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The small appliance thing is at least a little bit quasi-legitimate. I mean, true, very few modern small appliances are just going to randomly burst into flame,
by mindcrime 5y ago
The small appliance thing is at least a little bit quasi-legitimate. I mean, true, very few modern small appliances are just going to randomly burst into flame, and that's as true whether they are sitting in your kitchen or living room, or sitting in a corporate break room, or at your desk. But... the devil is in the details. From a fire safety perspective, I'd cite two things that cause me to say "quasi legitimate" about this:
1. Putting appliances in random places (like your cubicle) can sometimes lead people to running extension cords to power these additional devices. And excessively long, or poor quality, or "excessively long, poor quality" extension cords can absolutely be a fire hazard. This is especially true when people don't understand "current carrying capacity" vis-a-vis wire gauge and choose the wrong cord for a given load.
2. Space heaters. If you include space heaters in your definition of "small appliance", then there is a fairly real risk. First, it's very easy for flammable materials to simply get too close to the heating elements of the heater, and catch fire. Second, space heaters tend to draw a LOT of current - typically more than can be handled by your generic power strip. And people don't understand this, and will happily plug a space heater into a power strip, which will then melt, short out, and catch fire.
On balance, the odds of having a fire caused by most small appliances in offices is still probably fairly low, but the risk is non-zero. And having a blanket ban, instead of trying to distinguish "well, your blender is OK, but the space heater has to go" is just the slightly lazier way to dealing with it.
- tinalumfoil 5y agoThese are all things people do constantly in their own homes, and are willing to accept the risk. It seems inefficient that people go to work and accept all these risk-averse mandates (no consumer coffee machines -- they might burst into flames!) then go home and fall asleep to their 1500W space heater plugged into the same power strip as the 50" poorly mounted TV they fell asleep watching.
- mschuster91 5y agoA consumer coffee maker will not be designed for handling 50 people requiring a cup of coffee every two hours. The other limitations, particularly regarding space heaters and fans, usually come from fire insurance. Your premiums will be substantially lower if you prove your business gets regularly inspected for compliance and that electrical appliances get regularly checked if they are properly installed (i.e. no stacks of extension cords, no damage on the cable from chairs rolling over it or from floor tank lids). In contrast, home fire insurance will often have priced in damages from such unsafe practices, and a no-pay clause for gross negligence - particularly the latter is what any reasonable business will be keen to avoid given the disastrous impact a fire can have.
- hex4def6 5y agoI don't disagree that a simple drop coffee maker is not designed for "commercial" use like that. But there's very little that can go wrong inside of one of them, with maybe the exception of the heating element. That failing wouldn't result in a safety issue.
- jonathanlydall 5y agoI suspect that the risk of power strips/cords melting is substantially higher when you’re only on 110V compared to 230V. While 110V might be less of a shock risk compared to 230V, I have to wonder how much of a difference it actually makes in practice, like how much less likely are to die from the lower voltage? Because on the other hand, the lower voltage increases the fire risk.
- mschuster91 5y ago> I mean, true, very few modern small appliances are just going to randomly burst into flame Assuming that 10 dollar phone charger that Joe from Accounting got on Amazon or the airport store on the last vacation was not a dangerous counterfeit, that is. A sensible IT department will buy original chargers directly from the manufacturer or at the very least name brands such as Anker.
- marcosdumay 5y agoIf a small appliance catching fire is enough to endanger your office, your office is wrong. Go fix it, and stop with the security theater. An appliance consuming too much power should never be a fire hazard. A bad extension chord should not be a fire hazard in any usual space in an office. And by all means, if you have some high-risk area (storage rooms are quite common ones), do make special policy for it. But if you insist on the same policy for every area, you are actually endangering people.