Don't leave your dishwasher on unattended

nst68

nst68

nst68

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Just a friendly reminder not to leave your dishwasher (or other white goods) on at night or if you go out.

This appeared on my Google Photoso "Rediscover the day" today from 8 years ago.

Luckily we were in at the time, contained the fire to the kitchen (shut the door!) and called out the fire brigade.
Before this we'd put the dishwasher or washing machine on at night or when we went out, not any more!!

1SppVjPl.jpg
 
I'm sure people have fallen down stairs... I'll still use a staircase! Odds are so low - will continue to do so.
 
Which domestic appliances are most likely to catch fire*?
  1. 19% washing machines (482)
  2. 18% tumble dryers (460)
  3. 15% electric cookers including oven (388)
  4. 9% Dishwashers (238)
  5. 8% Fridges/freezers ( 208)
  6. 5% Extractor fans (136)
  7. 5% Grill/Toasters (135)
  8. 4% Microwaves (109)
  9. 4% Other domestic appliances (92)
  10. 3% Washer dryer combos (66)
*Based on a total of 2,562 domestic appliance fires in 2015/16. Only fires caused by faulty appliances and leads and faulty fuel supplies are included in this list.
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Interesting statistics, I wonder what percentage of washer/dryer combos make up the total number of washer and dryers. I expect dryers and washing machine statistics to see a significant increase those years due to that (Hotpoint ?) manufacturing fault.
 
Spunkey said:
Those stats don't seem adjusted for the number of those types of appliances in circulation.
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No but its estimated that appliance cause about 60 fires a week in the UK. Those statistics are more to show the risks relative to each other. Dishwashers showing as marginally less safe than fridge/freezers.
 
That's my point - you can't infer that from those stats as there may be less dishwashers in homes than there are fridges (most likely in fact). In which case dishwashers are much more likely to cause a fire than a fridge than the 1% difference in those stats implies.
 
I had a washing machine burst into flames, fortunately I was in the next room. The house stank of burnt plastic for weeks. Very fortunate I was home.
 
Spunkey said:
That's my point - you can't infer that from those stats as there may be less dishwashers in homes than there are fridges (most likely in fact). In which case dishwashers are much more likely to cause a fire than a fridge than the 1% difference in those stats implies.
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I see your point. Then given about half of all homes have dishwashers you can argue that they are around twice as likely. Still, is twice as much of such a small risk worth considering?
 
Foghorn Leghorn said:
Personally, if an appliance is going to burst into flames I'd rather no one was in the house.
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This.

My missus often says that we need to turn everything electrical off at night, or at least only use them when we are in the house. I asked her what she would do in the event of 'x' occurring, she didn't know.
 
RedvGreen said:
This.

My missus often says that we need to turn everything electrical off at night, or at least only use them when we are in the house. I asked her what she would do in the event of 'x' occurring, she didn't know.
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Where do you keep your fire extinguishers?

One in the Kitchen, One by the Bed!
 
Yeah those numbers are. Probably meaningless.
Most people have a washing machine.
Many less a dishwasher and many less a tumble dryer.



Always put my washing machine on to come on before get home from work.
Dishwasher over night.

Besides 482 across all homes for 2 years?

Not worth worrying about
 
Orionaut said:
Where do you keep your fire extinguishers?

One in the Kitchen, One by the Bed!
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Having the right equipment doesn't automatically make people competent to deal with the situation. House fires get out of hand frighteningly quickly and people freeze or make very odd decisions to save worthless niknaks and end up burning to death.
 
Years ago when the fire brigade were going down the street installing new fire alarms in peoples houses, they told me not to put the washer/dryer/dish washer on at night, or when no ones home.
 
The plug for our washing machine is in the alcove behind it, I'm not dragging it out every night or time I go out to switch it off, and again every morning /when I get home to switch it back on again.

Ignoring the fact it would ruin my floor, doing so would probably make it actually more likely to fail/catch fire due to constantly moving it around!
 
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