Power strip sparked and tripped the breaker
When a power strip flashes blue and trips your home circuit breaker, it indicates an internal electrical short or arc fault. Continuing to use a sparking outlet strip creates an immediate fire hazard and risk of electrical shock, meaning it must be discarded immediately rather than reused.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Tossing the power strip in the trashDid this help you?
- 2Cutting off the cord before throwing it away so no one else uses itDid this help you?
- 3Trying to reset or press buttons on the stripDid this help you?
- 4Testing different plugs or outletsDid this help you?
- 5Switching to Tripp Lite or Furman alternativesDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Preferably black and 7-10ft cord? I used to buy APC but theyve been discontinued.”source ↗
“I went to look it up and i have just discovered that it too is discontinued. I checked my stash and i have one left, so i guess i am looking for a new one also.”source ↗
“So I came home from work tryna to plug in my chrome book charger and I felt it like budge and wouldn’t go into the plug all the way and also once i pushed the entire outlet flashed blue and the lights went out of my home.”source ↗
“Power came back on but I am now scared to use it again because I don’t want to die and burn my house down but also hey… could I use this again? Or should I just get rid of it?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 4Why does touching my breaker panel turn my electric dryer back on?
- 6Why does my electrical outlet only work sometimes?
- 12Is a melted electrical socket safe to leave until morning?
- 6Why do outlets stop working when the breaker isn't tripped?
- 7How to diagnose an intermittent equipment problem that only happened once
- 2How to get power restored after an emergency electrical shutoff