The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution?

[neilsukwg]

When I was working my notice at Hoover before going self employed, my replacement, a young lad attempted to move a live washing machine and got stuck to the mains filter long enough to blow open his right forearm.

Like a sausage under the grill… 😥

That was in 1982, long before volt sniffers and rccbs etc.

My question is..How do you, personally, go about avoiding electric shock?

Especially when you are struggling with an appliance that won’t behave.
The plug is in and out of the socket like a fiddlers elbow, then 😯 oops :zap:

[gandh1]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

could aways mock up an extension lead with a push switch in between a socket and plug, so that you physically had to push it in to get current flowing when examining a machine working with the sides off… when you used both hands to reposition it, it would then obv break the circuit…

or doc martens…

[geoff1]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

Would the purchase of an RCD not be easier??

Geoff

[Martin]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

neilsukwg wrote:When I was working my notice at Hoover before going self employed, my replacement, a young lad attempted to move a live washing machine and got stuck to the mains filter long enough to blow open his right forearm.

I was caught in a similar situation around that same time. I might have mentioned it before, not sure? But in the 1980’s with the ‘Hoover Matchbox Series’ you needed to adjust the tacho whilst it was tumbling to establish the correct tumble speed. That meant tilting the appliance slightly, sticking a screwdriver in the tacho slot and giving it a slight turn to adjust as the drum was rotating. Unfortunately in my case I had the top panel off, the machine slipped slightly and I tried to correct it and ended up grabbing the mains filter……!!!

That was, touch wood, the one and only time I thought my time was up. For milliseconds I just couldn’t let go and only by screaming out in agony was I able to free myself…..!

Ever since that time I carry a non contact mains sniffer/sensor and never ever do live testing without first switching off the appliance, connecting the test leads then switching back on. Using RCD’s (as geoff1 mentioned) isn’t practical in most cases nor sufficient to protect yourself the second you put a foot wrong as your body is making the RCD trip – sod that! :rolls:

Fuffing about with washers on wet floors doing live testing is best left to brainless metalists who think the afterlife is full of ripe virgins and ever fruitful harvests. In the real world it’s best to know, first and foremost in this game, where the power switch is! 😉

[Phidom]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

Then you get the customer who sees you with the multimeter taking readings and says “But you will need it switched on at the wall for that won’t you?” click :plug:

[squadman]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

I had a bad situation back in the early 80s, was working on a washer having had just done a bearing change, the lead from the machine was run a fair distance from where the machine was sited. Anyways I had 13 jobs on this day and was running late, during the testing of the machine I noticed a small leak from the dispenser hose, well having had the plug out of the socket a few times and having the rest of the days work in my mind I lost track of if the plug was in or out ! As I went to remove the dispenser hose in order to re-glue it, Zaaaaaaaaaaaaaap my right hand went on the mains filter and I got locked on the machine with both hands, Jesus my life flashed before me and I had no doubt that this was it. I somehow managed to scream out and lucky for me the householder was outside in the garden but heard me. She came running in and by this time I had pulled the machine over to the floor and was on my knees, She tried to grab me but I somehow managed to instruct her to pull the plug, she pulled the plug and I lay there with pain through my chest and a nasty thermal burn to my right hand little finger.

Ambulance duly called and of I went for a ECG at the hospital and ended up having minor plastic surgery on the wound.

That was the end of me ever rushing to get work done, from that time everything was done methodically and in a timely fashion to suit me !
I do not work live testing appliances since that accident and a RCD is not a bulletproof way to ensure that you wont end up in a accident of that kind.

[Micky 32]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

I remember once i was looking at a fridge that stopped working. Ice melted and was a puddle of water on the floor that i was standing in. I suspected thermostat. I asked the customer to unplug fridge and guess what he unplugged the microwave by mistake! 🙁 . It was some belt 😯

[bagman]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

Years ago I was out in Spalding at some strange womans house fixing a washer that was leaking from the pump. It was a quarry tile floor and a very small kitchen, I had no choice but to get down and get wet to sort it out.
The woman watched while I double checked that I had pulled the correct plug out of the socket then started to work on removing the pump whilst lying on a wet floor.
I’d got a hold of the pump and was taking it off when she spoke very loudly that she wanted a cup of tea and went to plug the kettle in. except it wasn’t the kettle was it… it was the friggin washer and I got one of the biggest belts I can recall ever having.

I called her every name under the sun out of anger and fright, but she just stood there with a weird look on her face and just said sorry and walked off.

I swear to this day that she’d done it on purpose. She never complained to my office about my outburst or anything, it was all very strange.

Pinchbeck and Spalding…. I don’t miss those places at all!

[lee8]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

Never touch live and neutral at the same time. 😆

[admin]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

i remember i was working on an old hotpoint 9934 , the belt had dropped down the back so i had my arm stuck down there picking it up
“do you want a cuppa?” the nice lady asked, at the same time as plugging in the washing machine instead of the kettle…
if there was a competion as to how far you can launch a washing machine while being shocked i would win the gold medal…
and as i collapsed on the floor she said “are you ok?” :rolls:

[lee8]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

Not a shock as such but today client walked past, kicked my platform step, which hit the cupboard door into my head as I was removing my head from the cupboard, resulting in a small cut and brush near my eye.

All so he could make a cup of bloody tea.

I swear clients wait to do jobs around me when we arrive on purpose.

[chezza]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

lee8 wrote:Not a shock as such but today client walked past, kicked my platform step, which hit the cupboard door into my head as I was removing my head from the cupboard, resulting in a small cut and brush near my eye.

All so he could make a cup of bloody tea.

I swear clients wait to do jobs around me when we arrive on purpose.

either that or he reads your posts on here 😆

[VillageIdiot2]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

neilsukwg wrote:
The plug is in and out of the socket like a fiddlers elbow, then 😯 oops :zap:

The only shock I’ve had was a few years back. I was on a Servis Quartz. Plug lead up through a small hole in the worktop, and plugged in above.

Very similar to bagmans experience… I’d unplugged, was working away when the lady asked if I wanted a cuppa… I said yeah, and she plugged the washer in by mistake thinking it was the kettle plug!

It hurt, and if I recall correctly, I swore a bit!

I’ve since dealt with the risk, by being SUPER paranoid about the plug! If I ever see an install like that, I remove the fuse 8) Aint getting caught like that again! Other than that, it is simply a case of staying switched on, so to speak 🙂

Ade.

[Phidom]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

I frequent a vintage radio forum site and there was a similar personal safety thread on there. This is one of their posts:
“For over 50 years I have expected and got electric shocks pretty well every day, the only potentially fatal ones are from mains derived high voltages such as mains EHT transformers and nowadays microwave cooker transformers. The worst shock I have ever had was from the anodes of the the PA valves on my FT101ZD.

The many hundreds or maybe thousands of shocks I have had from the mains have only involved momentary contact and have been at worst unpleasant, shocks from TV EHT sting a bit but the 25 or so Kv rapidly drops to very little and is not generally dangerous unless you have a health problem.

The 3 kv or so of pulsed DC from the top caps of TV line output valves burns a bit but does no lasting harm.

Your automatic reaction is to withdraw your hand, and that often causes far more injury than the shock, what you really have to be careful about putting yourself in a situation where you can’t disconnect yourself from the current source, but that’s just down to common sense, isn’t it? “

[robbra]

Re: The Green Mile…How Do You Avoid Death by Electrocution

When I started on this 28 years ago I was green, working for Servis I did a few privates. I went to a Philips washer and working on it caught my metal watch band on something and couldn’t get free. Felt my face distorting and then ripped free. The lady had been watching and said “did you get a shock”
For a couple of months I had aching joints up my arm and shoulder so I probably started to cook.
Since then no metal watch straps at work (sometimes live testing is the only way) and normally take my watch off even if the plug is out.
Rob
:innocent:

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