Design failure at a leisure centre

[ARW]

Brian at the bottom of this post are links to two photos.

The first photo shows a hair drier that sits in a metal hoop in a female changing rooms at a leisure centre. The air drier aims downwards when sat in the hoop.

The second photo shows the next hair drier along in the same changing room but this time the hoop is just above the dressing table in front of a mirror and someone (probably a woman) has left the hair drier turned on and replaced it into the metal hoop before leaving the changing room.

[Just Jim Dandy]

bloody wummin just don't have they grasp ..... and they have no mechanical sympathy that is why my latest original clutch has just turned 120,000 miles and theirs don't ...

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

So I'm just guessing here then they probably rather melted the stuff directly underneath. Sounds to me like an incorrect use of a device. I bet the instructions say that there should be x metres below it. Besides, with all the smart things these days, it should be relatively easy to have it on a kind of timer or dead mans handle device. My phone knows when its near your ear and turns back to a non speaker mode, If a proximity detector for a human was built in it cold be turned of say after 20 seconds. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

People tend to think that the designer would not be tat stupid as to fit a hair drier that did not fail safe in that position, today. Brian

[Just Jim Dandy]

never found one that did

[Andy Burns]

There appears to be a pool of hairdryer below the hoop, and a cracked mirror behind it ... now you know why those hotel bathroom dryers only switch on when removed from the holder.

[Just Jim Dandy]

somebody has put a match to it...simples

[Martin Brown]

Arguably it is a serious failure of the hairdriers internal safety systems. They should have a thermal cutout that prevents them from getting anywhere near self ignition temperatures if put into an unreasonable situation like under a towel etc.

It doesn't look to me like it failed by setting light to the bench surface and then being incinerated by those flames. There is too little damage to the bench. Worth challenging the hairdrier manufacturer!

Thermal fuses are common in hair driers and electric fan heaters precisely because you cannot be sure what really stupid thing the damn customer will do with them. Dropping wet towels on it etc!

This sort of thing should not be able to happen.

[Colin Bignell]

The hair dryers I have used in hotels only work while you are holding the trigger. That is probably the simplest human proximity sensor.

[misterroy]

Could the dryer have switched on when placed in the hoop. If another hairdryer was on at the time the noise would have been harder to hear?

[Just Jim Dandy]

somebody put a a match or their lighter to it

[ARW]

I am wondering if the thermal fuse had enough cold air blowing in from behind to to stop it tripping whilst the front end of the hair drier went tit's up.

The photo I posted is what it looked like when I got there. The leisure centre maintenance man had fitted the strip connector and removed most of the hair drier.

I was called out as the fire service said it was an electrical fault!

[Martin Brown]

Pity - that was the crucial evidence for failure analysis. If it is still available photos of it and/or the physical evidence should go to the manufacturer for examination (and possibly trading standards too).

It might still be one!

Dissecting one of the surviving hairdriers might be very rewarding if you really want to make a point. You could well be right that the thermal cutout is badly placed on the wrong side of the heater element!

I recall a similar failure (but plumbing) where the cooling water for an insane 8000K argon plasma torch running against a water cooled cone with a tiny hole in it had the flow sensor interlock on the input side.

One day a pipe on the far side came loose and the thing slowly flooded the basement of a hospital over a weekend! The solenoid only closed when the water reached a level that disabled the entire piece of kit!

[John J]

The fire service blame anything not blindingly obvious on electrical faults. I was called to investigate a storage heater the fire service blamed on a bungalow fire some years ago. From scorch marks on the floor the settee had been positioned almost touching the heater. The burnt settee was sitting outside in the yard still with the remains of a foam cushion and cooked foam cushion chips scattered on the floor adjacent to the severely scorched heater. On removing the top panel of the heater the inner paintwork was pristine. The overheat device was tripped but the only damage to the heater was external paint scorching. My verdict the heater had been IN a fire but had NOT been the source of the fire. Most likely cause a cigarette in contact with the flammable foam furniture/cushion.