug end. (Get the adapter with the ground wire that he can wire to the cover mounting screw to ground the appliance.





2. Before he buys the new outlet %26amp; cover - have him open up the panel board and look at the Circuit breakers, see if they are the GFI type or not. (All Circuit Breakers Have a orangy/red tab in the middle of the breaker that flips manually and automatically from ';ON'; to ';OFF'; - that does not make them a GFI circuit breaker. GFI circuit breakers that I have installed have a greenish yellow button on them below the breaker switch that ,pops out, (trips), when the groud gets feed back above the specified load, - same principal as the GFI Outlet - except that the GFI circuit breaker is protecting the whole circuit - not just a single outlet. (Most people prefer the GFI Outlet , - over the circuit breaker GFI). Anyway if the circuit is GFI protected, then there is no reason to buy a GFI outlet. If the circuit is not GFI protected, then I suggest you consider installing one. This will have given you belt and suspenders protection.





Now if you want GUARRENTEED protection against a fire - unplug the appliance after each use - and you will never have to worry about it. Good luck.





I'm pulling for you
the socket alone can cause a fire(very rare)even when in the off position things get old %26amp; short out with seemingly no reason
highly unlikely, unless you left it on a flammable surface while still hot. but that would have nother to do with it being plugged in.
Yes, it could. It's not likely, but any outlet that has an electrical current running to it has a chance to start a fire. If the cord is broken anywhere or stripped, or if the wiring in your home is old the risk of fire greatly increases.
Probably not. A straightener that's ON is barely going to be hot enough to cause a fire.