Plug on air conditioner melted and burned black. Can we replace the plug/cord- or trash the whole unit?

your ac unit is pulling to many Amps off the breaker, thus causing the melting.

1.st you can replace the cord, go to lowes, or an simmer outlet buy a 12g cord ( just tell them what happened they will hook u up).

2. if your electrically inclined thus im concluding your not because your posting this ( no offense) you can

A. call an electrician to install a new breaker and separate the loads,

B. you can check to see what all is running off that breaker, ( id do this first) check to see what all is plunged into the breaker ( outlets) lamps a fridge, because waht is happening is your overloading the breaker. most homes have 10Amp or 15 Amp breakers major appliances have 25Amp+ depending on what it is powering. your ac unit should be on a 15Amp breaker ( most ac units 5-50 amps central air units require a 50amp breaker or more.)

after you figure out what is running off the breaker unplug anything or move it to another plug, this will free up amps and not overload the breaker.

Cord Plug Replacement

The cord melted because the unit is bad, obviously you had enough amps going to the unit to melt the cord, and this is the first time in 6 years this happened. It's not the breaker or the circuit, it's the unit. As someone said, most areas will not just accept a discarded unit in the trash, they will pick it up separately, some require an advanced call, or many appliance stores will take it in if you buy from them. However... A/C units contain copper coils, and copper is very desired by scrappers, if you were to put it out curbside I have no doubt they would take it away for you.

As was also previously mentioned, do not continue to use it, as it may indeed cause a fire.

The unit is defective if it trips the breaker, and draws so much current as to overheat its cord or plug. You're lucky you didn't have a house fire. Repeated tripping of breakers is a serious warning!!

Buy a new air conditioner, and make sure that the old one is never put into use again.

By the way, air conditioners must be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way that does not allow the refrigerant to escape into the atmosphere.

You do not have enough Amps to run that airconditioner in that room. This causes over heating. It is possible you just burnt up the plug. But replacing it will just cause it to do the same again. So you need more Amps to the room. Heaver wire and breaker to the room. Or all off but the airconditioner on that breaker to reduce amp pull. Or you may have burnt up the whole thing. Your house may be next if you do not fix the amp problem. You also can go to a smaller airconditioner. Less amps being used. Plus there is heavy pull on the grid right now with the heat. You may be able to cut power use in other parts of the home to leave sufficient for his air. What size off transformer do you have at the pole. How many amps to the whole home. Do you have 30 amp service 60 amp,100 amp, or more to the home? There is a limit as to what you can pull and run in a home. On your service.

Your heat exchange coils are most likely loaded with lint and dust and are causing your fans, compressor and entire unit to work at peak capacity, thus drawing more amps. Because of this you will draw more amperage which makes the circuit breaker trip.

. This happens all the time with neglected units. In order to clean the heat exchanging coils you will have to partially disassemble the unit. Just remove the plastic shell, which is held on with 10-20 screws.

A toothbrush with medium stiff bristles or a vegetable cleaning brush that they sell for cleaning produce is very helpful to brush the lint off without bending the super thin aluminum fins. Use a vacuum as you go.

Replace the cord with one with a overload protection.You shouldn t get a scorched cord again if you properly clean your coils and do regular filter changes. The only other thing that will make the compressor work harder is if you are low on refrigerant. Because of the stinky stuff they add to the gas, I m pretty sure you d notice the awful smell if you had refrigerant leaking.

No need to buy another unit. Fix what you have.

Obviously go online or call a company for a replacement and ask for the cause of it. Dont waste time by asking it on here... Dang im 17 and know this... common sense.