My issues with the adapter:
- The adapter is allowing higher current devices to connect to an outlet design that only started showing up in the 1960s; connected to “god knows what.”
Some people use two-to-three prong grounding adapters. (NEMA 1-15 to 5-15.)
Some NEMA 5-15 outlets are wired with bootleg grounds.
My Grandmothers’ old house, built in 1837, was upgraded with “knob-and-tube” wiring sometime in the 1910s and had NEMA 1-15 plugs. There’s a certain amount of heat a knob and tube wiring install is designed to allow due to an over current; but this was contingent upon being installed properly, and never modified. The issue today (and in the 1950s) is that many DIYers spliced their safety into a black hole of junction boxes.
Even If it’s a shiny new Siemens Load Center, none of that matters if it connects to wire made during the Ottoman Empire, and illegally spliced into the old breaker panel during the 1970s.
- The breaker box, fuse box, load center.... Well, what is it? It is important to know who made it, and if it was done correctly.
Fuses take time to blow. There could be 10 other things on that branch and it could blow quickly. It’s the big unknown. Did the last occupant get tired of replacing blown 15A fuses because they couldn’t use two kitchen appliances at once, and drop in a 30A?
Same goes with actual circuit breakers. Square D will gladly sell me a single 30A breaker that fits into the spot where I pulled a 15A breaker from.
I bet Federal Pacific Electric would too if they were still in business selling StabLok breakers that cheated their way through the UL tests.... in which their panels are installed commonly throughout the Bay Area. Relying on a Federal Pacific, Zinsco, Wadsworth panel to trip with the correct breaker is too much a liability for most home insurance companies.
If one prefers to rely on circuit breakers, I’d really suggest that they reconsider. Especially during Fire Season here in the Bay Area.
Rachel By The Bay knows what she doesn’t know about the branch circuits in her home. She’s 100% in the right here, as it pertains to her unique situation. Exercise an abundance of caution and hire an electrician!