[J_Dub]

Hi.
Last week at work there was an odor coming from inside a wall. The wall is only a few feet tall extending from a window sill to the floor. Well, we didn't have any air freshener so I sprayed a cleaning product around the wall and on the window & window sill to cover the odor. Some of it ran down inside the wall. The next day another employee plugged in a vacuum cleaner into an outlet on that wall and it began to smoke and the lights in that part of the building went out. Again, I didn't pour anything directly onto the outlet. This outlet has been very hot lately anyway when things are being unplugged from it. Is the liquid that I spilled to blame for the dead outlet or is it a coincidence? My boss would like to tear out the wall because of this and I'm wondering if this is all my fault.

[davimarti]

I don't think you did anything wrong. Seems like there has been an on going issue if the plug was getting hot

[tkrussell]

I believe there is a loose connection at the back of the outlet, inside the box where the wires connect, and that this wiring continues onto the remaining circuit, which there is a load.

This load and loose connection will create heat, and that this heat smoked the cleaner.

Open the outlet and check the wiring connections for looseness, most likely you will find the wires pushed into holes, called Whiz Wire, Stab-in-the-Back. Change these connections to wrapped around the screw terminal.