Hi,
The UK mains lead has a fuse in the plugtop that is used to plug into the wall socket. Typically, these fuses are rated at either 13A, 10A, 5A or 3A. The lead may be hard-wired into the unit that it is providing power to - which may, or may not, have an additional protective device fitted internally.
Now, I have just bought a 40W glue gun, wired to a 2A flex connected to a plugtop fitted with a 13A fuse (Mains voltage is 240V)
My question is, what is the likely failure scenario?
A short circuit in the gun or 1m of cable would cause the
13A fuse to blow. Others have used this as an argument that it doesn't matter whether a 3A or 13A fuse is fitted. Does it matter? Why?If the heater element in the gun could have a failure mode whereby it partially short-circuited, the gun could dissipate 750W, without a 3A fuse blowing. This could easily start a fire. If the partial short-circuit was even more severe, a 13A fuse would not only allow the unit to get very hot - but the cable would be a fire hazard too. However, is a partial short-circuit a viable scenario?
There is another issue in the case of this particular glue gun, in that it has no standards marks of any kind on it. But I did wonder if I could also raise with trading standards the rating of the fuse.