Wheeee. Now THAT was scary ...

[Arfa Daily]

Had a "bloody hell!" moment yesterday. We were in the kitchen, and the missus had been using the hairdryer (nowhere near anywhere wet, I might add). It's a few years old, but still worked perfectly. Mains lead in good condition. Switches all mechanically good. Anyway, she put it down on the side and turned away to do something else. About two minutes later, it started to run on its own, but it sounded a bit slow and laboured. As we looked at each other, a cloud of the densest most acrid-smelling smoke you have ever seen started pouring out of the handle. After a moment's shocked immobility, I hit the switch on the mains socket, tore the plug out, grabbed it by the lead and ran into my workshop with it. The handle was so hot, you couldn't touch it.

After a few minutes, I was able to take the screws out to have a look. The main on / off / speed (might have been on / off / temp - it's gone in the bin now) was a charred lump of plastic and burnt wiring ...

Imagine if the scene had followed what often happens - late for being somewhere, hair still damp, quick blast with the hairdryer, chuck it on the side and gone out the door. Maybe, all the components were actually made of a fire retardant plastic, but I don't think I would like to bet on it. I afterwards spoke to a friend who said that he knew someone whose house *did* actually partially burn down, and the fire investigators pinned that to a faulty switch in a hairdryer. They apparently implied that it was largely the fault of the house owners, because they were able to see that the wall switch was still on. Since that happened, my friend has added a timer to the bedroom sockets that his wife and daughter use for their hair-primping paraphernalia.

So, a salutary - if not downright scary - experience. Neither of us will be leaving hairdryers switched on at the wall again ... :-\

Arfa

[harry]

Good reason to make sure all electrical equipment is turned off at the socket when unattended. Or as much as possible.

[Andy Burns]

That's ok until the timer does the same ...

[Andrew Gabriel]

Seen something similar with an iron ~20 years ago. It got left on, and sometime later, the thermostat contacts probably welded, and the sole plate melted and slumped onto the ironing board, where it burned the cover, but the metalised ironing board cover seemed to prevent it sustaining a flame.

After having left my own iron on a couple of times accidentally (in both cases where I switched it on to iron something and then completely forgot to actually do the ironing), I made up a socket for the iron which includes a timed communal light switch press which powers the socket for 15 minutes. It also feeds a light over the ironing board, which also makes it obvious it's switched on.

You can now buy irons with this protection built-in using a movement sensor. Often found in hotel rooms, and in the higher range domestic models.

[Martin Brown]

Seen one of those vertical axis oscillating fan heaters do it in use at my parents or rather picked up the pieces of its molten casing out of their carpet with a scapel. Looked to me like it was moments away from a major conflagration but for it being on a mostly woollen carpet.

Taking it apart revealed the moving mechanism had compromised the cables insulation over a period of time. No fuses blew.

[Tim+]

Was it a Philips? A friend had smoke pouring from the switch of one just a few weeks ago.

Tim

[Dave Liquorice]

If it's decent make the switches will be, the handle might not.

Wanders up to No.1 Daughters bedroom, hairdryer on dressing table chair, plugged in, switched on... not any more.

I suspect part of the problem is wear/ageing in the switches. Spring tensions drop, switch doesn't quite latch off or isn't firmly switched off, slowly remakes, arcs, gets hot...

Compared to most aplliances those switches get far more use. On/off a dozen or more times per session.

[ss]

Whether the switch or whatever failed women need to be educated on how to use those things. :-) The outlet for the airflow usually at the back of the hairdryer gets clogged up and restricts airflow, they clog easily with all the hairspray etc that flows through it, also by sitting the dryer down one usually restricts half of the air intake, again can lead to overheating. The other thing they should not do is wrap the cable around the hairdryer after use as the heat from the dryer can deteriorate the cable over time and it uusually weakens the cable at the connection in to the dryer. Mind you I have explained all this to my wife and after 40 years nothing has changed.

[whisky-dave]

The scarist thing I had was when I arrived home to find my hot water immersion heating boiling. The theromstat must have become closed circiut permanatly.

[newshound]

Wife had a vacuum cleaner go into smoke mode once. She unplugged it and put it in the garden. Something like an hour later it went up in flames as the smouldering bits ignited the dust inside. That *was* scary because if I had been home, I would have put it in the workshop to look at later. All wooden benches, sawdust, white spirit etc on open shelves.

The other entertaining point was that it had started snowing when it went up. She called out the fire brigade, but it had extinguished itself by the time they arrived. The guy who was filling out the form afterwards said

"Method used to extinguish fire....snowballs"

[meow2222]

Add a 2nd timer to stop it doing that :)

NT

[The Other Mike]

heating boiling. The theromstat must have become closed circiut permanatly.

Same thing brought down a ceiling and killed someone a few years back.

[Bill Wright]

Some years ago I was working at a great big mill building that had been converted into posh flats. One buyer objected to the worn wooden floors, which were a 'feature' in the eyes of the company. Anyway the floors in that apartment were duly sanded until they were flat. At the end of the first day the machine was left standing in the middle of the living room floor. It was a great big industrial floor sander with a big bag. In the middle of the night the contents of the bag bust into flames. That flat was burn out and the machine ended up dropping into the flat below where it set fire to that one as well.

Bill

[js.b1]

Teach them switch everything off using the wall switch - for reasons of COS= T: a wall socket switch is =A32.50-4.50, an appliance switch can be up to = =A340.

The switch contact gap probably reduced by carbon/debris build up, or opera= tion duty cycle induced failure, made a high resistance connection and away= it will go.

Hand held appliances should be required to meet a higher standard for switc= h cycle, and non-resetting thermal fusing of switch & heating element. Too = much drivel on fixed wiring Part P when portable appliances, awful extensio= n strips and other junk is a greater cause of fires.

[whisky-dave]

OST: a wall socket switch is =A32.50-4.50, an appliance switch can be up to= =A340.

I noticed when visiting a hospital critical care unit that the sockets didn= ;t have switches as I was told this is because we don't want things that ar= e plugged in to be accidentaly switched off. probbaly refering to monitorin= g and medical equipment but I looked around at all the in-built plug stips = and non had switches and we all coloured blue making them stand out. This w= as all new equipment the Hospital being the Royal London in Whitechapel.

[Nightjar]

a wall socket switch is £2.50-4.50, an appliance switch can be up to £40.

have switches as I was told this is because we don't want things that are plugged in to be accidentaly switched off. probbaly refering to monitoring and medical equipment but I looked around at all the in-built plug stips and non had switches and we all coloured blue making them stand out. This was all new equipment the Hospital being the Royal London in Whitechapel.

Looking at some of the NHS safety policies, it is also because of the possibility of a switch failure leaving equipment live when it appears to be switched off. There is no doubt that equipment that has been unplugged is not still connected to the mains.

Colin Bignell

[Arfa Daily]

Just been and pulled it back out of the bin to have a look. Says "Carlton" on it, but who knows ? Could be a badged Philips. I remember it being quite expensive when it was new. One of our daughters had very 'frizzy' hair when she was younger, and about the only way to control it, was to dry it using a hairdryer with a large diffuser on it. Such items were pretty much the domain of the 'pro' market then, but of course, it's common now for them to have this attachment.

Arfa

[Arfa Daily]

Yes, Dave. I suspect you are right, based on my own (professional) knowledge of such things. I have to say that when I had it apart, it was actually nicely made inside, and the switches looked of a decent quality. Without having looked at it too closely - it stinks apart from anything else - it seems as though it may have started with a track mark either across the inside or outside of the switch case, and between a couple of the terminals. I suppose once this got low enough resistance to pass sufficient leakage current through the motor or heating elements or whatever the switch was connected to, it would be inevitable that a 'chain reaction' would get started. I'm just glad that it happened whilst we were present ...

Arfa

>

[harry]

ersion heating boiling. The theromstat must have become closed circiut perm= anatly.

Yes,I remember that. The boiling water over heated the plastic feed tank in the roof which collapsed. Scalding water cascade through the ceiling. I think it was a baby killed

[harry]

Wasn't it a dust extractor burned down the "Cutty Sark"?