The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

PasturesNew

SingleSue wrote: »

...staying in my kitchen...I can watch it if it's in there ....

While I always stay/watch it, one of the issues about the washing machine, too, is that it is under the worktop - meaning I can't move it myself .... and there's no back door.

If a WM is freestanding and without being under a worktop and if there's a back door, I'd have the option of opening the back door if anything happened... and being able to manhandle it slowly, inch by inch, until it was out of the house. While it's under a worktop, heavy, in a room without direct outside access .... I'd also worry that "if there were a fire I'd not be able to see behind the machine to see what's going on, it'd all just be belching out at me from round the small 5mm gap either side... so I also dislike the fact it's so "trapped in there" and I'd be unable to feel I had options/choices and a good visual overview of what's going on.

A back door also gives "venting" options if there were smoke - whereas here it'd set off the hard wired fire alarm and put me in another panic about that

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

While I always stay/watch it, one of the issues about the washing machine, too, is that it is under the worktop - meaning I can't move it myself .... and there's no back door.

If a WM is freestanding and without being under a worktop and if there's a back door, I'd have the option of opening the back door if anything happened... and being able to manhandle it slowly, inch by inch, until it was out of the house. While it's under a worktop, heavy, in a room without direct outside access .... I'd also worry that "if there were a fire I'd not be able to see behind the machine to see what's going on, it'd all just be belching out at me from round the small 5mm gap either side... so I also dislike the fact it's so "trapped in there" and I'd be unable to feel I had options/choices and a good visual overview of what's going on.

A back door also gives "venting" options if there were smoke - whereas here it'd set off the hard wired fire alarm and put me in another panic about that

I think it's very nice of you, going to all that trouble to save the insurance company's money. Personally, if my washing machine caught fire, I'd call the fire brigade and watch developments from outside the house.

michaels

Do washing machines catch fire? I thought it was dryers. The wind this evening whilst watching dd2 play football for 90 minutes was perishing.

Match summed up their season, double header, they won the first 4-1 and lost the second 2-0 - same opponents, same pitch. They have been that inconsistent all year. As normal the only half they lost was the one where dd was sub.

ukmaggie45

michaels wrote: »

Do washing machines catch fire? I thought it was dryers.

The cause of the fire in Grenfell Tower was a washing machine.

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

I think it's very nice of you, going to all that trouble to save the insurance company's money. Personally, if my washing machine caught fire, I'd call the fire brigade and watch developments from outside the house.

That's easy to say, but then they leave and you're standing there alone. You walk into the destroyed house, alone. You look around you, alone. You have to clear up, alone. You have to deal with the insurance company, alone. You have to live with the smell, alone. You can't go in the kitchen, or eat, because it's destroyed, so you eat cheap cheese sandwiches in the living room, alone. You have to clean up, tidy up, wash, wipe, redecorate, find workmen, get things done, alone.

I'd just want to curl up in a ball and cry, before getting the car keys and driving off .... never wishing to return, ever.

PasturesNew

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

The cause of the fire in Grenfell Tower was a washing machine.

Yes, but in that case I believe the fire was out in the flat, but before it went out a spark got outside the open window and started the outside burning (and nobody'd noticed that).... at least, I think that's what I heard.

Flats have always scared me as you're having to worry not only about your OWN appliances ... but what others have got and are doing in their flat.

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

Do washing machines catch fire?

Aside from electrical faults, the motors can get "stuck" when it's in fast spin mode - and then they smoulder and smoke ... and they're stuck on "fast spin" until they start a fire.

It happened to me once. Did the washing before work and it was on the final spin and I had a choice "wait for this to finish ... and be 5 minutes late for work" -or- "go to work now, it'll be fine". I stayed, the motor jammed, it was smoking. I turned it off at the wall, opened the back door and wiggled the machine as far as the door, then lifted it over the threshold ... and there it was... "in typical council house style, a washing machine randomly in the garden"

Pyxis

michaels wrote: »

Do washing machines catch fire? I thought it was dryers. .

From what I've heard, it seems a lot more dryers catch fire than washing machines.

I've never had a dryer.
Apart from not having anywhere to put one, they're expensive to run, and all my stuff seems to dry very well over the banisters! For free!

GDB2222 wrote: »

I think it's very nice of you, going to all that trouble to save the insurance company's money. Personally, if my washing machine caught fire, I'd call the fire brigade and watch developments from outside the house.

Apart from the difficulty of manoeuvring a washing machine out of the back door at the best of times, manoeuvring a washing machine that was on fire is not something I'd relish trying to do.
Plus the rush of air from opening the door might fan it all up.


What I might do instead, though, is reach for my fire extinguisher, one suitable for electrical fires, and use that. Then call the brigade. No wrenched back or burnt hands that way.

Doozergirl

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

The cause of the fire in Grenfell Tower was a washing machine.

'Twas a Hotpoint Fridge Freezer.

chris_m

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

The cause of the fire in Grenfell Tower was a washing machine.

Yep, the sort that keeps some food cold and some even colder - twas a fridge-freezer