Why does a washing machine or kitchen appliances shock

Causes of electric shock

To properly eliminate such unpleasant sensations, it is necessary to identify the causes of their occurrence. Most often, violations can be caused by malfunctions in the electrical wiring of your apartment, and sometimes it happens through the fault of neighbors. The most popular reasons are:

1. Lack of grounding in the washing machine or water heater, which causes current leakage. Often this situation develops in private homes due to the lack of grounding. To eliminate the problems that have arisen, it is urgent to build a grounding structure. In apartments, a light green wire located in the electrical panel is responsible for this function.
2. The presence of insulation faults in the wiring. Common causes of such damage are kinks or twisting of wires, which negatively affects the flow of electricity to the network. It is in such cases that a leak occurs, which goes to the entire interior and furniture of this room. As you know, the humidity in the bathroom is always increased, which provokes and exacerbates dangerous moments. Such causes are easily eliminated, it is enough to call a specialist to identify the rupture site and repair the damage.
3. Sometimes the jet from the tap is electric, and it is impossible to carry out hygiene procedures, in which case there is a clear violation of the function of the tubular electric heater of the water heating system. A multimeter is used to detect this problem. Such a device is used to measure the voltage in the network. If your readings are normal, then it is quite possible that the neighbors have breakdowns, then you need to solve the problem in another way.
4. Sometimes water spurts due to problems with the water heating system of the neighbors. For example, if the wiring was done illiterately, then a neutral conductor (PE) is connected to the riser as a ground, in such cases the leak goes to your apartment. A completely unpleasant situation will be when the neighbors, in order to save electricity, connect the neutral conductor to the water pipes, this allows you to wind the electric meter in the opposite direction. The neighbors are fine, and you will suffer from constant electric shock through the tap. This situation can be resolved only by calling specialists and employees of the supervisory organization.

Alleged sources of dangerous potential

The reasons for the electric current from the water from the tap are conditionally divided into flaws that happened through the fault of the owner of the apartment, and violations of the rules for operating electrical equipment made by neighbors. Let's consider each of them separately.

Owner's fault

The following errors or malfunctions made by the owner can be attributed to the reasons that shocks in the bathroom or in the kitchen:

• the washing machine or water heater installed in these premises has poor-quality grounding or works without it at all;
• PVC insulation may be damaged in the wiring leading to this equipment or inside the units;
• water in the faucet is also energized in cases where the internal elements of the water heater (its heating element or installation wires) are out of order or partially damaged.

The presence of at least one of the listed malfunctions leads to the fact that the faucet in the bathroom is shocked at the slightest touch to it.

Neighbor mistakes

The second category of reasons should include the illiteracy of the neighbors who incorrectly made grounding in their apartment and connected the working neutral conductor PE (the so-called "ground") to the metal pipes of the riser. According to people far from electrical engineering, in this way it is possible to reliably ground all electrical equipment operating in the apartment (including a metal mixer).

This prohibition is explained by the fact that if there is a connection between risers and equipment is damaged in one of the apartments, the dangerous potential automatically enters the pipelines of all other residents of the house (transferred to any metal mixer, including).

And the quality of the grounding of the risers themselves in apartment buildings leaves much to be desired, which is explained by the presence of breaks in the pipelines and large transient resistances at the joints.

As a result, such "grounding" instead of protection hangs in the air, and pipeline water shocks unsuspecting residents of the whole house (or at least the entrance).

In this situation, the owner of the apartment, upon detecting electrically pulsating plumbing equipment, urgently needs to do something.

Other interesting questions and answers

What to do when you get electric shock from tap water?

Guest2

If you do not wish to endure electric shocks from a faucet, you will have to do the following:

• Replace all sockets in the kitchen, bathroom and toilet with special models with a moisture protection class of at least IP44 or IP54. They will protect you from accidental breakdown on the socket housing.

• Examine the wiring with an ohmmeter or a detector to search for hidden breaks. Increased resistance in the area or a detector signal will indicate the location of the breakdown.

• Replace all problem areas of wiring, and even better - replace the entire line that runs into the bath, kitchen or toilet, using a special, moisture-resistant cable.

• Call the master and ask to replace the heater on the washing machine and dishwasher, as well as on the boiler. Unless, of course, water-heating electrical appliances are the source of the problem.

Vladimir1

The reason that the jet of water is electric may be the lack of grounding at the washing machine, water heater or other electrical appliance that is connected to the outlet in the bathroom / kitchen, or is located next to it. It can also mean that the wiring is faulty, the wire is twisted somewhere, or the wires are damaged. It happens that your neighbors have errors in the grounding of the water heating system, but it is shocked by water from your tap. If you make sure that the problem is not in your apartment, then you need to look for neighbors in a common riser to solve the problem. If in your bathroom or kitchen all sockets and all wiring are adapted to humidity, there are no problems with grounding and damage to the electrical wiring and the appliances themselves, then contact the Housing Office / DUK in order to check neighboring apartments for malfunctions. To determine the malfunction with you, call a specialist, it is better not to mess with electricity on your own, and this should be done as soon as possible. The electrician will carry out diagnostics, if necessary, replace problem areas of wiring, switches and sockets, indicate a malfunction of the water heating system and electrical appliances. Well, if an electrician is attached to your house, he may already be familiar with the problem, if it is not an isolated one. In addition, the prices for services from electricians of the ZhEK are lower than those of specialists from third-party firms. Natalia K.3

Why does tap water jolt when the washing machine is on?

There are no intersections, they just stand side by side. Leaks too. It hits little by little, barely noticeable on small wounds on the hands.

iris3

Or there or there is a bad ground. Also, there is an isolation breach somewhere. Let's say that in a washing machine, the insulation in some place is not good enough and a “bridge” has formed, along which electricity hits the body. If at the same time the ground is connected incorrectly or is absent, but there is a small voltage on the case. Water pipes, on the contrary, are well grounded and the resulting current goes into the ground. In this case, if you hold on to the washing machine with one hand and the water pipe with the other, then you just close the electrical circuit. Wounds on the arm, as the most sensitive place, feel a small current.This can be dangerous, because in a damp room the action of the current is only increased due to poorer insulation. You need to take a device (for example, an ammeter) and check where the problem comes from. Of course, it may turn out that everything is in order with your washing machine, and a small current flows from the side of the water supply system through some kind of faulty electrical appliance.

Sveta17082

The water from the tap is electric ... but only me! Why?

Before, everything was fine, but now ... I’ll get into the spirit, wash normally, and two seconds before turning off, the faucet gives me a shock! I turn off the faucet already and it sucks again! And the battery is hanging there. And after that, if I turn on the sink in the bathroom or in the kitchen for half an hour, the water beats there. And only me! Grandmother neighs and says that you need to sit less with the phone ... But if it were the phone, then it would beat right away and constantly like ... Alena .4

So some smart guy made grounding on the water pipe. Serezha3

What is the danger and how to protect yourself

It would seem, how can there be a difference between electric shocks in the apartment. Unfortunately, maybe. The bathroom has always been different from all other rooms, as there the blow will be much stronger. Not necessarily the voltage will be high. The impact force itself is more powerful, and the person passes it through himself

Again, pay attention to the fact that in most cases there is a tile on the floor. And this indicates an even greater danger to human life.

Tiles can become a danger to human life

We get: humidity plus bare legs, plus current. All this leads to serious damage to the human body, and sometimes fatal. But, the danger of passing current by water in such situations is that a small child simply cannot withstand the shock of the current. And you should also take into account the fact of frequent fires due to poor insulation or grounding, as well as overheating of the cable both in the wall and the wires in the socket or switch.

For the safety of your family and friends, you should install ceramic sockets, but not plastic ones. It is clear that the latter are cheaper, but life is more expensive. The ceramic base is more suitable for bathrooms and kitchens, i.e. in places where high humidity prevails and steam accumulates. Yes, and the technique breaks less, since the ceramic elements do not heat up.

When purchasing apartments, immediately replace the wiring at least in places of risk. A copper wire with two strands is ideal for this. The cross section is preferably more than 2 mm. The price in the country's markets and electrical appliance stores is acceptable. But, let us recall the responsibility for the life of the people living with you.

How to stay safe when using electricity in the bathroom

If you find that the bathroom has grounding problems, then it will not be safe to use water in this room. Even a professional electrician should even diagnose the cause of the malfunction on their own.

It is important not to postpone this task indefinitely, but immediately begin to fix the breakdown. For this you need:

1. If the cause of the electric shock is external, then it is necessary to talk with the neighbors, find out if they changed the water pipes to plastic ones, did not install powerful household appliances without grounding. If the neighbors do not make contact, it is possible to involve regulatory authorities who will identify violations during the wiring and oblige them to be eliminated.

2. If the reason why you are shocked when using water in the bathroom is internal, then the malfunction must be looked for inside your apartment. This requires special equipment that will help to establish current leakage, measure resistance, and also identify ungrounded devices.

   Resistance measurement

The crane is shocking how to find the problem

The fact that the faucet is electric can be verified not only by touch with your own hand, but also by touching the faucet with an indicator screwdriver.

The reasons that the crane is shocked can be:

one.A defective water heater in which the power wire is in contact with the body. Also in this case, very often the cause may be a failed water heater element.

You can read more about this in a previous article on what to do if the water heater is electric.

2. A faucet can also shock and water from it when someone nearby in the apartment has grounded electrical appliances in the apartment to the batteries or water pipes.

In this case, it is better not to rush to sort things out, because in any case you will not achieve the truth. It is better to call the housing and communal services and call an electrician in this case.

Also, own grounding of the water heater and other electrical appliances in the apartment can help.

3. If the apartment already has a ground bus, then maybe in some way, electricity gets to it. This can happen when an electrical wire comes into contact with a ground loop.

And even if this is unlikely, it is still not worth excluding the ground contact with the 220 Volt network. It is much easier to be convinced of this and then cross out this problem as not real than to suffer from a faucet that is beating with current or water in the bath.

Causes of current leakage in multi-storey buildings

There are also such cases that the entire metal frame, reinforcement, beams and channel bars of an apartment building are energized. In this case, the water from the tap will be shocked, the bath and heating radiators will be shocked, that is, everything that is a conductor of electricity will be shocked.

The problem in this case is the contact of a damaged cable with electricity (for example, in the basement of a house) with metal parts that carry it. Therefore, it is necessary, first of all, to revise and then replace the damaged electrical wires, after which the problem will be solved.

It also happens that the washing machine beats with current due to the fact that it does not have grounding. This stray current is transmitted to all metal products in the bathroom and even to the kitchen. Therefore, the reasons for the fact that the tap is electric is also possible.

Be that as it may, the main thing is to find the problem first, and then solve it on your own, or by calling for this classified specialists.

Security measures

Electrical wiring in wet areas should provide for the installation of camouflage covers for sockets, switches, lighting devices and other elements of electrical appliances.

If water enters the outlet, it is quite possible that there is a leakage of electricity. Then, when you touch the wall and the bath, unpleasant tingling occurs. Unfortunately, if these problems are not eliminated, an injury from an electric shock is quite possible with the identification of unpleasant excesses up to medical intervention.

To prevent current leakage, it is recommended to use only plug-in devices. Plug-in electrical appliances provide reliable protection against moisture ingress. To ensure a 100% guarantee against moisture ingress, it is necessary to purchase high-quality electrical appliances, because often the declared characteristics do not match the actual indicators.

When buying, carefully inspect the products and make sure they are tight and securely insulated. Despite the presence of housing protection, it is necessary to install the devices in such a way as to minimize the ingress of water splashes.

When conducting electrical wiring, they try to install the equipment so that the switches are outside the bathroom. The junction box, if possible, should also be installed outside the room in which there is constant high humidity.

Sources of current leakage can be:

• the presence of a "warm floor" system;
• dysfunction of the residential structure of the heating cable;
• violation of the insulating elements of the heating device.In such cases, to eliminate the leakage, it will be necessary to change the entire “warm floor” system in the premises, since their design is completely hidden under the floor screed.

If the fact of the passage of electric current was noticed in the premises, this does not mean that when troubleshooting, a repeated situation will not happen.

Therefore, you need to take precautions for the long term. Today, the following safety measures are known that ensure the safe use of electrical appliances:

• Installation in an apartment switchboard of a residual current device (RCD) or a combined electrical apparatus - a differential circuit breaker. Such RCDs are recommended to be installed on devices that are most dangerous in case of electric shock.
• Installation of an input protective device in the switchboard, which provides safety in case of malfunctions with the RCD. Such a device is considered a fallback security option.
• The presence of protective grounding in the wiring.

Sometimes it happens that when washing hands, the water from the tap is electric due to neighbor negligence. Recently, pipelines are often used as a ground electrode, although this is prohibited by law. If you suspect something like this, then immediately contact the supervisory organization. Electricians must identify the cause and eliminate the consequences.