Blown Fibaro wall plug

[StarkJohan 6]

I woke up this morning from a small bang in my living room. This plug has been connected to a single 11W bulb being switched on for a few hours every day for about 18 months. It's turned on by my HC2 during working days and this Monday it blow up when turning on. The light bulb and light fixture is still working just fine and the outlet is fine as well. This is clearly an internal failure of the Fibaro wall plug which has not been misused, over used or overloaded in any way.

 

I contacted Fibaro support and I hope to hear from them soon to get some advice on what to do next. The plug has been purchased from the exclusive Fibaro distributor “Gröna Hus” in Sweden. Edit: I got a very quick reply from Fibaro support and I was offered a door-to-door warranty. 

 

I haven't seen any other reports like this so far but I haven't been very active in the forums for a while so I might have missed something obvious. I thought this info should be made available to all users anyway and even more so if this has happened before.

 

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[KristianO 15]

Is this the new or old version?

[sonnyboy 11]

It must be the old one witch is banned in Sweden, the new hasent been on the market for 18 months.

[StarkJohan 6]

How can I check what version it is? Didn't know there were more than one version and I have like 8 more of these all around the house. I'd like to avoid fire if possible...  :-\

[j.nowacki 5]

@StarkJohan, please see the reply to your support ticket, you will find all the instructions there. Sorry for lack of more information, but it is really impossible to tell more details without closer examination of module itself.

[StarkJohan 6]

Of course. I just wanted this information to be public as I think that it is in every customers best interest. This is an issue that should be taken seriously and should be known to existing customers as well. 

 

I am also interested in how to check if this is the new version or the old version of the plug as I have 10 pcs in use at this point in addition to the failed one and they were all bought at pretty much the same time. This should be the old version as they were purchased in late 2013 if I understand the timeline but I would like to know how to tell them apart.

[Mickler 27]

+1 I'm interested too.

[UrSv 6]

If they plug was bought in Sweden then they started selling the new version about a month ago so if it was bought before that it is the old version.

[StarkJohan 6]

Ok, it is definitely the old version then but surely telling them apart physically must be possible?

[UrSv 6]

The latest old version is FGWP-101 and the new should say FGWP-102. The label probably says FGWPE/F-102 though.

[Bulldog 0]

Whats the difference between the 101 and the 102 version?

[KristianO 15]

102 is aligned with regulations from the Swedish Electric safety board (Elsäkerhetsverket). The 101 did not pass that test, there are a lot on this in the forum if you search.

[Joacim 11]

102 is aligned with regulations from the Swedish Electric safety board (Elsäkerhetsverket). The 101 did not pass that test, there are a lot on this in the forum if you search.

 

The 101 version does not comply with the international CE certification, nor EU regulations. However it seems like Sweden was the only country to force a direct sales ban. I actually think it was baned in Norway also?

 

Nice to hear nothing important got damaged. Fibaro always claimed their products were safe and would not fail in any catastrophic way. This malfunction does look like it may have had a potential for a greater catastrophe if there had been no one home and a curtain to close.  

[goran 9]

I have many Fibaro wall plugs (v1) that are broken (completely dead), I think it's 6 or 7 by now. They have all failed silently (just stopped working) and not like in the pictures above though.

They all broke just a little bit after 1 year of (minimal) use which means the warranty expired before I got the chance to return them. This is in a house with a modern perfectly fine electrical system in case anyone wonder.

[UrSv 6]

That sounds like a bad batch or something. Perhaps lightning strikes?

 

In my case a population of about 30 with light to heavy use. Only one has failed in almost 2 years.

 

How many do you have in total?

[goran 9]

They did not die at the same time and not during lightning. They have been bought from different stores at different times so they're likely not the same batch.

Two of them died when i turned them off, pulled them out, and put them in another outlet (nothing happened when pushing the button to turn them on).

The rest died while just sitting there doing pretty much nothing, like running a 10W light. I only have about 7 of them running now. Unsurprisingly, I have switched to another brand, which still hasn't failed a single time.

[UrSv 6]

Strange, the Fibaro plugs actually have a low failure rate so it sounds like something in your environment is not their friend.

[petergebruers 1,268]

Do any other things in your house fail? I was thinking af a bad grid Neutral (floating Neutral), but because it's all new that seems unlikely. And the overvoltage from a floating N would cause damage to other equipment. I've got 14 Wall Plugs and they're 2 years old. Hmm.

[wienog 107]

I have many Fibaro wall plugs (v1) that are broken (completely dead), I think it's 6 or 7 by now. They have all failed silently (just stopped working) and not like in the pictures above though.

They all broke just a little bit after 1 year of (minimal) use which means the warranty expired before I got the chance to return them. This is in a house with a modern perfectly fine electrical system in case anyone wonder.

Goran,

 

Here in Belgium warranty is at least two years, isn't that the same in Sweden ???