Washing machine beats current - what to do

In our country, the situation when the washing machine is shocked is not uncommon. And most residents of apartment buildings are familiar with it. What to do in such a situation, and how to fix it. We will talk about this now. But before that, you should know that any household appliance must be safe to work with and in no case harm human life and health. From this rule we will start.

Why is the washing machine electric

In general, if you are observant, then not only the washing machine beats with current, but also other household appliances can do it: a refrigerator, a kettle, a dishwasher, etc. Let's find out the reasons for such an incorrect behavior of the equipment.

When the washing machine is energized, it means that electricity is leaking to its body. This can happen for several reasons.

• Faulty wiring in washing machine - if you have such a breakdown, then it is unsafe to operate the equipment, and you may suffer from a strong electric shock if the contact of the damaged wiring with the case improves. To eliminate such a malfunction, you need to check the integrity of the wires inside the washing machine.
• The machine is damp - if the washing machine is in the bathroom, then, as you understand, there is a lot of moisture there, and if you also touch the washing machine with wet hands, you can feel a slight tingling sensation. This situation is normal and occurs on almost all machines from all manufacturers. New machines can jolt less than old ones.And this is not your fault, but a flaw in the manufacturers who take as a basis the fact that in the house where the washing machine is connected, there must be grounding. Below we will write how to fix this situation.
• Breakdown of a heating element or washing machine engine - if one of these parts is broken and it has a breakdown on the body, then it is urgent to replace it with a new one. How to check the heating element in the washing machine, we already wrote, by analogy, the engine is also checked for a breakdown on the body.

Washing machine must be grounded

Any manufacturer of washing machines, during the design of their appliance, emphasizes that all electrical networks must be grounded. i.e. your outlet should have three wires: phase, zero, ground. In fact, 90% of houses in Russia do not have grounding. Unfortunately, according to the standards of the USSR, grounding was not necessary.

In modern construction, this shortcoming was taken into account "on paper", but in fact, there may not be grounding either. No, of course you can find the ground wire in the sockets, but where does it go next and whether the grounding is really properly organized near the house is a big question. In our practice, we met hotels that were made according to all modern standards, and if you go down to the basement of this building, you can see all the ground wires twisted into one knot, which just hang out and do not fulfill their function.

So what are we to do? The first thing to know is do you have grounding in your house. Such information should be provided to you by the Housing Office. If there is grounding in your house, then you will need to find the appropriate wire in the shield. In this case, your problem can be solved by laying a new three-wire wiring, where all sockets will be grounded.

Of course, the issue of grounding is very difficult to solve, even if your house has it. After all, changing the wiring is not so simple, so we will have to get out of the situation in other ways.

We install the RCD

A residual current device or RCD is a device that cuts off the supply of electricity in the event of a breakdown of its leakage.

In simple terms, you can say this: if suddenly the washing machine shocks you hard, then the RCD will turn off the electricity supply, and you will not be electrocuted. It may sound harsh, but this device can save your life if it happens that the washing machine shocks you.

As a rule, the RCD must be installed after the introductory machine, the operating current must be selected more than that of the introductory machine. For example, you have an introductory machine at 32 A, then the RCD can be taken at 36A. This is necessary so that during a short circuit the machine will work and the RCD will not burn out. But these parameters are not the main ones that you need to focus on, they only talk about the operating current.

In our situation, we are interested in the cutoff current. This is the parameter that determines how much you will be shocked by the current before the RCD trips.Naturally, the smaller it is, the less your pain will be. On the sockets in the bathroom It is recommended to install an RCD with a cutoff current of 10mA. On the rest of the outlets of the apartment they put 30mA. In the bathroom, less current is used, because there is moisture and the risk of shock is higher.

To install a residual current device, you will not need to run new wiring. You can install it into the existing wiring in your shield.

Other ways to protect yourself from electric shocks

Let's list all the methods that will help you not get electric shocks from the washing machine:

• Move the washing machine to a drier place - as we have already said, high humidity is more conducive to the fact that the washing machine beats with current, so a good solution would be to move it from the bathroom to the kitchen, where it is drier. Not all this option will work, but still.
• Unplug your washing machine - most often the drum of the washing machine is shocked at the moment when you lay or, even more often, when you unload the laundry. Just make it a rule to turn on the machine only after the laundry has been loaded, the powder has been added, and you are ready to set the washing program. And turn it off from the network after the machine has finished the program. We assure you that you will really like this habit, and you will no longer feel electric discharges on yourself.

These recommendations will help you get rid of the unpleasant sensations of the fact that the washing machine has once again sent electricity through you. And we remind you again that the ideal option would be the presence of grounding in your electrical network. On our site you will also find reviews on washing machine error codes and their decoding, for example, Daewoo Washing Machine Codesto help you quickly identify and resolve some problems.