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electrofix wrote:only by sripping it and using a multi meter to measure element resistances to see if its faulty
sometimes you can look at the switch and see burnt contacts
Dave
Thanks Dave, much appreciated.
David
Re: Kettle fire tech question
Thanks K. No bunfights planned nor any legal proceedings – just wanted to establish if a modern jug kettle in domestic use by two people in a medium water area is likely to catch fire after approximately 2 years use with no descaling.
It just seemed odd given that no such thing has ever happened to me in 50 years nor my sister in 65 years of kettle usage, nor to any members of our family or social circle (as far as I’m aware). Non of the family members have ever descaled their kettles, washing machines, coffee machines or other electrical devices containing water heating elements. Some of the social circle may descale but the few I’ve spoken to since being told of the limescale issue said that either they never have or if they have it was on one or two occasions early on with a new kettle, then they forgot about it.
After the fire I found online that two other kettles of this make had also caught fire, one after just a few months use. I was then told of an iron made by the same manufacturer catching fire.
Because of this I wrote to the manufacturer not to claim money back (it’s out of warranty now) but to alert them to a possible problem. My previous search online had been to see if there had been a product recall.
The manufacturer took the kettle for examination and then replied to say that the engineer found ‘that the element had blown through’ and that ‘lime scale build up had contributed to the failure of the kettle.’ As this sounded unlikely to me because I had never heard of such a thing, nor encountered any safety warnings advising consumers to descale their products because of the risk of fire, I was concerned that they might be avoiding their responsibility to the public whilst also trying to pull the wool over my eyes for fear that I would try to sue them, which I have no intention of doing as its too much hassle.
However, although their reply sounds unlikely to me I am aware that I don’t have the relevant technical knowledge hence the reason I’m making the enquiry. I intend to descale all such appliances in the future but would still like to know how much of a potential problem it really is. If it turns out that expert opinion considers such an outcome from lime scale to be unlikely and that the manufacturer probably is pulling a fast one then I’ll alert Trading Standards and let them deal with it. If that happens, don’t worry, I won’t mention any names.
If there’s still too many variables or legal complications for anyone to contribute further then so be it, I’ll let the matter drop.
