I like to imagine someone using this for the first time, stepping away for a moment, then coming back to their desk to find their mug of coffee literally boiling over. 😂

"oh it's got air vents on the back -- well, smoke vents really." - and this is why we love you, Big C.

The mystery hole is probably provision for a safety switch that, if included, would have turned it off if not placed right side up on a flat surface. But they probably decided to make it more exiting and therefore more appealing to BigClive and save 3 cent at the same time.

In all fairness, it does not specify to which temperature it self-regulates. "55 C" might be just the product name. ;)

I have something similar, also made in China, but of much higher quality. It's rated at 23 watts and one of the legs is a spring-loaded power switch, so it's only on when there's a coffee mug (or, as happens a lot in my house, a cat) on it. If you don't touch it for longer than 30 minutes it turns itself off. Then you have to remove and replace the mug to turn it back on. I've been using it daily for around 20 years and it's still working. When it finally dies, I will dissect it and reverse engineer it. It must have some form of temperature regulation because it gets hot enough to be really uncomfortable, but it's never damaged the cat. Nor has it ever brought my coffee to boiling, or even burned it.

After you removed the heating wire from the aluminum plate I was hoping you would just plug it in and see how hot it gets

It's absolutely fantastic... in the worst possible ways.

I like when you cut the wire and said “it’s a different resistance now”

The hole in the bottom is for a button that only get pressed when something heavy is on top. That way it only turns on when you put a mug onto it.

That's a fun bit of kit there. I imagine your cup placed on it will pull some heat away, but probably not enough to keep it from either self-immolating at some point, or turning into a puddle of bubbling pink goo and then self-immolating. Fun for the whole family! I'll take two!

That vibrating feeling when running your hand over a painted surface is concerning. I have a 45W LED grow light panel without a ground and the metal on the back of that has that feeling. Touching it with a wet hand once was not pleasant, I kept meaning to test it with a multimeter but I stopped using it entirely after the wet hand incident. Basically the back is live to some degree though.

Being a software developer, I can tell this device would kill my few social skills. Whenever my coffee gets cold, I need to stand up, get out of my "tunnel", walk to the coffee machine and grab hot one. I meet other colleagues there, and this is a good thing. This device therefore is splitting societies, right? Conspiracy level 17, why China floods our markets with such devices ... :)

"it's a while since we've had an episode of Unbox Tragedy..." "it's got to be pink if it's dangerous, just for extra drama" around 3:30 the wire nut just falls off in shame. I always use wire nuts on solid wire because they don't work on stranded wire very well if at all. I didn't know that conducting in reverse was normal for red LEDs. Don't ever change Clive, you are an international treasure.

If you left it for too long, you would find your cup dry and stuck down with pink melted plastic. LOL. I could see the thin wire for a split second a couple of times, when it caught the light just at the right time.

It is self regulating. It heats up, melts and smoulders, and then reaches an equilibrium temperature as decided by your local fire hydrant water temperature.

Most metallic wires are PTC resistors. Thermal coefficient of resistance is small, but it's not zero and it's positive. That thing *will* self regulate, just not as much as you'd like.

i wonder if this was designed for the us market 120v? I would imagine it would operate much closer to spec at half the voltage.

Here kind westerners, place your conductive liquids on this unregulating unprotected unfused mains powered death trap that we made for you, we painted it pink so it can’t hurt you. Thanks Clive you’re doing good works.

Wait, was that a US American plug? And a 220V rating? Something tells me this is designed for 120V, at which voltage it would dissipate around 5W instead of almost 20. It would still get bloody hot, just not as quickly. Coincidentally, I think you've also found the best way to fix this. Open it up, cut the wire and throw it in the bin.

Oh, how I've missed Unbox Tragedy! Always good for a laugh.

When I saw the power factor of 1.000 I thought "There's nothing in there but a heating element."

I would have loved a schematic diagram cause this is very complicated stuff to comprehend without !

It makes me wonder if they took a 110V design, changed just the plug and started selling it as 220V, changing a 40C heater into a 160C one...

I bought a coffee cup warmer, years ago. I never thought that it would get so hot. I lifted my coffee cup, touched my finger to the heater, felt searing pain and jerked my hand back. You guessed it… I spent the morning cleaning coffee off of every wall and surface of my office. 😂

It makes me wonder how splash resistant it would be, considering it is supposed to heat a beverage. Spill …. Zzzzttt … arrrgggh .. zap !!!

This video is more evidence that, on eBay, all feedback ratings below 99% are actually the percentage chance that the product you're buying will burn your house down given the chance.

Always great content when Clive handles his Pink Things.

I got one, it lasted 3 uses, it has a glass like disc that had a kapton tap circle holding on a copper track in a coil. It was very thin, hence the resistance to make the heat. It also had the same wiring and got excruciatingly hot in the centre but failed cos it burnt the track off. It also didn't really keep a mug warm cos there wasn't much heat making it into the mug itself. Seems a perfectly flat based mug is needed, to allow the heat to escape quick enough to not burn up the element.

I observe that 'The usual plastic tat' is now a critique that smoothly transfers to virtually all products of the motor industry.

Spudger and sprue are two of my favorite words. Thank you for saying them in quick succession and with plenty of flair.

its one of those things you buy if you want to make a insurance claim... for the whole house.

Wow. I love how this was designed so that If you spilt the drink on it, you would literally fry. Nice lead crimps, open wires. SO GOOD! Bravo China. Yet another show of your technological advancement for humanity!

I love seeing how things work. So many of us would open something up, and "wow, it looks complicated". Then maybe end up ruining the device. Thanks so much for letting us see what we should look for to evaluate a well-designed or not-so-well-designed product.

Lost it when you broke out the hot pink calculator to match the pink mug warmer.

I have a similar one that's completely made of metal which can become both hot and cold. It's been working perfectly for 10+ years. The plate on mine is more like a stove plate instead of just a thin metal sheet. It's USB powered so I keep it on my desk, really useful for long gaming sessions, movies, work etc.

Every time I hear you say "That's interesting" in that tone of voice I know it's time to get the popcorn

In the USA we have that style of 2-prong plug, but it usually has holes, though not required to. Holes are said to be for manufacturing purposes (i.e. for molding jigs or punch press indexing) but are not mandatory.

I also love how it has no spill protection at all.

How exciting! 😬 Metal parts, no grounding, no fuse, no thermal cut out, a recipe for blisters from a too hot drink or a shock from a live aluminium plate. Can I have one for my mother in law? 😁

"Pink for extra drama" HAHAHA I love you clive.

I remember about 40 years ago putting reverse voltages across LEDs to see what happened. The details are hazy now, but I seem to remember that they actually lit with a few volts in reverse. Then when I tried them in the forward direction it took more than their rated voltage to make them light. After a few cycles like that they stopped emitting light at all. Somebody who knew this stuff said it was avalanche-induced migration of the dopant. I'm guessing that at 50 Hz and low current the dopant barely migrates at all so the lifetime may be reduced but it will still last for a while.

I have a ancient version of that thing. It has a neon indicator instead of a led. And I stopped using it after the first time, because it gave off the smell of a failing Selenium rectifier.

Both a potential first hazard, and a potential burn hazard. Excellent!

I found you at random and I feel like I’m to dumb to understand everything you say but I love watching you take apart dangerous electronics

Clive, we call them wire nuts in the states. If sized properly, and the wire stripped to match, they work great. At least they did use the "better" ones with the gripper spring (which should not stretch).

If you want to keep your drink, soup, etc. warm, put a lid on it. You know the big hole at top, were all the heat rises from. Not rocket surgery. Thanks Clive. ;)

I bought one of these many years ago at a thrift shop, and it works quite well for heating my shaving mug. I've never had the heart to take it apart to see what's inside, but I can say for sure that when shaving soap finds its way inside, it certainly stinks to high heaven. I'm sure it's not much different than this one, since if it's left too long, the mug gets too hot to handle comfortably!

Unboxed tragedy sounds like a great name for a series of videos

My weekend begins with new big Clive every week! The joys of working overnight in WA while Clive is awake on the Isle.

Who needs this , I drink my coffee ☕️ too quickly for it to get cold 🥶

"Smoke vents, really." 😂

To answer the question about how long the device will last, the video length is 10 minutes... so there's your answer! LOL I really liked your remark about the "air vents"... more like "smoke vents"... yep, nothing like breathing burning adhesive. And lastly, those wire nuts were useless, that's not how they're supposed to work... something is real fishy about them! You've uncovered more of that "patented" crappiness

"semi acceptable for use but not a good choice in general" What should have been my wedding vows Clive.

The wire nuts falling off: the problem here is not the spring in the nut being springy or not. The problem is they used the wrong size wire nut. Wire nuts come in various sizes. The sizes are specified by saying how many wires of a given wire gage can be used in the wire nut. In this case we have a couple of very tiny stranded wires. The smallest wire nuts (which are grey in modern color coding) would probably be about right for that. The next size up (blue) might work, but it would be iffy. You could do the trick of folding the wires back over themselves (as they did here) to try to make the wires hold in the nut, but the directions on using wire nuts say to never do this as it reduces the pullout strength. In this case they used the third size of wire nuts (orange in modern coding), which are for wires much larger than used here. Even with twisting the wires and folding them back, there is no possible way these wire nuts would have stayed on the wires.

The shrink-tubing seems to be the best made part of whole thing.

It has occurred to me that such pink devices are quite photogenic.

Just what we like Danger Gadgets.... Thanks Clive

I've got a nice model that actually IS self regulated. With a Peltier cooler no less! It's a lot of fun. This one is a lot of fun for completely different reasons though~

I wonder how long it would run for, before something just gave up. Ithought the hole was for spills to drain but it looks like the sides have moulded in walls. 2x👍

talk about lack of insulation; this thing is barely single insulated and completely unearthed. add to that the fire risk being a 4/5 (likely to cause a fire) and we might have the most dangerous thing so far

Unsafe electronic "tat" makes the best videos, especially when it comes in pink!

I have bought three of these from Wish,different models,and all have functioned perfectly. One is s Smart model with three selectable heats. All are fitted with base safety switches,so do not operate without a weight on the pressure disc.

Based on that plug I bet you’re running it at 2.5 times it’s intended voltage 😅. But their posting says 220V…

If my cup of tea goes cold, I just make another one. I've made it to drink it, not let it stand around for ages.

I got similar product from Aliexpress for a tenner a year ago, but better construction as has black glass top. Have it on my desk connected to a TP link plug to auto shut off after an hour just to be sure in case I forget to turn off. Worked perfectly so far and no lattes gone cold!

This device reminds me of “the laughter box” in a sack, that you could get back in the 70’s 😂

Breaking out the pink calculator was the perfect touch!

at 150C it might be used as a moderate preheater for smaller PCBs

The listing was for 240V but you got the 120V version, that's why it got so hot.

It self regulates. Once the house burns down it will turn off. Possibly during!

In the context of this Channel a product deemed "Semi-Acceptable" is a device which does not outright kill its user.

Thanks for this video

It might not get so hot with a thermal mass on it.

Quality engineering and construction right there Mate! The wire nuts are the "quality" icing on the cake!

"air vents, well smoke vents really..." 😹

It is pink. It is dangerous. Love it.

Terrifyingly Pink! Not sure what is worst, the construction or the paint scheme. Great choice as always!

.. Cheers to you ..

Oh I remember those heaters for coffee mugs - back in the late 80s early 90s. I had one from Radio Shack. Kept my coffee lukewarm in my cubicle job. Unfortunately the coffee continued to deteriorate to a yucky tar taste. Not the good kind of tar taste. Still used the thing though even though it didn't seem to prolong enjoyment of the coffee. I think it was counter productive. Knowing something kept my mug warm slowed my consumption. Whereas without it I would consume it faster and probably enjoy it more throughout the duration of the entire volume.

I have a "name brand" one in 120v flavor and it fluctuates between 100C and 125C. It'll keep your coffee warm, but not hot since you know, mugs don't have flat bottoms. The heat of this one looks like it'd be more effective, but when it's at the expense of the durability of the thing, well...maybe not so much.

It does have a constant temperature, just one that is about 100c above what you might be comfortable with.

"Oh it's a different resistance now" 😂

I foresee visiting the Isle of Man in a few years, expressly to tour Big Clive's Museum of Electrical Deathtrap Oddities. Admission: 50p, fully refundable, should one experience a near-death experience in the "hands-on exhibit hall".

I love your presentation skills: You have interesting content, but the presentation makes is highly enjoyable.

Basically they built a Capacitor and thought it would be a good idea to unductivly couple it to the mains.

Are you going to burn my house down? "best I could do is evaporate your coffee away"

And to think that it got that hot while your home's ambient you have said to be significantly lower than most people's homes.

Yeah, good ones will have a higher rating but also a thermostat affixed to the underside of the plate. Bad ones like that just rely on heat in vs dissipation out to "regulate" the temperature of the mug. No mug means "no load", so it cooks itself to death. Kinda like bricking the accelerator of a car that's parked.

I really appreciate your hard work and dedication to explain things to us... A heart felt salute to you sir 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

A very good Thursday afternoon to you all from Wellington Somerset in the UK

The reverse breakdown on LEDs can actually be useful in a pinch, a batch of InGaN green I have break over pretty reliably at 60V as long as the source impedance is pretty high (megs). Used this in a GM tube power supply lash up because I didn't have any zeners above around 15 volts. Really anything with a PN junction can probably do this, I found "zener" voltages in the range from 20 to around 150V from a variety of small signal diodes, LEDs, and BJT junctions when I was fine-tuning my regulator string.

I like how even the LED circuit is a bit naughty.

"Smoke vents really..." your a funny guy, you make me laugh

"Well smoke vents really." Had me laughing, thanks Clive.

I think the added heat capacity of the full coffee mug will keep the temperature down and probably avoid burning the adhesive and plastic case. Fire hazard if ran without a mug on it!

I thought, just for a fleeting moment, that Big Clive was doing a personal advertisement, but realised that there was no comma after 'hot'.

oh no, it's the return of the rub your hand feel the "bzzz". I've had laptops that do the same, unnerving. Metal keyboard too so every keystroke while charging.

I have a feeling the “55C” is for the cup temperature - I got what seems to be a nicely made cup warmer, and the low mode is “120F”; I’ve found that it does keep my drink in that range, but the plate itself is often 250F or so! So the plate must be MUCH hotter to keep the cup warm

Those red caps were called screwits in the old days, they were ceramic and used to join wires together. The modern ones are plastic. As you say there no longer standard in the UK anymore but were commonly used from the 1930s to the 60s.

Usually black and yellow are the colour combo to make a warning sign out of. It comes from nature where insects that are usually dangerous and/or hurt a lot do wear these two particular colours. But I now see a future where pink is the new danger-colour. Pink and black stripes perhaps?