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Thank you. I stayed up for several hours and, thankfully, nothing happened. This morning, I don't smell anything, either. For now, I'm going to wait and watch.
It didn't smell like burnt electric or anything like that.
Good point about transferring smells. I hadn't even thought about that. Prior to touching that switch, I'd been loading the dishwasher, wiping down counters, putting away produce from the farmer's market, etc.
I actually did have an ant problem in the kitchen so I'll check that out, too.
Thanks, again.
Don't wait and watch, get out of the house and take a walk or take a nap.
Off chance the switch wasn't completely "on" when it was on and arcing and producing a smell?
Honestly I'd take the "informed" approach and have an AFCI breaker (if not already that type) installed for that circuit (at least). If it's arcing, it will trip, and there's your answer.
Unscrew and remove the switch plate and use a flashlight to inspect the switch and wires. We recently had a leak from our central a/c unit that was leaking on the wires in the switch and would cause steam when the drops closed the circuit and were evaporated. Wall was cool. When we removed the switch plate we saw a bit of water on the inside of the plate. Further up in the wall wires were burnt from being shorted. It never tripped the circuit breaker.
I read somewhere that people were getting a fishy smell from the plastic switches and wall plates, can't remember where I read that. My son had a lighter light switch, he complained of smell and buzzing sound from it. Neither my husband or I could hear or smell but said it stopped after we changed to a standard switch.
Yep, I've changed out outlets in a couple of my neighbors' homes (and plenty of customers back when I did that grunt work for a paycheck) and everyone describes it as being a fishy smell. Take the cover plate off and you'll notice that one or both faces of the outlet are starting to melt. That would be the plastic.
If done correctly a switch or an outlet will last a hundred years. If it has even a slightly loose connection that is going to "arc" over time, in the same way that lightning will arc or an old light bulb's filament would arc to create light. That arc produces heat which will cause metal to warp and plastic to melt. Over time as your switch or outlet begin to come apart that connection becomes looser and looser, and the arc becomes bigger and bigger until you have a problem.
I would only call an electrician if I smelled the specific hot, acrid smell at the outlet that I associate with electrical wires overheating. However, YMMV.
Agree with you. Have an electrician replace the switch. Why spending time inspecting an old electrical switch, or even removing the plate and washing it, when replacing a switch takes two or three minutes after tripping the breaker?
I'm finding it odd that not only did the OP not mention what the smell resembled but not one poster asked about this.
Only on the second page was it mentioned that it was not a burnt electric smell.
What smell are we talking about? BBQ? Flowers? Bleach? Breath?
Ozone-machines create a smell with a circuit that has a high voltage jumping a gap....maybe your switch is arcing?
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