Lucky escape

Steve Walker · 2017-08-06T21:02:35+00:00

Last night we had an alarm up on our dishwasher due to something jamming the drain pump. I told my wife to leave it 'til the next day, as I'd been doing a lot and wasn't up to getting the machine out, drained and upended to access the pump. She ignored me and a few hours later tried it again, resulting in water pouring out over the kitchen floor and the RCD tripping. Naturally, we mopped up the spill (while I shouted at her!) and I unplugged the machine. However every time I turned that ring back on, the RCD tripped. There was no way water could have reached the sockets (they are above the machines) and there are no junction boxes under the floor that could have got wet, so no obvious reason for the problem. I started to unlug anything on that ring and found the tumble-dryer's moulded-on plug (dryer was not in use) badly melted and very hot. Further investigation showed the pins to be bright and clean and totally unmarked by heat. The front of the socket was also damaged, but internally was fine. It appears that the overtemperature has been on the fuse clips or their rivetted connections. While the body of the plug is badly melted and distorted, the fuseholder is blackened, charred and badly out of shape. Both plug and socket replaced today and everything seems to be running cool. Very odd that both events should occur simultaneously, but without the dishwasher tripping the RCD, the tumble-dryer plug could easily have started a fire - especially being close to a basket of already dried clothes. Very lucky escape. SteveW

Aug 06, 2017 42 Replies

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ARW 8 years ago

Only one person here has raided a woman's knicker drawer on TV....

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ARW 8 years ago

Or a tattoo. Probably with the suspected fathers name or something.

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ARW 8 years ago

They steal some on the Full Monty:-)

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