Where to Plug in Washing Machine?

anotheruser

I've heard it say that washing machines should be on their own plug because of the draw of energy.

I have a single plug socket available but it reaches the limit of the wire. However behind the washing machine is a 4-bar which has the fridge, freezer and microwave plugged in currently.

Do you think it would be safe to plug the washing machine in there too? It would mean the spare socket is available for other things.

Thanks

cajef

No! it is not safe, if it is an extension lead and all four units were on at the same time you will be drawing too much current and risk the socket overheating, the washing machine and microwave should be on their own separate sockets.

giraffe69

How about an electrician to put in an extra double socket or two?

I_have_spoken

It's not good practice, but the 13A fuse will blow if you overload the 4-way extension

anotheruser

Thanks. I thought so, just making sure.
Microwave, fridge, freezer seem to be okay. We hardly use the microwave these days. Poor microwave!

yangptangkipperbang

I_have_spoken wrote: »

It's not good practice, but the 13A fuse will blow if you overload the 4-way extension

If the fuse blows you are safe - you are more at risk if the fuse doesn't blow. Most of these extension devices are of doubtful quality. The most common problem with them is poor contact between the plug pins and the socket contacts - this will cause overheating, and possibly a fire, if a heavy current is being drawn.

SailorSam

Where the single socket is, it's not a big job to convert that into a double. But if the cable from your machine only just reaches i think i'd start by fitting a new cable, it's not as if the machine is on constantly so most of the time the single socket wont be getting used anyway if you want to plug in something else.

DevCoder

The supply needs to be easily isolated in case of emergency, a socket behind the machine is not considered acceptable.

googler

cajef wrote: »

No! it is not safe, if it is an extension lead and all four units were on at the same time you will be drawing too much current and risk the socket overheating, the washing machine and microwave should be on their own separate sockets.

How can you 'know' this, when you don't know the rating of the cable fitted to the extension block, nor the rating of each device in use?