Help, wall sockets burning/cracking

[penni00]

Please can anyone help with this. I have a fan heater in the lounge, and a fan heater in the bedroom. Both wall sockets have now cracked/burnt. Have I definitely overloaded the socket circuit, or could I have poorly manufactured sockets with not good pressure meaning loose connections that cause heat which a heater drawing high amps makes the sockets melt? These are two opinions that have been offered? Both seem credible but which one is it?

I need the Piglet guy!

Yes you are overloading the circuits.

2 fan heaters are unlikely to overload one circuit, and unless you are in a flat, your two sockets are likely to be on separate circuits anyway.
If the circuit is overloaded, the fuse/trip would likely blow.
From what you've said it sounds like the common case of cheap or old sockets and plugs, any looseness in connection will generate heat on a high power appliance and damage the socket.
Replace both sockets and both plugs, and all should be well again good luck

@johnd2
@Debsdonein

Thank you. I am in a flat and there is only one socket circuit on the consumer unit. I am hoping it is just the sockets being cheap and useless rather than overloading the circuit because I desperately need two fan heaters going (gas boiler broken). Flat is ten years old. The fan heaters were powerful Dyson ones, I am now using less powerful ones. Do you think the max I could run would be a total of approx 3 kw, say one fan on low setting of 1.2 kw and a second fan on high setting of 2kws. I am also wondering if running 2 pretty noisy tall fridge freezers in a bedroom could be causing a contributing issue?

You could run 4.6kw on the circuit if it says B20 on it, and if it says B32 you could run 32x230W which is over 7kw so it's unlikely you're going to struggle, although bear in mind things like microwaves, ovens and the like can take a fair current, same goes for washing machines and dishwashers.

if i were you i would get in a qualified electrician to check all that immediately.
it's not something you can take chances with.
and obviously need work done if the sockets are showing signs of damage.
do you have good smoke/heat alarms.
please don't delay with this.
call electrician today.

@Johnd2
Our socket circuit breaker is B32. I had the electrics checked for safety a couple of years ago. To be honest, I expected the switch to trip/fuse to blow, if a socket started to burn. I am nervous about other sockets in the property now if it is the shoddy sockets causing the issue. For example, washing machine is integrated with the plug behind and not accessible - if this socket was melting/burning I wouldn't spot it, and cannot even touch the plug to see if it is hot. I really need to be able to rely on the trip switching as a warning for this sort of thing.
Regarding the two frost - free freezers (not fridge freezers as I wrote by mistake), if they were to run too hard, eg compressors could be dying, would the socket/plugs get hot?

Could have been the socket or the plug, either way you need to replace both.
The circuit breaker is there to protect the wiring in the circuit, not the sockets themselves, the sockets are rated 13A each and 20A for the double in total, plugs are 13A, but in reality they often can't make that long term.
Fridges are unlikely to burn sockets, they use hardly any, it's really an extreme case for heaters.
If i were you I'd get the plugs and sockets replaced that are damaged and leave it at that, but you could consider changing all the sockets if you're really concerned.
Take care