The past/current client has a house that is two years old. The appliances are high end and new. What could be safer?
After all we show houses all the time that were wired in the 20’s to the 50’s and have wires with brittle coatings that break away if the wire is flexed.
So with a NEW HOUSE… heck we need not give it a secondthought or should we? Here is a to a similar post I did a year or so ago!
So what happened is the high speed spin out of the front loading high efficiency washer causes a little "Shake Rattle & Roll" This is of course normal and quite fine. So why was there almost an electrical fire?
Well the strain relief on the dryer was not fastened tight enough from the original installation of the "pigtail" so during the spin out "Shake Rattle & Roll" the heavy wire was vibrating and tugging on the connections to the terminal block which is hard wired to the internal harness that provides the electricity to the coils and the electronics of the dryer.
These lose wires start to arc when under the high amperage draw of the coils. The arcing heats the wires up to over 600° which melts the wire enamel; which exposes the hot copper wire; which melts the coating on the ground wire; which starts arcing more before it completely shorts out; which cooks the terminal board; which stinks like heck!
All this happens probably quicker than it takes to write this... or does it? No one knows and it doesn't matter so long as it is discovered!!
This particular client was tipped off when his dear wire pulled the closes from the dryer, and pulled a shirt over her head. She said "honey the shirts smell like burnt plastic" so he took a whiff and said "Yup, it smells like an electrical fire"...
WAIT, why would the clothes smell like an electrical fire? Is it some new burnt plastic scented fabric softener? I think not.
A quick look at the connection terminal inside the dryer revealed the truth.
See the photos at the top of blog.
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