"In the past 10 years of fire accidents, fire accidents caused by sockets and plugs accounted for nearly 30% of the total number of fires, ranking the first among all kinds of fires.", Power strips have become one of the most overlooked safety hazards. If you don't seriously know something about power strips, it will become "invisible bombs" of your home! 

Question 1: The first step in safety is to choose a safe plug.But how to choose one?

1. According to the power of the electrical appliance, select the appropriate size of the socket, which should not be too small. (the overload is strictly prohibited)

2. Use a socket with a ground wire and a socket with a new national standard but not universal.

3, pay attention to the area of the power cord. It is best to avoid soft and hot wires when connecting a high-power electrical appliance. Qualified manufacturers generally mark the area of the power cord on the package.

4, pay attention to the clamping force of the inserted copper sheets. A good power strip can guarantee up to 5000 times of insertion and removal while the clamping force is still good enough. When buying a plug, you can try to plug it in and out for a few times, and the looser one generally can’t be used for a long time.

5, pay attention to whether the switch is a silver contact which can reduce arc generation.

6, take note whether the material is fireproof. Fireproof materials can extinguish the open flame and prevent fire to expand, thus avoiding accidents. Qualified manufacturers will mark the fire resistance instructions on the packaging.

7, in general, there will be no problem to buy a qualified manufacturer's power strips. So choose a reliable manufacturer and brand. 

Question 2: Is there any danger of sparks when the plug is put in or pulled out?

This is a normal phenomenon. When an appliance is connected, there will be current passing through and the transient current will become super large when the appliance is connected to electricity, and then the sparks are generated. 

But is it not normal if the plug always sparks when an electrical appliance is working. This is due to the poor contact between the plug and the wire. It should be handled as soon as possible, or it will easily cause a fire.

Problem 3  how to know whether the power strip is worn out and should be replaced?

Aging performance is like the socket temperature is too high, the wire is damaged, the socket hole becomes black, the plug too loose or too tight, or the contact is poor appear. In those cases, you should stop using it and get a replacement as soon as possible. 

Problem 4: high power electrical appliances can be charged by the same power strip at the same time?

Can’t. It is easy to cause fire accidents when using the same power strip for multiple high-power electrical appliances due to the occurrence of overloading operation. 

Question 5: Is there any effect on the voltage to connect a power strip to another?

There is no impact on the voltage, but there are security risks. If there are are many electric appliances and the power of the electric appliance is too large, the main wire of a power strip will also bear a high current intensity. The wire of an inferior power strip is very thin and the socket may be made of aluminum materials which can heat up under a large current, thus burning the power strip charger and causing a fire.  

Question 6: will it damage the phone when charged by the USB power strip?

Has little effect. At present, the mainstream mobile phones in the market often have their own power management chips to monitor the voltage and current level of charging equipment. If the input voltage or current is too high or too low, the system will automatically report an error. However, if the current and voltage of the phone are fluctuating, the battery loss will not be too high.

In daily use,  the capacity of the battery will be reduced after one year or so no matter how to be maintained. After all, the aging of battery internal components is inevitable. Pay more attention when using the power chargers especially when there kids at home. You’d better choose a power strip with safety shutters for fear of electrical shock. Use a power strip correctly and avoid fire accidents.