2635-222 On-Off Module - Safety Hazard Warning!

[Teken]

As noted in another forum thread 2020 has been a ongoing costly year. There was a similar thread on this exact problem which I couldn’t find via search.

 

Essentially the OP found during the removal process the entire back side broke off causing the hot, neutral, and ground pin to be stuck in the wall outlet. The original pictures he shared were quite scary never mind the less than stellar reply from Smarthome support.

 

Fast forward to March 01, 2020 I find myself in exactly the same spot! I was trying to manually link a 2852-222 Leak Sensor which in the end was found to be defective right out of the box.

 

Upon pulling (wiggle) this brand new 2635-222 On-Off Module out of the wall I heard a snap?!? Let me preface having installed thousands of Insteon pieces of hardware I know not to yank on anything, especially from a outlet.

 

I have quite a few NOS units which were purchased during the usual Black Friday / Boxing Day events. So I’m not getting a warm fuzzy in terms of the quality of the plastic being used.

 

This specific unit was produced in 30th week of 2014 Rev1.1S. I have quite a few of these units in storage and fear there may be a bad production run. Very much like those freaking yellow antennas from the 2852-222 Leak Sensor!!

 

 

I’m going to send a message to Smarthome to find out if they have started a factory recall. Since this happen to me I’m obligated to report this to industry Canada. As they will need to review this product for potential health and safety with respect to possibly electrocution and fire hazard.

 

 

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[mwester]

In the spirit of Red Green: a little duck tape and it's all better. 

[Teken]

In the spirit of Red Green: a little duck tape and it's all better. 

I know it’s hard to tell by the terrible angle of the picture. All anyone can really see is what appears to be a hair line crack.

It’s not just a hair line crack. When the module was removed from the outlet that upper piece actually pulled away hence the massive crack sound I heard!

I’m going to try to find that other thread of the OP where he shows half the case pulling away. I’m thinking it’s on the Smarthome forum?? Regardless, I’ll need to inspect the other ones in the building for the same. Once something is installed in my home it’s rarely if ever removed.

Given 100% of the outlets all use some form of third party outlet they are all very firm. This On-Off module wasn’t even installed in any of the hospital grade surge alarm outlets either. I’m sure the entire back side would have sheared off just trying to yank it out!


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[larryllix]

Some receptacles use an anodised aluminum or some "dry" brass plating on their contact surface and it tends to grab or "weld" with other metals. I have had a few receptacles that have done this badly and a little Vaseline or silicone spray lube on the pins, worked in somewhat, goes a long way to prevent this extreme grab that can tear wallwart devices apart.

 

[kclenden]

19 minutes ago, Teken said:

I’m going to try to find that other thread of the OP where he shows half the case pulling away.

Is this the post you're thinking of?

 

[simplextech]

Somewhat off topic but I've seen a few reports of the Peanut Plug (common zigbee plug) losing it's ground pin in outlets as well.

[Teken]

Is this the post you're thinking of?
 

You’re awesome & Know It! That is exactly the one I was speaking of. I could maybe understand if the unit was used and exposed to UV for years but this brand new unit was in a sealed box.

Stored in a waterproof and airtight military grade Pelican case. It was only in the outlet for ten minutes for cripe sakes!


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[mwester]

FWIW, I have two of those that are held together by electrical tape and zip-ties...  They're now safely out of reach (up on a ceiling soffit ledge, where the appearance doesn't matter, and no kids are going to be able to reach them).  One of them failed within weeks of being installed (in the basement, where there's certainly no sunlight!).  The other I dropped from about three feet onto the tiled floor.  There's no possibility that particular batch of plastic was the same as the units sent to UL for testing.

[Teken]

FWIW, I have two of those that are held together by electrical tape and zip-ties...  They're now safely out of reach (up on a ceiling soffit ledge, where the appearance doesn't matter, and no kids are going to be able to reach them).  One of them failed within weeks of being installed (in the basement, where there's certainly no sunlight!).  The other I dropped from about three feet onto the tiled floor.  There's no possibility that particular batch of plastic was the same as the units sent to UL for testing.

I’ve seen in several industries where UV, oxygen, or ozone, had the same affect on plastics. Given none of the three apply here I agree this really comes down to cheap grade plastics!

No freaking way this plastic is UV stable or would ever survive a small amount of sunlight.

Obviously I can’t say what kind of life these modules had before it arrived in Canada. But can say once they arrived they were immediately stored in a temperature / humidity controlled room and sealed in a military grade pelican case which has no less than three decadent absorbers.


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[Brian H]

I have  older 2456S3 ApplianceLinc modules. One controlling a small under counter florescent light. Has a discolored case. Kind of ugly brown. So this plastic issue has been around for awhile.

Though the cases on the presently selling modules seem to be even more brittle and IMHO cheesy.

[Mustang65]

Just to add to the issue, I purchased a box of wall outlets from Lowe's and they have the child safety mechanism which is a piece of plastic inside the outlet openings. Trying to get plugs/Insteon products in and out of these outlets is a real pain, as the item being installed/removed need to be jiggled around for the outlet to accept/release them. So far no "Plug-in" fatalities, yet, but I can see it happening in the future.

[simplextech]

1 hour ago, Mustang65 said:

Trying to get plugs/Insteon products in and out of these outlets is a real pain

These new "tamper resistant" outlets are a serious PITA.  I have a lot of those and the new Insteon outlets are also tamper resistant.  Makes plugging in anything a PITA.

[carealtor]

4 hours ago, Mustang65 said:

Just to add to the issue, I purchased a box of wall outlets from Lowe's and they have the child safety mechanism which is a piece of plastic inside the outlet openings. Trying to get plugs/Insteon products in and out of these outlets is a real pain, as the item being installed/removed need to be jiggled around for the outlet to accept/release them. So far no "Plug-in" fatalities, yet, but I can see it happening in the future.

That was my first thought as to the probable case of this "problem".

[Teken]

24 minutes ago, carealtor said:

That was my first thought as to the probable case of this "problem".

Depending upon CEC / NEC code and revision not all locations require tamper proof outlets. Where I reside such a requirement is not in place and none of the outlets which have Insteon *Plug In Modules* have these tamper proof shutters.

[mwester]

Alas where I live, the local codes demand them.  The electrician, when we built the home, strongly recommended the high-end outlets (I didn't know there was such a thing!) because the cheapo ones sold in the bins at the home stores are far more difficult and prone to jamming than the higher-end ones.  Still, just 5 years later, a few of them are getting really painful to use -- so I have a few non-tamper-proof on hand for when they get too miserable to deal with anymore.

Quality is a challenge these days, no matter where.

[apostolakisl]

Those plastic blocked outlets are excellent at keeping children from sticking things into the outlet.  Unfortunately, they do that by making it impossible for anyone to stick anything in the outlet.  Seriously, I have these at my office and my female employees can not plug things in, they simply aren't strong enough.  Perhaps the ones in my office are the bottom brand, I don't know, but seriously, some little kids can be as strong as some adult women, so keeping one of them out means keeping them both out.

[MustangChris04]

I had 4 of these break like this. Was not happy with how their support handled it. I recently closed on a new house. Haven't started with home automation yet due to other projects but Insteon isn't even on my list of options which is why I haven't been around here in a while.

[Brian H]

I had six of them in storage. Slightly used. Five out of the six had major cracks on their back. Just sitting in the storage box and nor presently being used. They were refurbished so no warranty other than a 30 day DOA.

My old 2456S3 ApplianceLincs maybe power line only and not as up to date looking but they don't crack.

I looked at one of mine. It looked like the AC input pins where slightly too high and hit the PC Board insulating insert. Putting pressure on the back when the case was screwed together. The plastic case material also looked more brittle.

[Teken]

I had 4 of these break like this. Was not happy with how their support handled it. I recently closed on a new house. Haven't started with home automation yet due to other projects but Insteon isn't even on my list of options which is why I haven't been around here in a while.

 

What did Smarthome have to say?!? Can you also provide a few photos of the units?

 

 

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[Teken]

I had six of them in storage. Slightly used. Five out of the six had major cracks on their back. Just sitting in the storage box and nor presently being used. They were refurbished so no warranty other than a 30 day DOA.
My old 2456S3 ApplianceLincs maybe power line only and not as up to date looking but they don't crack.
I looked at one of mine. It looked like the AC input pins where slightly too high and hit the PC Board insulating insert. Putting pressure on the back when the case was screwed together. The plastic case material also looked more brittle.

Brian,

Any pictures you could share would be great to see. As I would like to gather as many examples for reference.


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[Brian H]

Sorry I don't have any photos.

 

[Mustang65]

Another one bites the dust. We just purchased a fireplace for a place to park my new TV and I had to have my son come over and do the rewire of the SAT stuff, OTA and Internet things. The 2635 was plugged into a regular power bar (no child protection outlets) and when he grabbed the top and bottom, well 2 pictures are worth a thousand words. This is the 3rd one.

The top 2 screw mounts broke lose and the bottom one broke. I am thinking that when and if I am forced into purchasing more of these modules, I will open them up and Gorilla-glue the cover to the base, before I use them.

 

[larryllix]

A little silicone spray goes a long way on electrical contacts that are supposed to slide, especially when copper, brass, or aluminum are involved.

Insteon plug-in devices usually have a good plating on the contacts that doesn't oxidize grip with other metals.

We have heard of this before, so it seems like some of the plastics become brittle over the years also.

[Teken]

36 minutes ago, Mustang65 said:

Another one bites the dust. We just purchased a fireplace for a place to park my new TV and I had to have my son come over and do the rewire of the SAT stuff, OTA and Internet things. The 2635 was plugged into a regular power bar (no child protection outlets) and when he grabbed the top and bottom, well 2 pictures are worth a thousand words. This is the 3rd one.

The top 2 screw mounts broke lose and the bottom one broke. I am thinking that when and if I am forced into purchasing more of these modules, I will open them up and Gorilla-glue the cover to the base, before I use them.

 

Your second picture looks exactly like mine where the hair line crack can only be seen from the top view. When I pulled (wiggled) the outlet out ever so slowly I heard a quick and loud snap! Once the module was out I couldn't see anything and honestly thought one of the pins had broken off inside of the outlet. But, all three pins were still there and initially thought made it was broken off inside.

It wasn't . . .

Upon opening up the module the top looked exactly like yours. 

One thing I also noticed was various years of production of these units are a different hue of white. I haven't taken a serious look as to what production date they are but the darker white modules are ever so slightly thicker inside?!?  

 

[tmorse305]

In a former work life, I was having plastic parts molded in China using Polycarbonate plastic. This is a really tough plastic normally, it is sometimes used in bullet proofing.  My use was for a connector cover that was prone to being dropped so it needed to be tough.   I received many batches of good covers then we started having reports of cracked covers.  The covers were brittle and would shatter if dropped.  We thought there had been a material mix up but it turned out that if polycarbonate has moisture in the raw material the result can be brittle.  I don't know if the Insteon covers are polycarbonate, they look like they could be but its hard to know for sure.  It could be a batch problem in which case the problem will be there out of the box, no need for environmental exposure.