The New Hotness

One of the inline switches I installed to replace the failed switches for the LED lights got unpleasantly warm enough to prompt an investigation:

Yeah, that is not a nominal outcome, particularly in light of the claimed “10 A 250 V” rating.

The overheated plastic pulled back enough to expose the terminal inside:

There was a reason I’d wrapped those switches with known-good 3M electrical tape before deploying them.

That crimp connector took some heat and its screw looks even more unhappy:

It turned out the screw was an itsy too short to compress both the connector and the bent-metal conductor tab against the terminal block:

A 6 mm brass screw with a brass washer did a better job of compressing all parties into one conductive lump.

Although the switch now runs with the case at normal basement temperature, an allegedly UL listed replacement is on its way; it costs about five times more than that switch. If it behaves as it should, I’ll preemptively replace two other switches.