alanlondon
Well-known member
We had a message from our tenants recently to say there was a burning smell when they came back home and they had traced it back the washing machine. When I went round to investigate first bad sign was this...
Lucky escape for us all!
- Thread starter alanlondon
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alanlondon
Well-known member
Here it is in situ:
alanlondon
Well-known member
Took the bottom plinth off and this is what I found
alanlondon
Well-known member
Lucky for us...
... the heater had melted the rubber door seal, allowed water out and put out the smouldering heater and tripped the electrics
... the heater had melted the rubber door seal, allowed water out and put out the smouldering heater and tripped the electrics
alanlondon
Well-known member
But, it has been a really good washing machine up until now
I fitted it 15 years ago and it's not needed a single repair and has been abused by numerous tenants over the years. I was only saying to my husband the other day that at the very least we should plan to change it or I will need to change the brushes at the very least. We always tell new tenants not to leave things going when they are not there, but I guess you can't really police this, just hope for the best. Could have been a lot worse, we feel very lucky. We've just replaced it with another Bosch.
I fitted it 15 years ago and it's not needed a single repair and has been abused by numerous tenants over the years. I was only saying to my husband the other day that at the very least we should plan to change it or I will need to change the brushes at the very least. We always tell new tenants not to leave things going when they are not there, but I guess you can't really police this, just hope for the best. Could have been a lot worse, we feel very lucky. We've just replaced it with another Bosch.
alanlondon
Well-known member
Here's its replacement
let's hope we get 15 years out of this one!
let's hope we get 15 years out of this one!
cfz2882
Well-known member
very lucky indeed.
that was a decent little fire going in there until the water was released -if I owned a bosch like this one,I would be checking for loose connections at the heater and remove any unneeded plastic parts in that area !
that was a decent little fire going in there until the water was released -if I owned a bosch like this one,I would be checking for loose connections at the heater and remove any unneeded plastic parts in that area !
Washer, fire
Most fires like this don’t spread, but it is still scary, the steel cabinet will normally contain it.
But it’s another good reminder that it’s really not a great idea to have a heater in the washing machine. The wiring eventually gets loose and overheats
As a repair tech, I see things like this pretty often, however, here in the states, people never use the heater in their front load washer, so we don’t see it as often,
John
Most fires like this don’t spread, but it is still scary, the steel cabinet will normally contain it.
But it’s another good reminder that it’s really not a great idea to have a heater in the washing machine. The wiring eventually gets loose and overheats
As a repair tech, I see things like this pretty often, however, here in the states, people never use the heater in their front load washer, so we don’t see it as often,
John
John, I love you, but when your view is one sided you’re definitely blinkered against any other reality.
So Ovens, ranges, cooktops are all ok to generate resistive heat, but drawing 2000-3200 watts in a washer is significantly more dangerous?
The world in most 240v countries has washers with heaters now and our houses don’t generally burst into flames. The big difference to the US, is that the rest of the world can plug in a 2kw plus appliance into a standard outlet, without fear of overloading the circuit or melting the plug/socket, so we just do and for the most part safely for decades without a fire.
Yes sockets in the US don’t always spontaneously combust, but they’re not designed to run two 2kw loads from a single duplex outlet either.
So Ovens, ranges, cooktops are all ok to generate resistive heat, but drawing 2000-3200 watts in a washer is significantly more dangerous?
The world in most 240v countries has washers with heaters now and our houses don’t generally burst into flames. The big difference to the US, is that the rest of the world can plug in a 2kw plus appliance into a standard outlet, without fear of overloading the circuit or melting the plug/socket, so we just do and for the most part safely for decades without a fire.
Yes sockets in the US don’t always spontaneously combust, but they’re not designed to run two 2kw loads from a single duplex outlet either.
And then there are dishwashers with heating elements…
Most of us with dryers with electric heaters
rarely combust as we do NOT have dryer vents like the USA and are they not one of the biggest causes of house fires?
I think its safe to say we all have appliances that can burst into flames but on the most part they are all safe when used correctly.
You also have to remember most of us with 220/240 outlets as standard don't have to have huge tanks of hot water using energy as we heat from cold what we need. Swings and roundabouts as they say!!
rarely combust as we do NOT have dryer vents like the USA and are they not one of the biggest causes of house fires?
I think its safe to say we all have appliances that can burst into flames but on the most part they are all safe when used correctly.
You also have to remember most of us with 220/240 outlets as standard don't have to have huge tanks of hot water using energy as we heat from cold what we need. Swings and roundabouts as they say!!
aquarius1984
Well-known member
Another one who finds Johns attitude towards europe
Vulgar.
Some of the bs he comes out with is absolutely cringeworthy.
Yeah we get it. You don’t like Europe. Hell knows why you bother coming here.
Vulgar.
Some of the bs he comes out with is absolutely cringeworthy.
Yeah we get it. You don’t like Europe. Hell knows why you bother coming here.
Electrical fires in major appliances
My point is, it’s not a good idea to have a two or 3000 W heating element in a plastic outer tub.
We have ovens with up to 6000 W of heat here but they’re not made out of plastic.
Clothes dryers have very few plastic parts in them, and certainly nowhere near the heat source.
I see several cases of burned up wiring connections every month servicing, major appliances, if things are properly built, it doesn’t have any tendency to spread or cause a big problem. It just stops working.
Dishwashers have been a significant fire risk here in the US because of control failures and plastic tanks, etc.. and yes, the heating elements in the bottom of plastic tank dishwashers have cause some problems, not the least of which they can distort and melt through the tank and destroy the tank.
The machines with stainless steel tanks have been significantly less of a problem, but even Bosch and Siemens had a big recall on their models here in the US because of control fires.
The whole point of my original post was not knocking European washing machines with heating elements. It was merely to show the danger of adding heating elements to front loading washers that have plastic outer tubs etc.. This definitely is a potential danger in the machines we sell here but as I stated very few people ever use that heater anyway so it seldom happens thankfully.
John
My point is, it’s not a good idea to have a two or 3000 W heating element in a plastic outer tub.
We have ovens with up to 6000 W of heat here but they’re not made out of plastic.
Clothes dryers have very few plastic parts in them, and certainly nowhere near the heat source.
I see several cases of burned up wiring connections every month servicing, major appliances, if things are properly built, it doesn’t have any tendency to spread or cause a big problem. It just stops working.
Dishwashers have been a significant fire risk here in the US because of control failures and plastic tanks, etc.. and yes, the heating elements in the bottom of plastic tank dishwashers have cause some problems, not the least of which they can distort and melt through the tank and destroy the tank.
The machines with stainless steel tanks have been significantly less of a problem, but even Bosch and Siemens had a big recall on their models here in the US because of control fires.
The whole point of my original post was not knocking European washing machines with heating elements. It was merely to show the danger of adding heating elements to front loading washers that have plastic outer tubs etc.. This definitely is a potential danger in the machines we sell here but as I stated very few people ever use that heater anyway so it seldom happens thankfully.
John
aquarius1984
Well-known member
John read this. Actually read it. Don’t assume what you want to assume.
For FIFTY 50 years washing machines have been made in Europe WITH heaters AND plastic outer tubs.
It’s exceedingly RARE for a heating element in a washing machine to cause a fire. END OF.
We are talking millions of machines made and used across Europe over the past 50 years. Millions.
Stop trying to beat a dead horse.
For FIFTY 50 years washing machines have been made in Europe WITH heaters AND plastic outer tubs.
It’s exceedingly RARE for a heating element in a washing machine to cause a fire. END OF.
We are talking millions of machines made and used across Europe over the past 50 years. Millions.
Stop trying to beat a dead horse.
Some faults always happen, any fault constellation will happen at some point and some will end BADLY.
BSH had 3 major recalls in the past years, 2 involving fire/explosion risk.
If this was common, and I mean more than 1 in a million basically, there would have been a recall.
I would still maybe send a mail to the Bosch UK tech support.
They might be interested and check the machine out just to make sure everything is "ok" so to speak.
BSH had 3 major recalls in the past years, 2 involving fire/explosion risk.
If this was common, and I mean more than 1 in a million basically, there would have been a recall.
I would still maybe send a mail to the Bosch UK tech support.
They might be interested and check the machine out just to make sure everything is "ok" so to speak.
alanlondon
Well-known member
Thanks for all the comments, views and discussion about heaters. Having been a washing machine repair guy here in the UK I can say that heaters were/are extremely reliable things, I can’t actually remember replacing one to be honest. I have seen quite a few melted pumps and blackend control boards though. I only know of EBAC that makes a hot and cold fill machine now, but it still has a heater in the plastic tub. My mum’s first Automatic was a MK72 Servis and that was back in the mid 70s, it was hot and cold fill, but on most programmes took both when filling for the wash water and then used the heater to raise the temperature. The low water level (even black then) meant that what hot water went in was largely cold due to the long pipework from the hot tank. We’ve been used to heaters in washing machines for so long now (even my Mum’s Hoover twin tub had a heater in the 60s), so I guess we’re just not in the same mind set that you have in the USA from your days when you had your big agitator top loaders (which by the way I longed for as a child!).
Anyway, back to the point that we feel extremely lucky this didn’t cause a substantial fire, indeed two house down was gutted by a fire last year with a charging scooter, but that’s off topic!
When you have good paying tenants we didn’t want to mess around with this machine so it was taken away and a new one fitted within four days. I think 15 years service isn't too bad.
Thanks again for looking, lesson again is don’t leave anything going when you’re not there.
Stay safe
Alan
Anyway, back to the point that we feel extremely lucky this didn’t cause a substantial fire, indeed two house down was gutted by a fire last year with a charging scooter, but that’s off topic!
When you have good paying tenants we didn’t want to mess around with this machine so it was taken away and a new one fitted within four days. I think 15 years service isn't too bad.
Thanks again for looking, lesson again is don’t leave anything going when you’re not there.
Stay safe
Alan
Reply #11 & #13
Why are you being combative and condescending towards John? It’s silly to argue with someone who has over 50 years experience repairing and servicing appliances for customers, since you have “1984” (assuming that’s the year you were born), you are only 38 and if you have repaired appliances since you were a teenager, that’s only 20 something years of experience, which is a little less than John L’s career working on and servicing appliances.
You are beating on a dead horse by being combative and argumentative.
Why are you being combative and condescending towards John? It’s silly to argue with someone who has over 50 years experience repairing and servicing appliances for customers, since you have “1984” (assuming that’s the year you were born), you are only 38 and if you have repaired appliances since you were a teenager, that’s only 20 something years of experience, which is a little less than John L’s career working on and servicing appliances.
You are beating on a dead horse by being combative and argumentative.
Sean
Being wrong for longer isn't always a good thing.
Just being in a business for a long time dosen't mean you are right.
All I can say beyond that is that I have black-listed Johns messages for 2 years now - so I don't know what he has been saying.
But the fact that that is the case should give an indication on how I see his contributions.
Being wrong for longer isn't always a good thing.
Just being in a business for a long time dosen't mean you are right.
All I can say beyond that is that I have black-listed Johns messages for 2 years now - so I don't know what he has been saying.
But the fact that that is the case should give an indication on how I see his contributions.
“Just being in a business for a long time doesn’t mean you are right”
There’s some truth to that, however there’s no replacement for gold old fashioned wisdom and experience my friend.
Btw, I see you purposely have no email listed on your profile, same with Aquarius1984.
There’s some truth to that, however there’s no replacement for gold old fashioned wisdom and experience my friend.
Btw, I see you purposely have no email listed on your profile, same with Aquarius1984.
