Do you leave your washing machine unsupervised?

Rosa_Damascena

ripplyuk said:

lisyloo said:

Was the advice you were given some time ago?

My parents taught me that when I was young but also our local fire and rescue service repeated the same advice a few years ago when they were doing door to door visits after my neighbour died in a house fire. They said washing machines are one of the main causes they find. 

Then you must have youth on your side! In my day the leading causes of fire were cigarettes in bed, followed by chip pan fires. I'm a child of the 70s.

travis-powers

SuzieSue said:

travis-powers said:

We had a small fire start at a socket (our fault) but since then we have never left them running unattended.
 God knows what would of happened if I didn’t smell the smoke!

Why was it your fault?

We had a washing machine and tumble dryer plugged into one socket with a short lead, this was drawing more power than the socket could cope with, ohms law apparently so the plug caught fire!

JGB1955

I have a tumble dryer in the (detached) garage... Put it on, then forget about it for a couple of days.  Washing machine on 2 or 3 times a week... never longer than 40 minutes at 30C or 75 mins at 40C.  Don't see the problem....

ic

A washing machine will only take three hours if its filled to max capacity.  My machine is an 9kg LG - at the start it'll weigh the load, and typically completes a wash in 90 mins - not the max that would apply if it were filled to the brim.  My old AEG which was 8kg would always start off showing 2hrs 30mins, but would reduce the time throughout the wash instead - so never took what it started out saying.

Norman_Castle

MalMonroe said:

As others have said, your washing programme seems a bit long. I only use the one for 60 minutes at 60 degrees or the cold wash (0 degrees) at 30 minutes for a fast wash. 

My laundry is never dirty enough to need any more than that. What on earth are you doing with your things?

The longer programmes are to match hotter washes but at a lower temperature so saving money. Its likely your 60 minute, 60 degree wash could be matched by a longer wash at a lower temperature.

Carrot007

Norman_Castle said:

MalMonroe said:

As others have said, your washing programme seems a bit long. I only use the one for 60 minutes at 60 degrees or the cold wash (0 degrees) at 30 minutes for a fast wash. 

My laundry is never dirty enough to need any more than that. What on earth are you doing with your things?

The longer programmes are to match hotter washes but at a lower temperature so saving money. Its likely your 60 minute, 60 degree wash could be matched by a longer wash at a lower temperature.

That's sooo 10 years ago! The current reason for the time increase is more using less water. (and combined with the temperature you get long long cycles).

Torry_Quine

No I don't go out with the washing machine or tumble dryer on. There are still adverts saying not to leave unattended as it's a fire risk 

EssexExile

I'll leave anything running overnight or when I'm out. I repaired domestic appliances for a living for about 13 years and never saw an appliance that had caught fire. They smoke, they melt and they leak quite often though.

Do you leave your fridge and freezer on while you sleep and go out? What about the central heating?

GaleSF63

Years ago our washing machine gave a sudden violent lurch and pulled out one of the pipes - the hot one. Water and steam all over the kitchen - the steam causing a delay in switching of at the taps because we simply couldn't find them by feel. 

Before then I'd never worried about leaving it by itself. I've never gone out and left it  since then, or put it on overnight as I sleep through anything.

Section62

travis-powers said:

SuzieSue said:

travis-powers said:

We had a small fire start at a socket (our fault) but since then we have never left them running unattended.
 God knows what would of happened if I didn’t smell the smoke!

Why was it your fault?

We had a washing machine and tumble dryer plugged into one socket with a short lead, this was drawing more power than the socket could cope with, ohms law apparently so the plug caught fire!

The 13A (or lower) fuse in the plug should have blown before anything got hot enough to melt or catch on fire.

This is why it is a MUST to have the proper protection with correctly rated fuses and/or trips. Surprisingly, not everyone agrees with what should be a fundamental and obvious safety requirement.

There's a particular problem with cheap extension leads only rated and fused at 10A.  Most people have some 13A fuses laying around, and few people have spare 10A ones.  So when the 10A fuse inevitably blows, the quick fix people do is to fit a 13A one instead. And then..... (this is a general comment, not saying it is what happened in your case)

IMV the 10A extension leads should be banned from sale, because there are so many appliances in the home (washing machines, tumble dryers, kettles etc) that can easily overload a 10A lead on their own.

Plugging a high current device into a shoddy extension lead and then leaving it unattended would be asking for trouble, and the average punter just doesn't understand the risks. Hence appliances get a reputation for causing fires which isn't always deserved (as per EssexExile's post).