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[grahamk]

I just had an XPPF melt down and catch on fire. Thank God it didn't happen in the middle of the night. It's been installed in the same place for over 3 years. It carries a very light load - it had a small UPS plugged into it.

I'm thinking I should remove them from my house - which would frankly ruin my X10 installation.

Is this common?

[dave w]

I think there was one other report of meltdown, but as I recall it was loaded near capacity. Because they tend to run hot, several of the forum regulars recommend running only 3 amp or less through the filter. What is max on your UPS under load?

[Brian H]

Yes it has been reported here before.
That is what another user ran into. They where filtering some overhead fluorescent lights with electronic ballasts. The running current was measured at a level below the five amp rating, but the peek Repetitive Currents where high enough to fry the XPPF.

One thing some don't realize is loads that are not resistive. Can have Inrush and Repetitive Peek currents that can be up to 20 times or more the normal running current for very brief times.
I loaded one to four amps with some big {Now Baned} Incadescent bulbs and it over heated and the coil forms started to warp.

That is why some manufacturers of Dimmers will tell you for things like LED Bulbs. Count each bulb as an 80 watts or maybe a 100 watt light bulb. When determining how many can be on a dimmer.

JV Engineering makes a X10 filter and I doubt it would overheat and melt.
http://jvde.us//xtb/XTB-F10_description.htm

[Brian H]

Smarthome also makes a heavy duty 10 amp  filter.
Called a FilterLinc.
http://www.smarthome.com/1626-10/FilterLinc-10-Amp-Plug-In-Noise-Filter/p.aspx

I also believe the ACT AF120 15 amp filter is also still made.
http://www.act-remote.com/PCC/PCCSpecs/Af120si_spec.PDF

[grahamk]

Thanks for the links to the other filters. I doubt very seriously that this was pulling more than an amp. One small UPS with one computer hooked to it - not the monitor, just the computer.

[Brian H]

Well it is hard to say with out doing an autopsy on the XPPF.
If one of the capacitors that are across the power from Line to Neutral failed. It could burn up from the short.

[TulsaTV]

This morning, I was in the Laz-E-Boy in the home theater about 2 am and smelled something like insulation burning. The XPPF was slightly smoking and melting down. Got rid of it before it could catch fire. It had been installed in the same place for about 3 years, too. The load was a big screen TV and receiver. Believe I will be getting rid of them.

[Brian H]

Well that is not a good sign.
Could have been the loads where close to the five amp rating or there where brief current spikes and the XPPF started deteriorating.
As it degraded it got warmer and again degraded faster.
Like a self eating watermelon. 

I believe tossing them maybe a good idea or at least the one on the entertainment equipment.

[JeffVolp]

Many people don't realize that electronic devices can pull much more reactive current than the power consumption would lead one to believe.  Since reactive current is out of phase with the voltage, it does not contribute to consumed wattage, but that current causes IR heating in whatever powers that device.  The reactive current can be several times higher than the in-phase current, and since heating is a function of the square of the current, it can cause significant heating.

Jeff

[dhouston]

Most of today's electronic devices (including CFLs & LED lights) present nonlinear loads, drawing most of their current at the peaks of the line voltage as shown in the illustration accompanying this Wikipedia article.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor#Non-linear_loads

The illustration is a rather mild case - it's not unusual to find power factors below 0.5.

The instantaneous current at the peaks is much higher than the average current and it's the current peaks that generate higher heat and damage components.

See this link for a good explanation of switched-mode power supplies contribution to this problem.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_factor#Switched-mode_power_supplies