4 ms·

From the article: > The fire report states that it's an internal wiring fault in the machine, and all of this was caused - approximately £8,000 worth of damage

by deng 7y ago

From the article: > The fire report states that it's an internal wiring fault in the machine, and all of this was caused - approximately £8,000 worth of damage - when the machine was turned off Am I understanding this right? This dryer can catch fire while not even running, just by standing there connected to the power socket? That's insane. How in the world can someone mess up some internal wiring this bad?

noonespecial 7y ago
You may not have looked inside a modern dryer recently but the level of chincy-ness is unreal. The wires just hang off the parts held by the flimsiest of little twist ties. I just fixed a blower fan in mine. The plastic fan was held onto the motor shaft with tape. The fact that this crap doesn't instantly fly apart and catch fire is an admirable engineering feat in itself (in a twisted sort of way).
- maxxxxx 7y ago
  I love it when you look at something that clearly works and you think "How did this ever work?". Happens to my code often.
- deng 7y ago
  Well, I indeed haven't looked inside a dryer, but I am aware that dryers can burn while running. Indeed, as I just learned, they are #1 cause for house fires in Germany, and insurers will usually not pay if you let them run unsupervised. But burning while being turned off, powering some 5V circuit board... yes, it happens, but 75 times a year? But maybe that 'being turned off' was an outlier and most others were actually running.
- tunap 7y ago
  If it was an apartment sized stacked unit, did you happen to notice the shaft not mounted in a bearing assembly, but instead turning inside a vinyl cup? Only took mine 2-3 years to fail to metal-on-metal... single male, bi-weekly usage equals <100 loads to fail. $10 part, took ~45 min to tear down, install & reassemble. Will be doing it again sometime this year. I think I can do it in 20 min next time... or I can buy the latest, cheaper built model for $600+... Hmmmm, decisions, decisions.
  - subculture 7y ago
    Yup, this is what major appliances have come to: Scheduled repair expectancy of 2-3 years or several hundred to replace. My dishwasher started leaking one night - luckily I was nearby when it began. Upon researching I learned that it was caused by a failed grommet that's installed with its garter spring facing towards the water-filled tub, which causes premature failure after 2-3 years. Of course Whirlpool stopped selling the grommet as a replacement part, instead requiring people buy an entire $150 sump assembly. So I bought a few $5 grommets off a grommets-r-us site and have scheduled a triennial dishwasher disassembly song and dance. Threw a simple leak detector under the washer just in case. At least now I'm pretty knowledgable of the secret life of the dishwasher.
  - noonespecial 7y ago
    All "bearings" in the machine were plastic sleeves. The drum is moved by a belt so thin I thought it was a piece of string to tie it in place. The tensioner on said belt was literally nothing more than a bent coat hanger with a little plastic pulley. This part of the design was important because the "emergency stop" in the even of the belt breaking was that the coat hanger would go flying off into the machine and stop pressing against a little micro-switch glued to the side of the motor mount.
- agumonkey 7y ago
  Tape as structural coupling is sad indeed, but from my little experience, most electrical appliances look flimsy somehow (not industrial or construction grade).
- tfandango 7y ago
  I recently fixed the heating element in mine. I was amazed at the incredibly poor design of the thing. It was also full of lint despite clearing the filter every run. So the heating element is sitting there right next to a pile of nice dry lint. It's amazing these don't catch fire every day.
aequitas 7y ago
Every electronics device has the risk of catching fire given the right circumstances. It just takes one cable or switch being damaged causing it to overheat and set something flammable ablaze. Even your wall socket or wiring in the wall is not exempt. Screw in one clamping screw to loose and the amps running through it will heat the small contact area it makes to melting point. Computers screens or TV's? Even worse, all the dust they collect through their cooling vents are an accident waiting to happen (happened to me with a crt screen in standby mode).
- olliej 7y ago
  Can confirm: had a wall socket next to my bed spontaneously catch fire when I was a kid.
  - iforgotpassword 7y ago
    I had a socket in my room as a kid that would get warm even with loads in the range of 30W. I was too terrified to plug my PC into it although the outlet was right next to it. An electrician checked it once but didn't find anything, so at least the wiring and connections inside the socket must have been alright. Maybe somewhere inside the wall close to the socket a wire had a very thin section or something, and the heat spread to the socket eventually.
- oceanghost 7y ago
  Can confirm. Had a microwave once, that was not in use, just, turn on and start smoking. I ran outside and flipped the breaker for the house off. If nobody had been home, the house would have burnt down.
olliej 7y ago
Presumably it’s a consequence of wear induced by running the dryer, eg one would hope an unused one wouldn’t spontaneously catch fire. But after some nebulous number of runs whichever component that was made a little too close to the anticipated margin fails and produces a short. At that point i assume catching fire would just be down to chance
- y4mi 7y ago
  Now that's another level for planned obsolescence! They're not only making you buy a new product... They're destroying everything so that you have to get everything anew!
  - olliej 7y ago
    \o/
jressey 7y ago
Free market capitalism.
panarky 7y ago
> catch fire while not even running I owned a Ford F-150 that spontaneously combusted in my garage after being parked and turned off for several days. The arson investigator traced the issue back to a design defect that kept electricity flowing to the cruise control even while the ignition was off.
Someone 7y ago
Fewer and fewer devices can truly be switched of. Physical switches cost money and “aren’t needed” when you already have some digital interface. Also, these devices could have a physical power switch, wit the wiring error in that switch.

by deng 7y ago

noonespecial 7y ago

You may not have looked inside a modern dryer recently but the level of chincy-ness is unreal. The wires just hang off the parts held by the flimsiest of little twist ties. I just fixed a blower fan in mine. The plastic fan was held onto the motor shaft with tape. The fact that this crap doesn't instantly fly apart and catch fire is an admirable engineering feat in itself (in a twisted sort of way).

maxxxxx 7y ago
I love it when you look at something that clearly works and you think "How did this ever work?". Happens to my code often.
deng 7y ago
Well, I indeed haven't looked inside a dryer, but I am aware that dryers can burn while running. Indeed, as I just learned, they are #1 cause for house fires in Germany, and insurers will usually not pay if you let them run unsupervised. But burning while being turned off, powering some 5V circuit board... yes, it happens, but 75 times a year? But maybe that 'being turned off' was an outlier and most others were actually running.
tunap 7y ago
If it was an apartment sized stacked unit, did you happen to notice the shaft not mounted in a bearing assembly, but instead turning inside a vinyl cup? Only took mine 2-3 years to fail to metal-on-metal... single male, bi-weekly usage equals <100 loads to fail. $10 part, took ~45 min to tear down, install & reassemble. Will be doing it again sometime this year. I think I can do it in 20 min next time... or I can buy the latest, cheaper built model for $600+... Hmmmm, decisions, decisions.
- subculture 7y ago
  Yup, this is what major appliances have come to: Scheduled repair expectancy of 2-3 years or several hundred to replace. My dishwasher started leaking one night - luckily I was nearby when it began. Upon researching I learned that it was caused by a failed grommet that's installed with its garter spring facing towards the water-filled tub, which causes premature failure after 2-3 years. Of course Whirlpool stopped selling the grommet as a replacement part, instead requiring people buy an entire $150 sump assembly. So I bought a few $5 grommets off a grommets-r-us site and have scheduled a triennial dishwasher disassembly song and dance. Threw a simple leak detector under the washer just in case. At least now I'm pretty knowledgable of the secret life of the dishwasher.
- noonespecial 7y ago
  All "bearings" in the machine were plastic sleeves. The drum is moved by a belt so thin I thought it was a piece of string to tie it in place. The tensioner on said belt was literally nothing more than a bent coat hanger with a little plastic pulley. This part of the design was important because the "emergency stop" in the even of the belt breaking was that the coat hanger would go flying off into the machine and stop pressing against a little micro-switch glued to the side of the motor mount.
agumonkey 7y ago
Tape as structural coupling is sad indeed, but from my little experience, most electrical appliances look flimsy somehow (not industrial or construction grade).
tfandango 7y ago
I recently fixed the heating element in mine. I was amazed at the incredibly poor design of the thing. It was also full of lint despite clearing the filter every run. So the heating element is sitting there right next to a pile of nice dry lint. It's amazing these don't catch fire every day.

aequitas 7y ago

Every electronics device has the risk of catching fire given the right circumstances. It just takes one cable or switch being damaged causing it to overheat and set something flammable ablaze. Even your wall socket or wiring in the wall is not exempt. Screw in one clamping screw to loose and the amps running through it will heat the small contact area it makes to melting point. Computers screens or TV's? Even worse, all the dust they collect through their cooling vents are an accident waiting to happen (happened to me with a crt screen in standby mode).

olliej 7y ago
Can confirm: had a wall socket next to my bed spontaneously catch fire when I was a kid.
- iforgotpassword 7y ago
  I had a socket in my room as a kid that would get warm even with loads in the range of 30W. I was too terrified to plug my PC into it although the outlet was right next to it. An electrician checked it once but didn't find anything, so at least the wiring and connections inside the socket must have been alright. Maybe somewhere inside the wall close to the socket a wire had a very thin section or something, and the heat spread to the socket eventually.
oceanghost 7y ago
Can confirm. Had a microwave once, that was not in use, just, turn on and start smoking. I ran outside and flipped the breaker for the house off. If nobody had been home, the house would have burnt down.

olliej 7y ago

Presumably it’s a consequence of wear induced by running the dryer, eg one would hope an unused one wouldn’t spontaneously catch fire. But after some nebulous number of runs whichever component that was made a little too close to the anticipated margin fails and produces a short. At that point i assume catching fire would just be down to chance

y4mi 7y ago
Now that's another level for planned obsolescence! They're not only making you buy a new product... They're destroying everything so that you have to get everything anew!
- olliej 7y ago
  \o/

jressey 7y ago

Free market capitalism.

panarky 7y ago

> catch fire while not even running I owned a Ford F-150 that spontaneously combusted in my garage after being parked and turned off for several days. The arson investigator traced the issue back to a design defect that kept electricity flowing to the cruise control even while the ignition was off.

Someone 7y ago

Fewer and fewer devices can truly be switched of. Physical switches cost money and “aren’t needed” when you already have some digital interface. Also, these devices could have a physical power switch, wit the wiring error in that switch.