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A dead socket is an inconvenience. A socket that is hot, scorched, sparking or smells of burning is a fire risk and needs an electrician today. Power Pros test socket faults properly, find the real cause and make the circuit safe before repairing it. Call and we will tell you honestly whether yours can wait.
KNOW THE SIGNS
Stop using that socket, plug nothing else into it, and call 0333 360 8583. If there is smoke or flame, or anyone has had a shock, call 999 first.
WHAT'S INVOLVED
It sounds like swapping a faceplate, and occasionally it is. Far more often the socket is where a fault shows up, not where it is — the outlet sits at the end of a circuit running thirty metres through joists and floor voids, calling at other sockets on the way. So this is a diagnosis job first and a replacement job second.
People assume that if something dangerous were happening, the RCD or MCB would trip. True of earth leakage and short circuits; not true of a loose terminal. A loose screw makes a high-resistance joint, current squeezing through poor contact makes heat, heat oxidises the copper, and the oxide raises resistance so the joint runs hotter still. That can char a back box while the breaker sits there content, because the current never exceeds its rating. Nothing in a standard consumer unit detects it — only inspection and testing will.
A ring final circuit leaves the consumer unit, visits every socket and returns to the same breaker, so current reaches each one by two routes. A radial goes out and stops. On a ring, one break usually stops nothing working — but the circuit has quietly become two radials still protected by one 32A device, which is why broken rings turn up so often on inspection. On a radial, one break kills everything after it, so a run of dead sockets points at the last working one. A spur is a branch off a ring: one unfused spur per point, feeding one socket, one double, or one fused connection unit. Two doubles chained off a single spur is a common DIY addition and a real overload risk.
FAULTS WE FIX
A failed terminal, a break at the socket feeding it, a spur whose supply has gone, or a device tripped unnoticed. Confirmed by continuity testing, not guesswork.
One blue flick as a kettle makes contact can be normal inrush arcing. A plug socket sparking every time you use it, or sparking that leaves a mark behind, is arcing across damaged contacts.
Staining at the pin holes usually means worn contact tubes. Scorching at the plate edge usually means a terminal behind it is failing. A melted socket is past repair, and whatever produced the heat is usually still behind it.
That sharp, fishy smell is the accessory's plastic breaking down. A burning smell from a socket means the damage is already inside the back box, so stop using it rather than waiting to see whether it clears.
Sprung contacts spread and box fixings strip. A cracked plate defeats the shutters that keep fingers out of live contacts.
Could be the socket, the appliance or a cable fault behind it. See RCD tripping, or power loss and tripping if whole rooms go.
Broken legs, sockets wired as unrecorded spurs, spurs chained off spurs, conductors crossed after a refit. Found by ring continuity testing.
USB modules fail on their own, often crammed into a box too shallow to shed heat. Outdoors, perished seals let water in.
HONEST ADVICE 24/7
Describe it in plain English and we will tell you honestly whether it needs someone tonight or can wait until tomorrow.
COMMON CALLOUTS
Commonly a failed connection at that socket or the one feeding it. Plug in a lamp you know works to confirm the socket is dead and not the appliance, then leave it alone.
A single flash on insertion can be inrush arcing. A bang, a trip and a mark left behind is a fault. Do not plug it back in to see whether it does it again.
The classic smell of an overheating accessory. Do not dismiss it because nothing looks wrong — see burning smells and dangerous electrics.
Two more we hear often. “All the sockets downstairs are dead” is a circuit problem, not a socket problem — start with power loss and tripping. And “my plug-in tester shows no earth” is worth acting on, but a green light proves little: those testers cannot detect a broken ring, a borrowed neutral or a high-resistance joint.
ROOT CAUSES
Screws under-tightened at installation, a conductor clamped on its insulation instead of bare copper, or three conductors under one screw where only two are gripped. Once the joint is loose enough, current jumps the gap — a real ignition source, inside a box where nobody can see it. A buzzing socket, or one that crackles as a plug goes in, is sometimes the only warning it gives. It is the risk arc fault detection devices address.
The sprung tubes gripping the plug pins spread with use, especially where heavy appliances are moved about. Very low-cost sockets and adaptors use lighter springs and fail sooner and hotter.
A 13A plug supplies 13A however many outlets hang off it, and a cable drum left coiled cannot shed heat, so it can melt well below its rating.
A conductor pulled out during decorating, sockets spurred off spurs, junction boxes buried with no access, cables run outside the permitted safe zones. Sockets are the accessory people interfere with most.
Nails through cables, rodent damage under floors, and conductors chafing on a metal box edge where the grommet has perished. Damp in garages lowers insulation resistance, and a shallow box crushes the conductors forced into it.
OUR DIAGNOSTIC PROCESS
The aim is to find the real fault, not replace parts until something works. Every callout includes a visual inspection and circuit testing.
If the fault will not show itself at the socket, the search widens to the whole circuit — see electrical fault finding.
STEP BY STEP
SAFETY FIRST
Do not remove a socket faceplate — there are live terminals behind it — and do not open the consumer unit or take its cover off. Switching a breaker is fine; opening the enclosure is not. Never work on anything live, and never assume a circuit is dead because a switch is off.
Do not keep resetting a breaker that trips; it is telling you there is a fault. Do not plug back into a socket that has sparked or scorched, and do not run an extension lead under a carpet as a permanent fix. After smoke, a smell, scorching or water ingress, leave the circuit off until it has been tested rather than restoring it to see whether it has fixed itself.
REPAIR OPTIONS
What it turns out to be depends entirely on what inspection and testing show. The realistic outcomes:
Where terminals have loosened but nothing is damaged, conductors are cut back to clean copper, dressed properly and re-terminated correctly. Often the whole fix.
Any socket with heat damage, cracking, worn contacts or a failed shutter is replaced — as is a box that is too shallow, unfixed, or has chafed the cable.
Where a cable has been pierced by a nail or chewed by rodents, the section is repaired by an accessible, maintenance-free method, or the run replaced.
Reconnecting or replacing a failed leg, removing a chained spur, or converting it to a fused connection unit. Sometimes a properly protected radial beats chasing a buried leg.
Where a socket circuit lacks the RCD protection now expected, changing the device — sometimes an RCBO swap rather than a full consumer unit replacement.
If testing shows problems across the wider installation, we say so and recommend an EICR rather than patch one socket and walk away.
All work is tested to BS 7671 and complies with current British Standards and Building Regulations. For a repair that does not involve a new circuit, the appropriate document is normally a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate.
CASE STUDY
Location: Polegate
Customer's problem: One double socket dead in a back bedroom while everything else worked normally.
Initial symptoms: No power at that socket, nothing tripped, and the rest of the house unaffected.
Tests performed: Ring final continuity from the board, then split-half testing to bracket the break.
Fault discovered: A conductor had broken inside a socket terminal where the screw had never been fully tightened at first fix.
Repair: Conductor cut back, re-terminated and the accessory replaced.
Final testing: r1+r2 continuity re-proved, insulation resistance, polarity and RCD operation.
Outcome: Socket working within the hour, and the remainder of the ring confirmed sound.
An illustrative example of a typical call-out of this kind.
CALLOUT PRICING
The callout charge is fixed and set by time of day. It covers attending, diagnosing and making safe. Any additional work is quoted and agreed with you before it begins.
| Callout | When | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Basic callout | 9:30am–3pm, not guaranteed within the hour | £110 |
| Day callout | Daytime | £130 |
| Early evening callout | Early evening | £180 |
| Overnight callout | Overnight | £250 |
Beyond that, socket work ranges from a ten-minute accessory change to half a day tracing a break in a ring under a fitted kitchen. What moves the final figure:
Prices shown are the callout charge only. We confirm the applicable charge on the phone before we attend.
TALK TO AN ELECTRICIAN
Tell us what it is doing and we will tell you what it is likely to be, what it costs to attend, and whether it needs someone tonight.
WHY CHOOSE US
A scorched socket has a cause. A new accessory on the same failing connection looks fine and fails again. 25 years of fault finding goes into working out what happened.
Every callout includes a visual inspection and circuit testing, including ring final circuit continuity where it applies, to BS 7671.
Because a loose connection trips neither RCD nor MCB, “nothing has tripped” is not reassurance. We say honestly whether it can wait until morning.
NICEIC Part P scheme members, City & Guilds qualified, insured to £2,000,000 — which matters when the work is inside your walls.
24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a 1 hour response available. A sparking socket at 11pm is not a next-week problem.
We resolve 85% of emergency callouts on the first visit, with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Local to Bexhill, Hastings and Eastbourne.
CUSTOMER REVIEWS
“Very happy with Aaron this service the electrician came out quickly within 1 hour and fixed a fault tripping out my electrics which turned out to be a water leak getting into a socket outlet. Highly recommended electricians.”— Alan, Google review
“Fast, reliable and genuinely professional service. The emergency electrician Harry diagnosed the issue straight away, explained everything clearly, and carried out the repair safely and efficiently. Pricing was fair with no hidden surprises, and the work was left neat and tidy.”— Steve, Google review
“Fast and efficient electricians, we would use them again.”— Connor, Google review
Reviews from our Google Business Profile, rated 5.0 from 10 reviews. Read them on Google.
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Yes. A faceplate should stay at room temperature. Warmth means resistance somewhere it should not exist, and resistance under load means heat that increases over time. Stop using it and have it tested.
Usually heat damage from arcing between the plug pins and the contacts inside, which commonly means those contacts have worn or spread and no longer grip. It is the same reason a plug starts falling out. The accessory needs replacing and the connections behind it checking.
It can. A loose terminal heats up and arcs, and that happens inside the back box where nobody sees it. An MCB reacts to excess current and an RCD to earth leakage; a loose terminal produces neither, so "nothing has tripped" is not evidence a socket is safe.
On a radial, a break stops everything downstream, so if the sockets after it are dead too, the break is likely at or just before the last working one. On a ring, one break usually stops nothing, so a genuinely dead socket may mean a failed accessory or a spur whose supply has gone. Testing establishes which.
Usually the circuit rather than the accessories. A whole room going dead while the lights stay on points at the socket circuit serving that area — a device tripped at the consumer unit, or a break in the cable feeding it. If a breaker has moved to off you can switch it back on once, but if it trips again leave it off and call us. Our page on power loss and tripping covers it in more detail.
Our answer is no. A like-for-like swap in most rooms is not notifiable work in England, but not notifiable is not the same as safe: taking a faceplate off means working at terminals that can be live, the result still has to meet BS 7671, and the reason a socket failed is usually behind it rather than in it. Have it done by a qualified electrician who can test the circuit afterwards.
Most often the appliance is at fault, though a damaged socket or a cable fault on the circuit behind it does the same thing. The two are separated by testing, not guesswork — our page on RCD tripping explains the method. Do not keep resetting the device to see whether it holds.
The USB module is separate electronics inside the accessory and can fail independently of the mains outlets, often after being fitted into a back box too shallow to let it shed heat. Modules are not repairable, so the accessory is replaced. If it also smells or feels warm, treat it as an urgent fault.
For a low-power item, briefly and sensibly, yes. But do not run leads under carpets or through doorways as a standing arrangement, do not plug one lead into another, and never use a cable drum without fully unwinding it — coiled, it cannot shed heat.
For a repair that does not involve a new circuit, the appropriate document is normally a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate, recording the tests carried out and the results. Keep it. If you are a landlord it is evidence that a reported fault was dealt with competently.
The callout charge is fixed by time of day: £110 basic between 9:30am and 3pm not guaranteed within the hour, £130 day, £180 early evening and £250 overnight. Anything beyond that is quoted and agreed before it starts. We cover Bexhill, Hastings, Eastbourne and East Sussex 24 hours a day, with a 1 hour response available.
Act straight away on any socket that is warm, discoloured, loose or noisy. Beyond that, sockets are covered by a periodic inspection, an EICR, generally recommended around every ten years for owner-occupied homes and required at least every five years for rented property in England. If a room is short of sockets, the honest fix is more socket outlets, not a bigger extension lead.
RELATED HELP
Socket faults rarely sit on their own. These pages cover what most often turns up alongside them.
AREAS WE COVER
Power Pros cover Bexhill-on-Sea, Hastings, Eastbourne and the whole of East Sussex, 24 hours a day. Choose your town for local detail, or call 0333 360 8583 and tell us the postcode.
24/7 EMERGENCY LINE
Do not wait to see whether it settles down — sockets do not recover, they deteriorate. Power Pros cover Bexhill, Hastings, Eastbourne and all of East Sussex, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
