> But I have never heard of anything that would make it any
> more prone to failure.
Where you get into trouble is with loads that are highly non-linear, like
simple capacitive-input power supplies. These draw current from the line
only when the instantaneous line voltage is higher than the DC voltage on
the input capacitor, so the current draw is a series of pulses rather than a
sine wave. If the pulses aren't perfectly matched, you can wind up with a
situation where first one side's current flows through the neutral; and then
the other side's current flows through the neutral; making the neutral 'see'
twice the current of either leg by itself.
I believe there were actually some fires caused by this, back in the 90's
when office computers started becoming really common and the problem wasn't
understood yet. However, modern computer power supplies are required to
have very limited harmonic content (the difference between the pulses and a
sine wave is called a harmonic), so it should be impossible to have the
problem with computers made in the last decade or so.
Randall
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