Weird damage in my 12V Plug

[lilvinci]

Hi there, hope everyone is having a nice day! I have an issue where a 12V plug exploded and I have no idea why it happened or how to prevent this. Anybody have an idea?

A couple of weeks ago I built an automated greenhouse, in which I invested a lot of time and money. It was using 2 arduinos in order measure and display soil moisture, air humity and temperature, and automatically controlled 3 fans and a water pump in order to create a good environment for the plants.

The plug that I am talking about was powering 3 fans and a waterpump, which all required 12Volt. Each of those was connected to a switch relay as well. One day (after a couple of weeks being turned on) I smelt something burned and then heard a pop, and then realized that the plug had sprung open. It looked pretty dangerous, and I am afraid to power it again which might start a fire.

The plug was connected to a multiplug, next to a normal lamp and the arduinos. I attached a screenshot of how it looks now in the inside.

Does anybody have an idea what lead to this? I would really like to continue working with stuff like this, but am too afraid that something worse happens.

[Paul_KD7HB]

How old was it?

[jim-p]

If your fans and or pump do not have flyback diodes across the terminals, then high voltages could have been generated across the 12V output causing that capacitor to explode

[runaway_pancake]

Perhaps something better quality, a reputable distributor.

[DVDdoug]

@lilvinci

The plug that I am talking about was powering 3 fans and a waterpump,

What's the total current requirement? Your power supply is rated for 2 Amps. (That's the maximum allowed.)

It's a good idea to have some safety margin, and motors "pull" additional current during start-up. (It's probably best if everything doesn't start-up at the same time.)

It looked pretty dangerous, and I am afraid to power it again which might start a fire.

It's probably dead. It has A CE rating (if you believe it) so it shouldn't actually start a fire when/if it's overloaded and burns-out. But that's not a guarantee from me! And you can't sue a Chinese company.