Burned wiring on a water heating element
In a front loading washer.
This type of damage would be caused by loose, high resistance, wire, connections, or possibly water leaking onto the terminals.
This type of thing is not caused by a stuck heater relay or a hotspot on the heater or a heating element that’s burning out I’ve replaced easily 1000 or more heating elements and stoves, dryers, etc. it never damages the wiring. As a heating element is burning out, it actually draws less power at the end of its life.
Yes, it’s fortunate that it didn’t start a house fire, but since the cabinet of the washing machine is steel, it’s very unlikely to spread to the home plus the homes sprinkler system with protect from a catastrophic fire very effectively. However, if the tub had continue to burn, you could have a lot of smoke damage.
Question for the European guys how common are arc fault breakers on that side of the ocean?
Here in the US, they’re starting to mandate arc fault breakers, which, when something starts to arcing like this should theoretically shut the power off immediately. When my business partner, Jason was rewiring his home, he updated to all arc fault breakers. There’s somewhat more expensive and every once in a while, something will cause a nuisance trip especially something that’s older that has a contact at arcs internally.
John
In a front loading washer.
This type of damage would be caused by loose, high resistance, wire, connections, or possibly water leaking onto the terminals.
This type of thing is not caused by a stuck heater relay or a hotspot on the heater or a heating element that’s burning out I’ve replaced easily 1000 or more heating elements and stoves, dryers, etc. it never damages the wiring. As a heating element is burning out, it actually draws less power at the end of its life.
Yes, it’s fortunate that it didn’t start a house fire, but since the cabinet of the washing machine is steel, it’s very unlikely to spread to the home plus the homes sprinkler system with protect from a catastrophic fire very effectively. However, if the tub had continue to burn, you could have a lot of smoke damage.
Question for the European guys how common are arc fault breakers on that side of the ocean?
Here in the US, they’re starting to mandate arc fault breakers, which, when something starts to arcing like this should theoretically shut the power off immediately. When my business partner, Jason was rewiring his home, he updated to all arc fault breakers. There’s somewhat more expensive and every once in a while, something will cause a nuisance trip especially something that’s older that has a contact at arcs internally.
John